My husband and I are traveling to Europe for the first time together this spring - he traveled to Europe many years ago - this is my first trip - destination: England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. We booked our flight last October, (SF to London)and, we did purchase our Eurail tickets from Rick Steve's - but, we had NO IDEA we needed to make train reservations EARLY too - now we are in a mess - problem: need a train to San Sabastian from Paris on 23 April - but all BOOKED already - so we are thinking we will pass up on our San Sabastian two day stay and take the train from Paris to Madrid instead - but the BIG problem is getting to Lisbon from Madrid - we were so excited to go on the web site and book a sleeper room on the train - how wonderful it sounded - we received the confirmation of the booking - but then ----- the next morning when I opened the email - we got one from the train that said "Sorry - No Room at the Inn" (not quite the quote, but the answer was clear) - we can't believe that Madrid has Only ONE train a day to Lisbon and that is 10:45 at night - we are meeting friends in Lisbon the morning of the 28th - we can't even fly out. We still have all the reservations to make in Italy yet - any ideas how to work with Eurail? Do allot of travelers have the train hold reservations for them, only to cancel later - should we keep checking for cancellations? We called Rick Steve's office - they were nice, but couldn't help - we did the 'chat' on Euro Railways, but since we didn't purchase the pass from their company, they couldn't help either!

Our itinery:
4/18 - London
4/20 - Paris (via Eurostar)
4/23 - San Sabasitan
4/25 - Madrid
4/27 - HOTEL TRAIN ???
4/28 - Pick up car rental for two weeks
4/28 - Rented Villa in Algarve
5/5 - Sintra, Portugal
5/6 - Porto
5/8 - Lisbon
5/11 - Fly to Barcelona (on ClickAir)
5/13 - Fly to Pisa
5/13 - Train to Lucca
(Piccolo Hotel Puccini, confirmed)
- day trip to Florance and maybe another to cinquea terra (sp?)
5/17 - Venice (still need to find a hotel)
5/20 - Rome (still looking for a hotel)
5/24 - Fly Home!

Also, we tried to book a hotel in Barcelona for May 11, but all the hotels we checked were full - we even called one - we were looking for the La Rambla area - does anyone know if there is a special event going on there - and any suggestions for a hotel - reasonable?

I've really enjoyed reading Fodor's - any ideas any Fodorites have would be great - thank you for your thoughts and time - Karen

ttt

(You might want to re-post since your questions really aren't about Eurail at all. Eurail is just a provider of rail passes - they don't operate the trains)

Something like "need help w/ trains Paris to San Sebastian and Madrid to Lisbon. Site says no seats available"

For the Italy part of your trip, you don't need to reserve trains before your arrival. You are traveling popular routes with frequent trains. If you need a particular train, you can buy all your tickets (since you have a pass you'll still need to make reservations for the fastest trains) for all trips at your first stop. You can check schedules at trenitalia.com.

Thank you for the tip - I will change my posting subject - and will also look up trains schedules on the site provided - next trip - travel agent!

Yes Rick Steves won't make reservations but just sell the pass - won't do the dirty work it seems and as you found out other agents are aloof to do it as well because it's a time-consuming thing that pays nearly no commission for their time. Steves site says to go to www.raileurope.com to make the reservations. I would say call BETS (800-441-2387) and explain your predicament - if anyone would help these accommodating folks may if anything can be done and i'd at least try.

Ditto PQ

<need a train to San Sabastian from Paris on 23 April - but all BOOKED already - so we are thinking we will pass up on our San Sebastian two>

there are lots and lots of day train connections Paris-San Sebastian you may be overlooking.

There are several TGVs to Hendaye, the last French border town as well as an overnight train there. From this station the TrenEskro (sp?) is a commuter train that goes about every half hour to San Sebastian (aka Donostia in Basque) - that all these TGVs are booked now is hard to fathom.

But there are few mainline trains Hendaye-San Sebastian so that may be the snafu. Just book a train to Hendaye, France and then take the commuter train to nearby San Sebastian.

There are no direct Paris-San Sebastian day trains - tracks in Spain are wider than those in France and thus most trains can't physically go thru the border but terminate at Irun, Spanish border town or Hendaye, French border town.

Only the overnight Elipsos Hotel 'Taglo' trains cross the border - as they have moveable wheel bases they can run on tracks in each country. There are no daytime such trains i believe so you always have to change at Irun or Hendaye.

For the Barcelona hotel, I would try www.venere.com - you can enter your date and it will pull up available hotels - you can even pick the area of the city that you want.

Just because Eurail is 'sold out' doesn't mean that you can't book a train.

I'm driving from Provence just to spend 2 nights in San Sebastian (Donostia). Would not miss it for the world.
Here's some local help.
http://www.gipuzkoaturismo.net/ingles/index.asp

For Barcelona, check out www.venere.com as they have numerous hotels available the dates of your stay.

As for Lisbon, check out vueling airlines. Seems to be a new airline.

Still way too much travel for the time. It reminds me of "If it's Tuesday....

In Italy you shouldn't have any problems getting on trains requiring reservations - Eurostar Italia (ES) trains cost a flat fee of 15 euros with a pass - a reservation and a supplement for these crack trains. InterCityplus (IC+) trains cost 5 euros for the mandatory reservations - these are flat fees and in either class.
I've never had any problem making these reservations in Italy - there are often up to 2 trains an hour between key cities.