Richie20852

We will be traveling from Naples to Rome and then from Rome to Paris (overnight sleeper cabin). Should we get a Eurorail pass? What train company is the best and has the best fares. Is there anything else I should look into?

jamikins

This is an excellent site to get lots of information on trains:

http://www.seat61.com/

Dukey1

No to a pass; not enough trips to make it worthwhile even with that overnight you are planning.

elberko

Also, the overnight is NOT covered by the pass.

nytraveler

Passes cover seats only - not berths - so useless overnight. d it's not like there are multiple train companies. Most countries have one rail national rail provider from which you get tickets. (Different from the local transit witin each city.)

What you see in the US as a lot of different "train" companies are actually just travel agents reselling tickets at higher prices.

kerouac

You have two real options for the ticket: Italian national railways or French national railways.

PalenQ

www.trenitalia.com for Italian tickets including online discounts sold in limited numbers only and www.thello.com for the company running the overnight train - again some tickets sold at deep discounts if you act early - way early in booking them.

Great sources of info on overnight trains and European trains in general - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksetves.com.

And yes the Thello overnight trains do not honor most railpasses anyway so forget all about railpasses.

kybourbon

I imagine it will be much cheaper to fly Easy Jet from Rome to Paris Orly.

http://www.easyjet.com/en

Man_in_seat_61

Not when you add a hotel night, baggage fees, costs of getting to and from remote airports. Plus you miss out on the overland experience.

But do have realistic expectations of the Thello sleeper train, it's a real train not a deluxe tourist experience, see the video I took earlier this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfjiaO2lyOw&feature=plcp

Book the Rome-Paris sleeper at www.thello.com (in French, but really easy) or www.fsitaliane.it (in English, but fiddly). Thello doesn't accept passes.

Rome to Paris fares expected to be from €35 in couchette, from €145 in a 2-bed sleeper.

Book Naples-Rome at www.lefrecce.it from €9

Dukey1

Passes are a better value the MORE you use them. You can certainly use them on some high speed trains and they will often bring a discount depending on the country. They also bring a discount on some, but not all, overnight routes.

RailEurope is the North American marketing arm of a consortium of the French National and Swiss Federal railways and is wholly owned by them.

PalenQ

I imagine it will be much cheaper to fly Easy Jet from Rome to Paris Orly.>

I agree with Man in seat 61 that that idea is nonsense for the reasons he outlines - for 35 euros you travel in a berth city center to city center with as much luggage as you can port around - heck it could cost as much as 35 euros about just getting out to and then back in from airports - plus easy Jet's notorious luggage fees could add on to that. And you save 100 euros a more, typically, on a night's hotel cost.

So beware of simple statements saying flying may be cheaper - take all the factors into account and this is rarely true on this route with the cheap tickets available on the train.

Of course a factor is if you are the relatively rare person who cannot sleep on the train - then yeh you waste a whole day recovering - but most can sleep IME of taking zillions of overnight trains.

Even timewise one could argue the night train saves time - travel while you sleep - flying inevitably means using a half day of time schlepping out to the airport - waiting for the plane - waiting for luggage - night trains actually save on valuable sightseeing time once there.

PalenQ

They also bring a discount on some, but not all, overnight routes.>

well it is not a discount but a supplement - fine line maybe. Railpasses except for in a handful of cases can be used for 100% of the actual train fare on overnight trains but you must pay for the option (at times required) sleeping options of varying privacy and pricing.

Pelligrina

Hi Richie,
I'm still in France and did Rome cassino Naples and Paris last week. Rome, Naples there is a regional train run by TrenItalia. You can't book seats on Regional trains. If you do use a private company it costs a lot more but it is more direct. I highly recommend stopping at Cassino if you can. You can buy tickets at Termini at the machines, loads of machines or you can book online in English. I recommend booking online. I have a Eurail pass but I know it costs way too much. Next time I'm just going to use TrenItalia online booking. I flew by Jetstar from Naples to Paris, easy, cheaper, quicker. I'm writing a trip report called The Road Less Travelled. You'll see from that if I can do this anyone can. I'm in Laval, France. Beautiful here.

Pelligrina

Sorry, it was Easyjet. Yes, surprisingly cheap.

kybourbon

I see fares as cheap as 26€ on Easy Jet for the Naples/Paris 2 hour flight. It's not expensive to get from the city center of Naples to the airport (3€). A few more € for Paris Orly to center (about 5€). The cheap train fare listed is for sharing a compartment with 6 people.

PalenQ

and there is no baggage fees on Easy Jet? What about factoring in the savings on a night in a hotel - makes the train a whole lot cheaper and also you do not waste time. How long total would a flight entail - getting to airport, waiting for plane boarding - waiting for bags and getting into Paris, etc.

And there are also discounted tickets for more private compartments on the overnight train - still would save a lot over flying, factoring in hotel cost saving.

The 5 euro fare Orly to Paris is via RER C - first you wait for the shuttle bus to the remote RER C train station - then a slow stopping train into Paris - the fastest way from Orly to Paris via VAL People Mover to Antony then RER B a short way to central Paris costs a whole lot more.