My husband and I will be taking several night trains
Paris-Milan-Cinque Terre
Rome-Venice
Venice-Salzburg
As well as other trains such as
Ediburgh-London
C.T.-Florence
Florence-Rome
Salzburg-Munich
Munich-Rothenburg
Rothenburg-Frankfurt
I just can't figure out which trains (beside the night trains) will need reservations.
Some friends suggested waiting until we get to europe and making all the reservations at the first possible train station (in london or paris). I am afraid they will be full, especially since we have rail passes. I know I can book through Euraide, but they charge an extra $50? Is it worth it, or should I wait until we get to Europe (Sept.5)?? Thanks!
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
In Italy, seat resevervations are required only on medium and long distance trains (AV, Eurostar (ES), ES City, ICP, IC, ICN, EC, EN, EXP, Cisalpino (CIS)). You can see the initials for these types of trains on most train websites. Reservations are not required, nor permitted on the locals (regional (R) or interregional (IR)). (Sorry for the double)). Perhaps you may want to get your first tickets in advance. The remainder you can get at the train station. It would be helpful if you have an itinerary with train numbers and dates when you step up to the ticket window. Having a station agent help you with routing and dating your tickets in often times very broken english may not be fun.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
To see which trains require reservations for ALL of your routes, use the timetables at www.bahn.de. Click on "Internat. Guests" to view the site in English. When you get summary timetables for a particular journey, if any leg of that journey requires a reservation, you will see a red circle with a white "R" in it. If the journey requires changes, click on "Show details for all" and you will see which leg/legs require reservations.
Is the Paris-Milan night train the first one you will take? If so, making that one now might be a good idea since popular night trains often sell out. To avoid RailEurope's high cost for reservations, you could call the SNCF English-speaking number. Dial 011 (US international access code) + 33 (country code for France) + (0)8 92 35 35 39. Omit that initial zero because it is only used for calls originating in France.
You should be safe waiting until you get to Europe to make the rest of your reservations.
Posted by
OP
Los Angeles, CA, USA
80 posts
Thank you! I'll call the sncf number on Monday!