I do I find it hard to book online for European trains. It will always say either sale not available for your area or there is no schedule/itinerary yet. Does anybody know any website that sells cheap train tickets for crossing borders of Europe wherein I can do the booking here now from Dubai.

When are you travelling? Many train tickets only go on sale 90 days ahead of time.
Have a look at the excellent seat61.com for lots of advice on train travel in Europe (and the rest of the world too).

As stated correctly, there is a limit in how far ahead you can book, and it is not uniform across Europe.

As to the area of availability: Your best bet is to begin the booking process with the train authority of the country where the train or at least your journey originates.

If you fly into Frankfurt am Main and are headed for, say, Prague, book with the Germans at www.bahn.de (switch to English on the top right). If you leave from, say, Prague for Budapest, start with the Czechs at https://www.cd.cz/eshop/

There are exceptions to this, but it's a good starting point.

Let us know your exact plans and dates and maybe some more helpful ideas will come forth.

for info on that yes www.seat61.com is the site that gives lots of various sites - in Dubai you could always go to a travel agent who works thru www.railworldeurope.com as that site has some discoungt fares according to Man in Set 61 on a recent post here. Also check out www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com for lots of train infoi.

If you are going on that many trips do not forget about the various railpasses - a Eurailpass of some sort may be a good deal if taking several international trains - perhaps cheaper than booking discounted tickets and you can pretty much still hop any train anytime in all those countries save France where you must have a seat reservation before boarding.

It's almost always best to book directly with the national railway for each country. It's almost always cheaper if you book ahead of time. Even if you were to find a single website for all European trains, and I don't think one exists, it's extremely unlikely that you'd get any good deals.

Tell us your plans and we can help you get your tickets.

The following is a copy of a post on Fodor's by Man in Seat 61 - may be of help to you:

As well as the usual problems with the French Railways website trying to divert you to their various Rail Europe subsidiaries, I'm getting a string of 'voyages-SNCF.com rejected my credit card' reports.

This is just a heads-up that the privately-run alternative to voyages-SNCF, www.capitainetrain.com, originally only available in French, has just added an English version in the last few days. Not that there are many words to read anyway, the booking process is pretty streamlined and simpler to use than many booking sites.

It sells train tickets within France and to (sometimes also from) neighbouring countries, at exactly the same prices as voyages-sncf itself, with the same absence of any extra fee, with the same wide choice of trains and seating options, the same print-at-home e-ticket or collect-at-station delivery options. Just without the Machiavellian tendency to divert you to higher-priced agencies, or reject your credit card.

The history is that capitainetrain was allowed to connect to the SNCF ticketing system when SNCF lost a court case about anti-competitive behaviour. So capitainetrain is a David to SNCF's Goliath.

All this means it's well worth using for train travel to from or within France, instead of voyages-sncf or other overseas agency, if your journey is e-ticket able or collectable - which these days, is the majority.

Oh, and no, I'm not connected in any way with capitainetrain, beyond exchanging emails with them, and them telling me yesterday that they'd done as I suggested and got their site translated! And probably becoming a customer next time I need French train tickets, of course!

well, you can't expect them to mail train tickets to Dubai, if that's what you are expecting. But many rail websites don't care where you live, it's just an online purchase, if the ticket is an e-ticket. I've bought rail tickets for France, Spain, and Switzerland online just on their national rail company's website without any problem. I think it was difficult for me for the Czech Republic last time I tried, their website was not user friendly or didn't have an English portal, don't remember. SO I just bought those when I got there, it wasn't a problem.

What kind of rail ticket and website says "sale not available for your area" and what are you trying to do? If you are trying to use a travel agency that doesn't service Dubai, then sure, they won't sell them to you. I think Raileurope only sells to North America, if the ticket requires mailing.

If there is no schedule, there's nothing you can do about it, they don't sell tickets real far in advance, you could never buy them for 6-12 months out. There isn't any other website that is going to have a schedule if the national railway does not. Of course, you will have to have a credit card that you can use internationally.

I suspect your problem is that you want a train that crosses borders, and that isn't always easy to buy from a particular rail country, but if it starts in one country and just goes across the border and ends in another, you usually buy it from the country where it starts. I bought a train ticket from the Spanish railway that ended in France okay, for example. Your country tags don't show anything obvious where you would be traveling from the CR to, but I don't think you can book their tickets online if they go to another country.

I'm going to be taking the train, return to Girona from Barcelona next month. Then taking another train to Figueres while I'm there, return the next day.

Can't I just buy my tickets on the day of travel? That's what we did in the spring in Lisbon when we were travelling to Porto.

Yes for those trains because they are local regional trains available - just buy your tickets before the train - never a problem getting on the regional trains - no reservations required or even possible I think.

I fortunately have never had a problem with ticket booking but maybe you are trying to book too many days ahead, they probably don't even have schedule yet, this sort of things happen, especially when seasons change.

ttt

Thank you all for your replies. I have tried bahn.de it says not available to be booked online. there was a schedule but i cannot book it. I have tried Captainetrain, seem to be working fine, however, it is not refundable and i cannot get a nonrefundable train unless i get a hold of my visa. I dont wanna throw away 700 worth of train tickets just in case my visa gets rejected. I will check out some of the suggestions given in this thread... thanks.

bahn.de has lots of schedules listed throughout Europe, but you can't book other country's trains on their website because they are the German Rail System. It's just good for looking up schedules easily.

What do you mean by Capitainetrain is not refundable? There are choices. Some tickets are nonrefundable; others aren't.

You said . "I have tried bahn.de it says not available to be booked online..."

Tell us exact data on that, there may be a hitch you don't know about but one that somebody here can clear up for you. When? Where? That sort of detail.

You also do not HAVE to book a ticket with the national railroad in the country of origination in every instance.

For example, I recently booked a ticket for a train that starts out in Paris and ENDS in Germany and I booked it on the Bahn.de site.

Here's my train Itinerary. Please help me out on where to get these tickets.

dec. 21 - Paris(CDG airport) to Aix En Provence
dec. 23 - Aix En Provence to Paris
dec. 29 - Paris to Amsterdam
Jan. 1 - Amsterdam to Prague
Jan. 4 - Prague to Rome
Jan. 8 - Rome to Paris

please help me out. thanks to all in advance.

21, 23 www.voyages-sncf.com

29 www.thalys.com

1 www.bahn.de - may need to put two tickets together

4- book munich to rome at www.bahn.de

8 - www.trenitalia.com for day trains
www.thello.com for night trains

Why don't you fly into Paris and out of Rome so you don't have to do that huge backtrack?

Yes good idea from St Cirq - open jaw tickets often cost about the same as round trips into one city - sometimes even cheaper - but even if more pricey a little think of all the time and cost you would have to pay returning to Paris.