I am going to Amsterdam and then planning on taking a train to Paris a few days later. Does anyone think it will be a problem to just buy my train tickets when I get to Amsterdam a few days before we are planning to leave. Or will the train be pretty full by then and I should buy them online now? I am going in the end of May.

Buy them there.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

You may not have a problem buying your tickets there. However, to be sure you can buy them before you leave if you know what your exact dates are. Rail Europe sells them here.<BR><BR>

FYI, May 18-20 and May 30-June 2 are long holiday weekends in several European countries.

Please do not book with RailEurope. They charge a huge markup.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR>

Agree with Ben Haines. Rail Europe is over 100% markup.

I think people just need to decide for themselves whether to buy from Raileurope based on the amount of money, convenience, and how busy they think that day will be. Raileurope does have a markup, but it is not 100%. It's a travel agency, a service that allows you to buy tickets abroad for a train system in a country where you are not a citizen; I think it would be unreasonable to expect a foreign rail company to run a ticket agency in another country for free myself, although it would be nice if their markup were only about 10 pct (which it sometimes is, from my experience, on more expensive tickets). <BR><BR>For example, for May 29th, Raileurope's fare is US$96 and the actual fare appears to be 81 euros, or about $72, for a normal adult one-way fare according to SNCF(plus reservation fee which is $5-10, I'd guess, whereas Raileurope's fee includes that). The one thing I especially don't like about Raileurope is they charge a $15/order handling fee on top of the markup, which seems unreasonable to me. Not so bad if you are ordering a lot of tickets, but high for one. Also, if you want Fedex delivery or something like that, you have to pay for it.<BR><BR>Bottom line, is approx. $30 worth it (about $111 total Raileurope vs. $80 in Europe) to have a reservation and ticket ahead of time? Some people would never pay that, but for others, it would be worth the potential time savings on the other end (especially if you make a special trip to get the ticket before departure, if you weren't planning on being in the train station that day, that could save an hour or more of your vacation time) and security if you must take a certain train. At peak holiday or weekend runs, it would definitely be worth it to me if I had to get somewhere a certain day. I would probably wait if I weren't going on one of those May holidays or weekends. If you can buy online now with no markup from the Netherlands rail system and just pick them up there, I would definitely do that--I haven't done that in the Netherlands so don't know, maybe someone should advise on that.

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In the past I have found it is much cheaper to buy them after you arrive. You can usually get them from a travel agent in the city as well as at the station. Be sure to get them immediately as you arrive to avoid disappointment!