Buy train ticket from RailEurope ahead of time?
 

Hi, I am planning my daughter's trip for her Spring break. They will start in Barcelona for 2 days and then want to travel to Provence. She wants to tour Nimes on the way to Arles. I was thinking it might be best to buy her ticket from Barcelona to NImes ahead of time as there is only one morning train (that I could see). Since this is a 2 country trip - I don't see options on the Renfe site for destinations in France.
RailEurope will let me buy the entire ticket for $63. Even if they could save a few dollars by waiting - I would want the piece of mind of definitely having a ticket for this train. Is RailEurope the best site for this?
Thank you!

My understanding (I have bought TGV tickets only for France) is RailEurope is NOT the train company, but a consolidator. So, you pay for the service, and they do not always show every train available.

You might want to check out the train company itself.

RailEurope is a reseller with a markup. I just checked the French railway site (www.voyages-sncf.com) and see about 8-9 trains daily, some for as little as 36.70 euro. Some of those tickets can be bought online and you can print the tickets out ahead of time.

Hi tc,

You don't want to buy from Raileurope until you have checked the national train lines. They offer discounts that RE doesn't.

Spain: www.renfe.com/
France: www.voyages-sncf.com

((I))

Thank you! Do prices jump at less than 30 days out? I am going to be out of town for the weekend and won't get to this until her trip is less than 30 days from the date I book. I definitely found her trip on the voyages.sncf site. Don't see the english version though - did I miss an icon somewhere?
Thank you again!

Yes the prices generally get higher and higher as seats are sold so jump on those cheap ones asap!

Not sure what you mean by 30 days out. The bests bargains are to be had at 3 MONTHS out - prices tend to go up after that, though there are sometimes last-minute bargains as well.

There is an English icon, but don't click on it, as it will take you to RailEurope, where you do not want to be. I believe you can use www.tgv-europe.com and have the site stay in English, though I haven't used that site.

The best site from which to purchase tickets is definitely the www.voyages-sncf.com website. However, if you purchase tickets from this site (which is only available in French), unless the tickets are PREMs which allow you to print them at home, I believe your only option to pickup tickets will be to do so from a rail station in France. I should be careful about purchasing tickets on one of the SNCF websites and then trying to pickup tickets in Barcelona.

There is no urgent need to prepurchase tickets from Nimes to Arles. There is no prepurchase possibility on the TER trains but the fare is only 8€ unless you take a train via Avignon in which case the fare is 14€. The Téoz trains on this route charge 14€ with a pre purchase price of 8€ to 12€.

Certainly, purchasing tickets for the Barcelona departure is the one which may prove the most difficult.

Thank you for your help! I booked through RailEurope and was able to get the print at home option - so it was worth it.