Please sign in to post.
Holiday Sale! Save 20% Storewide!

Train Travel in France

Posted by on

Hello,

I will be in France in June and I've started to price out train tickets. I am from Canada so when I try to book on voyages-sncf, I get directed to raileurope. (I know there is a work around to this) I did create an account on captaintrain to see prices and not get redirected.
I talked to an agent at raileurope for a quote and for 3 day 1 month flex pass (1st class) came out to $300 CAD.

Itinerary:
Marseille to Lyon June 10th
Lyon to Saint Etienne June 12th (return)
Lyon to Paris June 15th

When I search around on captaintrain, the price does not seem to be any better, am I missing something??

Thanks,

Tyler

Posted by
21153 posts

I am seeing tickets Marseille to Lyon 6/10 for 25 euro, Lyon to Paris 6/15 for 25 euro. Lyon to St Etienne is a TER train 11.50 euro each way, if you are 60 or older, you get a 25% discount for off-peak travel.
Less than 75 euro total. That is a long way short of $300 CAD.

At the TGV site, just indicate ticket collection country as France and you will get to the real site. Buy at capitainetrain for easy purchase, prices will be the same.

Posted by
7161 posts

I found the same prices on the SNCF site (http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/). It should pop up a window at some point asking if you want to be directed to Rail Europe or stay on the SNCF site. The trips should total about 110-115 CAD/person.

I've never bought tickets on the capitaine train website but I have used the SNCF site for many purchases without any problems.

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks for your help, it was a lot cheaper using Captaintrain. I don't know what I was thinking when I first looked.

Posted by
1441 posts

I just purchased my Paris to Colmar trip on CaptainTrain for the end of May. Pretty easy, tickets received via email and also offered a link to have them electronically put into my "Wallet App" on my iPhone.

Posted by
4088 posts

Nancy is right: You can elect on the second page of SNCF to stay with them rather than the Rail Europe diversion. Now start your shopping in the opposite direction. Price out the point-to-point tickets. Remember that seat reservations, where required, will be included in the purchase price. On a pass they must be purchased separately, at extra cost. You are just at the edge of the purchase period so you should get a good choice. Only after these prices are established can you judge whether a pass is an advantage (remembering the extra cost and bother that might be involved.)

Posted by
32352 posts

tyler,

One of the easiest places to buy tickets for trains in France is www.captaintrain.com which is a French agency. They also sell tickets for Italy and a few other countries. Their website is very user friendly and I've found their customer service to be exceptional.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.