Best way to get train fares in Europe

[Isochronous]

I am looking to get trains to the following places:

London-Nottingham
Nottingham-Brussels
Brussels-Paris
Paris-Venice
Venice-Florence
Florence-Rome

What is the best way for me to purchase these tickets?

 

[medhead]

The best way is probably to go direct to the railway websites of the countries concerned. I usually do searching with the German railway first to check times etc. www.db.de this covers all of Europe.

There are a number of suitable country railways to also use. SNCF -France, trenitalia - Italy. There are others that I'm sure people will list.

Given your number of trips a eurorail pass might work out. Probably a good place to start on that is raileurope.com(.au). I can't remember if it is a .au, in fact I'm not totally sure on the name but think it is correct.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

What is the best way for me to purchase these tickets?

Everything you need to know and more is on this excellent site:

The Man in Seat Sixty-One...

I followed it's advice for my last trip to Europe and it was spot on.

I booked:

Manchester -London
London -Paris
Paris Amsterdam
Paris - Frankfurt International Airport.

Following it's advice I used 4 different booking engines to suit the trip.

All was easy...and cheap.
The extra advice maid the trip hassle free and value added.

 

[RB]

Another supporter on Man in Seat 61. Found this article the other week that gives a bit of background

Your carriage awaits, sir

 

[koonyaflyer]

I am not sure if I am able to name a specific business on this forum, so will rely upon the moderators to remove this if inappropriate! I don't have any connection with the business, other than as a customer!

If you are Australian based I would look at a Eurail pass, which can be bought through Rail Plus. They have a website, www.railplus.com.au, and a really good live chat support.

The Passes offer much cheaper rail travel than individual sector fares, although i think your UK sector may still need to be a sector fare. The good piece with these passes is if you need any flexibility you do not need to pre-book your specific sectors, although at times in Europe it is highly advisable!

 

[medhead]

The Passes offer much cheaper rail travel than individual sector fares, although i think your UK sector may still need to be a sector fare. The good piece with these passes is if you need any flexibility you do not need to pre-book your specific sectors, although at times in Europe it is highly advisable!

It is still worthwhile comparing individual sectors with a rail pass as I have seen examples where the pass is more expensive. The good thing about the pass is that it can allow first class travel.

While in general you can use the pass without reservation, a reservation is required on most highspeed trains. Specifically the TGV and the Italian version as well. I think only the German ICE can be used without a reservation. Well that was the situation in 2007. I think I also found that the eurostar could be used with a eurail pass back then, perhaps with a discount.

 

[munitalP]

Just for what its worth, the times I have trained in Europe, Sweden and China, I have had my hotel make the train booking over the phone and never had any problems. You also don't pay commission to someone for the booking either.


munitalP

 

[Fifa]

I did a lot of research before our recent trip to France and scored a really cheap ticket on the TGV from CDG to Lyon.

Using the advice on TGV Tickets Without Fees | Paris by Train I saved lots of euros by booking a TGV PREM's (advance purchase) fare. The trick was to enter Great Britain when prompted (not Australia) and I paid on-line then printed the ticket at home!

The ticket cost 25euro which saved me over AU$100 if I had bought it from the site which I would have been directed to if I had chosen my country as Australia!!!

 

[ryanbryan]

Just a heads up, when I was booking Trenitalia tickets earlier in the year, they seldom accept non-Italian credit cards on their website - or at least, certainly not most Australian cards. You will find alot of mention of this on various forums online.

You could either book through Railplus or something (but then have to pay full price), or it is possible to have a local travel agency book them for you. This way, you can still take advantage of the heavily discounted fares offered by Trenitalia. The agent I used charged a 4 EUR or so fee on top of it. The whole process seemed a bit dodgy (any info about the agent I used was hard to find online), but they were quick and efficient and nothing went wrong.

If you want the details of the agent I used, just PM me, lest I get accused of advertising or something...

 

[KitKat]

For the train trips in Italy, trenitalia works - but some problems already highlighted: may not accept some Aus credit cards (worked for me), I think they also only release tickets for sale ?2-3months before the trip date but if you know when you would like to go, you can get some tickets discounted if bought online early enough, also if not in a hurry you can consider non-express trains which are cheaper.
You would have to register as well to purchase tickets, may need some dummy bookings to play with the website.
The trains are very reliable - leaves on time to the minute!

 

[Postcode]

I also recommend booking tickets on the individual rail network sites. If booking ahead, greatly reduced fares are available. Check out the sites and find the cost of point to point fares that are quoted and compare that with the price of a Eurail pass. You may be quite surprised that Eurail can work out to be much more expensive than normal fares.

I was recently in France with the national strikes taking place and came across a number of foreign travellers who had Eurail passes but couldn't use them because in busier times only a small number of seats on TVGs and long distance trains are set aside for Eurail passholders.

It's a matter of booking, printing the email and presenting it to a ticket office at a railway station and receiving your tickets.

 

[Fifa]

It's a matter of booking, printing the email and presenting it to a ticket office at a railway station and receiving your tickets.

We didn't even have to do that - just printed our TGV tickets at home and that was it. Once on the train the conductor came along, checked our passports, punched our tickets and that was it.

 

[Postcode]

We didn't even have to do that - just printed our TGV tickets at home and that was it. Once on the train the conductor came along, checked our passports, punched our tickets and that was it.

Yep that's another option you are given which is even more convenient when booking on Voyages-sncf.com : Voyage en train, en avion, rservation d'htels et sjours Just look for Prems which will give a good deal on advance purchased tickets. And easier as well.

Another point to remember is that if the traveller chooses to pick up the tickets at the station or SNCF boutique the same credit card must be presented.

 

[ryanbryan]

Isynchronous - it didn't let me PM you back (something about needing to have 15 posts before being able to send a PM - ???), so here goes.

The travel agent that I used was Pantheon Travel:

pantheontravel at hotmail.it

I believe they're based in Venice. I looked them up on some travel agent association website in Italy and they seemed to be legit. Just e-mail them with what you want to book, and they will e-mail you back saying if you can book it. I ended up calling them to give them my CC details rather than e-mailing. After it's all confirmed, they'll book it, and then just forward you the e-mail and e-ticket from Trenitalia. Given I got 19 EUR Milan-Rome on Frecciarossa, it was a risk worth taking!

As someone else pointed out though, Trenitalia releases their seats for sale quite late, so that can be quite annoying.