Change Forum
Now hold on because this is complicated -- it involves 5 people on different schedules with several questions. .
1. We are all over 60 – can we purchase the Saver Pass and not the Senior 1st class Pass?
2. We have so many changes and we don’t know which is our best option. The Saver Pass only or both the Saver Pass and the Paris FlexiPass. Does the Saver Pass work on the buses in Paris?
3. Does the Saver Pass include travel on the TGV? What other modes of transportation does the Save Pass include.
4. C & L will fly into Paris and take the TGV to Avignon. We will be there from April 4 to 10th.
5. Can we use the Saver Pass to go to other areas around Avignon?
6. On the 10th we will take the train back to Paris.
7. From Paris we want to take a day trip to Giverny as well as travel around Paris will the Saver Pass cover our transportation?
8. On the 13th C goes with her friend from Norway and L meets her two friends.
9. L and two friends are staying at Disney Park. We want to travel from Disney Park into Paris on the 14,15th and 16th.
10. One of those days L and 2 friends want to go to Chartes and another town to the north of Paris.
11. April 20th will check out of Disney Timeshare and go back to Airport to meet another traveler, who is joining us, at DeGaule airport.
12. From DeGaule we will go by train to Brive where we will rent a car. From April 20-27th we will explore the caves in the Dordogne area.
13. Our next stop will be Barcelona. We don’t know if we should drive back to Brive and fly to Barcelona or take the train?? And what happens to your train pass when you leave France?
14. In Spain we plan to go from Barcelona to Marriott's Playa Andaluza. We will be there from April 27th to May 4th. On the 4th we will go by train (which one?) to Madrid and return to the states.
15. Biggest questions we need advice on how to make this journey easy and economical .
Any input and advice is welcome. I don’t understand the train system – if you get a Saver Pass does it cover all these areas?? (I know not Spain and what is our best means of transport in Spain? )
I appreciate your expertise and help – thank you.
Complicated Trip to France and Spain
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I think this is complicated.
What's a 'Saver Pass'? PREMs I know about for. TGV. For strictly a few days use of bus and Metro in Paris, a carnet of tickets could d
I would think you need to price point to point tickets (maybe for seniors) and see if the amount you are travelling on trains is equal to the amount of the Pass. Everyone has to travel together on the pass, as I read it.
I think it's only good on trains, not inside cities.
Does a train go to Brive from CDG? Or do you have to go into Paris to get it?
I can't seem to get into a site that really describes the Pass, but I would think if you do that a lot of your questions will be answered.
I think your Paris time is pretty limited.
You need to rent a car in Avignon to see the area adequately.
Bottom line, I think you are so focused on the rail pass that you are missing how to actually "do" your trip.
You seem to have a lot of day trips from Paris, and not much time IN Paris.
I am sorry but your question is too long to even begin to try to jump in and help, it would be good to break it down into manageable bites.
You can get alot of info about destinations, times etc at www.banh.com - not so good for price info.
You seem to have baffled the board a bit (not easy to do) with "the saver pass" where are you purchasing this from and what do YOU think it covers?
It might be good to give us the broad strokes of your plan - have you booked air? what hotels / destinations set in stone? we may want to tweak your plan.
#5. No. The best way to explore Provence is with a car.
You are probably the first I've heard about here that is staying at Disney for a visit to Paris, except for 2 nights that you actually stay IN Paris. I think it will be interesting to hear how that works out. Maybe you should plan the daytrips to Giverny and Chartres, etc. when you are staying at Disney? I'm assuming Paris Disney itself might only entertain your group for one day. I understand trying to work out how to get the most value of the timeshare, but it does make this complicated.
From the Dordogne you could drive to Toulouse to turn in your car and fly to Barcelona from there...Are you staying in Barcalona, or just getting there in order to go to the Marriott timeshare? Their website suggests flying into Malaga or taking a bus, suggesting there is no train? And it you want to explore the area (visit Granada, etc) maybe you will want to rent a car? That you could do from either airport.
It is hard to figure out how to link together time share properties for vacations that cover multiple locations in multiple countries. You may find that to get the most out of your €s and time, you may want to shave a night off one of those timeshare properties just to get from one place to another, and to increase the value of the time you get to spend exploring and enjoying yourselves. ( and the time of year you are there, you can find inexpensive accommodations once you leave Paris. We usually leave a couple nights open on a long trip like this, when transitioning between places, to serendipity...and using local Tourist offices or even just stopping in and asking at the desk, we've had great luck in both France and and Spain).
