In the process of planning our trip I've encountered many folks having trouble buying train tickets online... so my question is, should I just wait and buy my tickets at the station or should I continue to try to buy tickets online. I'd really like to do it in advance because it would save us money.

I'd need to book tickets from london to paris. I think that's eurostar? and then inside France, Italy, and Spain. I'm going to book flights from country to country so that isn't an issue. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

Definitely book the eurostar as far in advance as possible as the prices go up the more seats they sell. www.eurostar.com lets you book 4 months in advance.

Also book the France ones in advance as you can get special deals called PREMs that are really good value.

Italy we usually buy on the day or day before in Italy.

Hope this helps!

I just booked my Paris train tickets on-line. The regular Prems were 60 euros for all 4 parties each way, 2nd class. When I booked these, for the first time, it gave me pricing for a "mini-groupe" at 51.20 Euros for all 4, 2nd class, 76.80 for First Class. I split the baby in half and got 1st class going out, 2nd coming back. Cost me 8 euro more, but do get the slightly larger seat after the overnight flight.

As for renting a car from the SNCF link with Avis, I'm still having trouble.

Spain.

The national carrier is - http://www.renfe.com/
If you want help with the website and to find possibly 60% savings - http://tiny.cc/xgsxn and if really puzzled almost every problem which may have occurred is covered here - http://tiny.cc/yw8vf

Hi KD,

The problem is Trenitalia. Their computer won't handle foreign credit cards - mostly.

You can certainly purchase advance tickets at www.eurostar.com and
www.voyages-sncf.com.

I'll spell it out with Eurostar, who have airline-style fares: Book a month or two in advance, and it's only £39 one-way from London to Paris. But turn up on the day and it will be either £140 or £170 depending on the popularity of the train. www.seat61.com/London-to-paris-by-train.htm has more info on the way Eurostar fares work, about the journey and check-in procedures.

On-the-day fares in other countries are not quite as draconian, but for example Paris-Nice starts at only 20 euros if you pre-book up to 90 days in advance at www.tgv-europe.com (say you're from Canada if you're from the US to avoid being bumped to Rail Europe) but on the day it's more like 80 euros.

Both Spain (www.renfe.com) and Italy (www.trenitalia.com) now operate similar cheap-in-advance but more-expensive-on-the-day fares structures.

Oh, and trenitalia.com has recently (November 2010) changed its payment system, so may now take overseas credit cards (Visa and MasterCard, but not Amex)

Sorry, that fist link should have been www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm

thank you everyone for all of your replies! I've just booked 2 tickets one-way from london to paris for $122US. 1 youth 1 adult ticket. i'm still doing research on tickets to everywhere else but all of your replies will help! thanks again