Confused about train travel - Paris, Colmar, Lucerne, Lake Como
 

I am attempting to do the following, all by train:

Paris > Colmar > Lucerne > Lake Como > Milan (flying out of Milan)

Here is my question...where is the cheapest place to buy train tickets? Are there different sites, or one site for all? Any help is greatly appreciated!

For the purely Italian portion you could use www.trenord.com DEPENDING upon where on Lake Como you wish to be; you might also try using www.italiarail.com or www.trenitalia.com

For Switzerland www.sbb.ch/en

If you are planning to take the Bernina Pass route into Italy then www.rhb.ch

Quick schedules here:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

To Colmar:

https://www.capitainetrain.com/search/

Then:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html


From Como, you can use the trenitalia web site.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...005817f90aRCRD

From Colmar to Lucerne you will almost certainly change trains in Basel.

I don't know how long you are spending in Switzerland, but you might looking into getting a "Swisspass" which covers all forms of transportation in the country, including trains, buses (including city bus systems), tramways, cable cars and ferries. If ever you decide to get one, you would just take the local commuter train from Colmar to Basel and then start using the Swisspass from there.

Como city - Milan MXP airport: trenord via Saronno
Varenna - Milan MXP airport: trenitalia via Milano Centrale

cheapest way Freiburg - Milan: meinfernbus for 25 EUR
local transport Colmar - Freiburg and Milan - Como

Each country has its own national railway, so there are different sites to buy tickets in each. I've never heard of a site that sold tickets to all countries' trains except travel agencies which would mark them up (eg, Raileurope). YOu can usually buy a ticket in a country for a train that is going to another one, if it originates there (ie, France to Switzerland, you could buy on French website).

It's pretty obvious that you can buy tickets for international trains from the site of the country of departure, but also you can buy the reverse direction as well (since lots of people buy round trip ticket).

To get a good fix on general things about rail travel in Europe besides train tickets check out these IMO superb sites: www.seat61.com (great info on discounted tickets from sites mentioned above); www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Note with discounted tickets they are often non-changeable non-refundable so be very sure of your specific train and dates - that said buying early can result in huge savings (except on the Como to Milan ticket - just buy that cheap ticket once in Como - there are two different train systems serving Como - Trenitalia from the mainline station and Trennord for the Nord de Milan commuter train (dirt cheap).

Just stay away from Raileurope!

Just stay away from Raileurope!>

In general but not in the case of Italy where multiple searches have seen fares cheaper on www.raileurope.com than onwww.trenitalia.com as they now tap into the www.italotren.com network with about the same low fares. Of course Italo Tren, a competitor to Trenitalia, only operates on a few main routes such as Milan-Florence-Rome-Naples - but check RailEurope too if looking for a good deal on trains on that line.

I don't know how long you are spending in Switzerland, but you might looking into getting a "Swisspass">

Yes indeedy - even a short stay can make a Swiss Pass pay off - like in Lucerne it covers the boats on Lake Lucerne as well as all trains you'll be taking and city buses and trams and gives free entry to 480+ Swiss Museums such as several in Lucerne - check www.swisstravelsystem.com and the sites I mention in my above post for lots of great stuff on Swiss trains (and boats, etc).

and yes like kerouac says with a Swiss Pass you just bop down from Colmar on a cheap regional train then kick in with your Swiss Pass to hop any train anytime to Lucerne - stopping off anywhere en route at will and re-boarding the next of the very frequent trains.