We are going from Venice to Salzburg Austria on June 24. 2008. Do we need train reservations real early? When I went to the Trentitalia website it would not let me buy the tickets online. Can we buy them in any station after we get there? Should we try to buy from the Austrian train service. Thanks - Bill
Posted by
Shoreline, WA
216 posts
I can't think of any reason why you should reserve train tix - this is not Amtrak. One route takes you west to Verona (Romeo/Juliet!) and then north via Bozen/Bolzano to Innsbruck, and then west to Salzburg. Check out www.oebb.at for additional options.
Posted by
OP
Anna Texas, USA
144 posts
Actually, when I checked the fares, it has you going directly north through Villach. You get two different results when you go through Trenitalia and oebb. It takes 6 hours with oebb, and 8 hours with Trenitalia.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
William,
I found the same thing when I checked Trenitalia and Austrian Rail. Trenitalia's route shows a later train from Villach to Salzburg than does Austrian Rail with a morning departure from Venice. Both sites show a six-hour route for a departure later in the day.
If you want to nail all this down ahead of time, phone the Austrian Rail Call Center to book your tickets. Or do it online if you can handle German. The site will switch to German when you enter the booking process.
Posted by
Seattle
40 posts
Hi William,
My family is traveling by train from Venice to Salzburg in July. I bought tickets and reservations at www.raileurope.com. We leave Venice at 8:45am, stop at Villach, and arrive in Salzburg at 3pm. RailEurope is a website based in the US which sells european train tickets to American travelers. The tickets arrive in the mail within a few days. If you have a Railpass, you can also just buy reservations through them. Some posters on this site complain that RailEurope is more expensive than other options, but I found the convenience worth it. Also, several people have posted on this site about difficulties completing transactions on the Trenitalia website.
Good luck!
Rosemary