We fly into Frankfurt on May 17 and want to find info on the possibility of taking the train from FRA to Avignon or Nimes France. I have looked at RS France book, and I'll be darned if i can find any info on a halfway decent web site that has decent prices.
Where do I go to find route and scheduling info? Where and how do I find the best prices?
That darn SNCF site bumps me to Rail Europe, which wants to charge me more for this trip than my plane fare over the pond!
Depending upon the time of departure, there are several train routes from FRA to either Avignon or Nimes. Advance online discount fares may be available for some legs. What time is your plane scheduled to arrive at FRA? How late are you willing to arrive in Avignon or Nimes?
You can get fares for direct trains from FRA to Paris from the Bahn website, but not usually for trains entirely outside Germany.
The best, and about the only European website that can sell you tickets online for Paris to Avignon, would be SNCF, which is French Rail. I think there are ways to prevent them from switching you to RailEurope (which French Rail owns); others on this site can better asvise you than I can.
The other thing you might try is to call German Rail directly. The number should be on the German Rail website, bahn.de. They can sell more on the phone than they can online.
Yet another option would be Euraide. Most of what they sell are nighttrain reservations, but I think they can sell any ticket that you could buy at the station in Munich. They print them over there and send them over here for a "shipping fee" of about $50.
Try bahn.de. It has been awhile but I think you can get schedules for all of Europe but may not be able to get prices.
Tim, thanks for your reply!
We arrive in FRA May 17 at 8:30 AM, and would really like to go to So. France (Avignon) to start our two week trip. Then we would slowly work our way towards Paris for a return leg to FRA on our last day, the 31st of May.
I found lots of FRA to Avignon train trips on Bahn.De, and they are all 7 to 10 hour trips. So an 8 hour trip looks about normal, but that is a long time to spend on the train. And some have 4 transfers....that does not look too good to me. The worst problem is that the ones I checked cannot or will not display the price.
I don't want to spend a bunch of $$$ on a trip that eats up all of one day, just to start our vacation in the South, but if the price is right........
The lo-cost easy option is just to do a R/T $112 PP flight to Paris from FRA, but we would have to drive/rail South, and then return back to Paris on our vaca.
Another lo-cost easy option is the "Open Jaw" $168 FRa to Geneva flight, and then a Paris to FRa return. But it is a 4 hour drive to Avignon, and I don't want to do that on a jet lag day (neither one of us can sleep on the plane flight over the pond.)
If I can't find a decent train trip I suppose that I could just pick my rental car up in Geneva, and just pop on down to Lyon, and start my trip there.
Lee,
I have enlisted by buddy that I grew up with, who nows lives in Germany, in my quest to find a cheap and easy way to get to So France. He is usually pretty good at finding deals, but is not very positive about German rail .....prices. He is going to talk to French friend of his to see if he can get thru SCNF, and also get some prices out of Bahn.de.
Thanks guys...if you come up with anything, l;et me know.
Here is the best route I could find. Because it includes discount fares that are non-exchangeable and non-refundable, you'll have a bit of a layover at FRA (important if your plane is late).
Leave Frankfurt Flughafen at 12:54, change trains in Mannheim, and arrive at Paris Est at 16:50. The cheapest savings fare (€39) is gone, but you can still get a savings fare of €59. Book the whole route as one ticket NOW at www.bahn.de.
Leave Paris Lyon at 18:46 and arrive at Avignon TGV at 21:26. The really cheap 2nd class Prem's fares are gone, but there is a 2nd class Loisirs fare of €64 and a 1st class Prem's fare of €65 that are still available. Book NOW at www.tgv-europe.com. To keep everything in English and to keep from being bumped to the Rail Europe site, choose Great Britain as both your country of residence and the country in which you will retrieve your tickets. If you get the Prem's fare, you print your own tickets. If you get the Loisirs fare, you can pick up the tickets at Gare de Lyon even though you'll be in France and not Great Britain.
To get from Gare de l'Est to Gare de Lyon, take Metro line 5 to Bastille, transfer to Metro line 1, and take it to Gare de Lyon. The fare is €1.60. Go here for a zoomable map of the Metro and RER system.
Wow! Thanks Tim!
You're welcome, Steve!
One more thing. The Avignon TGV station is outside the city. You can take a bus to the Avignon Centre station.
Thanks!
