I will be taking the train from Copenhagen to Goteborg and then Stockholm. Is it necessary to reserve seats on those trains and/or purchase the tickets ahead of time, or will I be able to purchase tickets the day of my travel?
I don't know exactly what days I will be making that trip, so I'd like to maintain as much flexibility as possible, but don't want to get caught and have the train be full.
If you are travelling around a Swedish holiday, then you should reserve in advance.
However, if you are travelling on a "normal" day, you will likely have no problem getting a ticket on the day of travel.
If you happen to be under 26, there are also last minute tickets ("sista minuten") offered at a discount for some journeys that are discounted. For some routes within Sweden, they also have an auction within 48 hours of travel (I have never tried this). The Swedish Rail website (sj.se) has info on tickets.
If you are alone, you have a better chance of finding an unreserved seat than if you travel with someone else.
I bought tickets in the Copenhagen train station the night before a long day trip - outgoing the train was nearly empty, returning (Friday evening of a holiday weekend) the train was packed. I was glad I had seats reserved for myself and my 11 year old son.
On the other hand, I prepurchased tickets from Stockholm to Oslo and for that 6 hour trip, my tickets only cost about $16 for two of us including seat reservations. So cheap that I worried that I had done something wrong and they would be no good, but all was well and that train was also packed with people on a Monday.
To save money, you might try to buy ahead (the Copenhagen purchased tickets were very, very expensive for train tickets), but I searched ahead, and I never saw a good deal for those. Perhaps only Sweden offers the great pre-purchase deals.