This really doesn't seem to be a plan that comfortably fits a "rail pass" mode of transportation.
Answers to points
13.
How complicated is the train journey between Brive-La-Gaillarde and Barcelona. I do not think there are any flights between the two locations. French passes will not be valid in Spain. To have a look at the different Spanish train offers use www.renfe.com
14.
if your trip to the Dordogne area ends on the 27 April and you have to be at Marriott's Playa Andaluza (Estepona) it will prove impossible. Have you read the hotel’s website? Public transport is located some way away. They suggest you hire a car.
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/maps/travel/agppy-marriotts-playa-andaluza/
It hardly seems worth going all that way for just 7 days, well less as you have to be in Madrid to catch a flight home.
15.
to be very honest the best way to make this trip make this journey easy and economical is to keep your visit down to one country. France. Answering what is the best means of transport in Spain is going to be down to you clarifying questions in points 13 and 14.
I'll add another request for a link to a description of the Saver Pass you mention. If you are talking about the France Rail passes, one of which is a Saver pass, you can't use it on the Paris buses, metro and the RER, which is the quickest way in and out of Paris from Disneyland Paris. There is regular train service from near Disneyland but not as convenient.
I believe you can use the French Rail saver pass on the TGVs within France but you must reserve a seat and pay a fee for the reservation. Buses or a car are your best options for exploring villages near Avignon. The French rail passes would also get you to Vernon (nearest stop to Giverney) and Chartes. I believe you can go anywhere on the rail network but the passes have various time restraints which make them economical-- or not.
With your various requirements, I think you need a spreadsheet of who needs what, where and when! Then price point to point train costs versus a rail pass of any kind. For prices, go to www.sncf.fr, at the bottom of the page is an option to change to English. You can, for example, get very good prem's fares on the TGV to/from Avignon.
Where will you end your week in the Dordogne? You could check on flights from Bordeaux, Bergerac or even Toulouse to Barcelona or you can of course take the train, depending on where you board, you may have to change trains one or more times.
I'm sure you can make this work, just organize your requirements and get a good, detailed definition of the pass before you make a decision.
This is a freakishly complicated trip,so much so that I think you need to start over again. Too many people doing too many things that are at odds with each other. Staying in Disney to visit Paris? No no no. You need a car for the Dordogne and Provence. There aren't trains from Brive to Barcelona.
You need to compare point-to-point train prices with whatever those passes offer. Passes aren't good on local/intra-city transportation.
I agree if you proceed with this crazy plan you need a spreadsheet.
Rail Passes are of no value in Paris except some versions allow travel from CDG to (not from) Gare du Nord. For most of the other travel, you will need local tickets or one of the local passes. A travel solution can be tailored if you detail the exact days you will be in Paris and your general destination objectives. Keep in mind that it is one hour from Paris to Disney on the Regional train (RER A). With all of the movement you are proposing, you´ll have little time to actual enjoy Paris.
You will find very few, maybe one, posters who would encourage you to purchase any rail passes of any kind for travel within France; point to point tickets being much, much cheaper. Seats for pass riders from Paris to Avignon are very limited and require reservations. Pass riders are not allowed on the iDTGV trains, and the regular TGVs, the Téoz, and the Lunéa trains all require reservations which, in many cases, alone cost nearly the same as a pre purchase ticket. It is possible to use Avignon as a base and not rent a car if you can settle for trips to Arles, St Rémy, Pont du Gard, Nîmes, or maybe Aix-en-Provence. Train ticket prices between these places vary from 8€ to maybe around 20€ each way and are sufficiently cheap to negate any possible advantage in using a pass of some kind. If you want to explore the Luberon, a car is a must.
As an example of train prices, there are tickets now available for travel from Paris to Brive la Gaillarde for departure on April 20 costing only 45€. These are advance purchase, non refundable, non transferable fares but that´s probably much less than the daily pro rated cost of a pass plus the reservation fee.
And I completely agree with StCirq´s assertion that your itinerary as purposed is freakishly complicated and will be extremely difficult to execute as you have planned.