Buying TGV ticket
 

Hi,

What is the best and cheapest way to buy TGV ticket within France? I am travelling direct from Bordeaux to Paris and I saw two websites Rail Europe and Travel-b Europe and the Rail Europe is nearly double the price than Travel-b website. Travel-b Europe site seems to have more departure times than Rail Europe. The thing is the Travel-b Europe is Belgium based I think, so I have to pick up the ticket there which is impossible as I come from Australia.

Do you know what the website should I best buy the tickets from? I am travelling in 2/4/16 and the cheaper ticket starting to disappear. Is travelling on weekend in this case Saturday is generally more expensive than Friday?

I will also travel from Paris to Deauville and wondering if the website is the same as the two or there is more local website that is cheaper.

Thanks.
Regards,
Fly3r

Use this website:

https://www.captaintrain.com/

Avoid Rail Europe.

Try the SNCF direct website:

http://www.sncf.com/en/trains/tgv

Choose the country of delivery as "France" and you will be able to continue without being redirected to another website. Note that sometimes SNCF's website rejects American credit cards. Be prepared to try an alternate card if your first card is rejected.

I've bought TGV tickets twice from that website. I chose to print my tickets at home both times successfully. (If you use a browser like Google Chrome you can save a PDF of your ticket to your computer to print later if you can't directly download a PDF of your ticket.)

Some people have said good things about this website but I've not used it:

https://www.captaintrain.com/en

www.captaintrain.com was started by 3 young French entrepreneurs to sell SNCF tickets quicker, easier & better than SNCF themselves at voyages-sncf.com - and I tink they are right, so I'd use them.

Captaintrain has exactly the same trains, prices and products as SNCF's own site http://en.voyages-sncf.com (including iDTGV), and no added fees either, but unlike voyages-sncf it has no Machiavellian redirects to SNCF's overseas Rail Europe subsidiaries.

Raileurope-world.com (serving Australasia, Asia, Africa, S America) has same prices as SNCF/Captaintrain, but not all the products (eg no iDTGV trains sold) and they add a small fee.

Raileurope.com and .ca serving North America have been known to suppress the cheapest fares for the US market AND don't sell all the products like iDTGV AND add a booking fee, even for an emailed e-ticket.

B-europe.com is a good site for Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam journeys and journeys to or from Brussels, but they are the Belgians, not the French.

So it's a no-brainer to use www.captaintrain.com (easiest) or if you insist, SNCF's own site www.voyages-sncf.com - but if you use the latter, make sure you select 'Other countries (EUR) top right to avoid redirection.

In fact, if you wonder what I mean by 'all the products' see this comparison table of the features, prices and products sold for the various sites selling French rail tickets online - it's an eye-opener.

http://www.seat61.com/France-trains....tickets_online

As noted above, use www.capitainetrain.com and buy NOW - you've already missed the deadline for the cheapest tickets. Don't bother with the SNCF website if you're using an American credit card.

Rail europe is a reseller and there prices are usually way more than the actual railroad - and thy often don;t list all of the trains as well.

Agree for american capitainetrain.com works much better.