Eurail - Night Train Resevations
 

Hi, planning to be in Europe in May with family which includes spouse and two kids - we are base din India and will be landing first in Berlin. On one of the legs we plan to take the night train from Vienna to Venice. Have a Eurail 3 country Selectpass 1st Class. Was wondering how to reserve the sleeper for night travel?

As a <b>general</b> rule you can only reserve a maximum of 60 nights ahead; in some cases no more than 90.

Where will you get the pass from? That agency can probably also make the reservations. Another place that can do it (more cheaply than an outside agency) would be the Euraide office at the Berlin Zoo station. That might be the easiest IF you are going to be in Berlin for several days prior to your scheduled night train trip and assuming that the train is not completely sold out prior to that.

Hi jk,

See www.euraide.com
They can help you with sleeper reservations.

You can also go to any travel agent or train station in Berlin.

((I))

Thank you very much both of you. Guess will do it in Berlin, will be there about a week before the proposed night journey.

Will top this just in case folks like Steve or Geoff have different opinions.

I am always, and probably unreasonably, afraid that the train I want will be sold out so I'm always trying to get the reservations nailed down at the very first opportunity.

However, many will tell you that this &quot;fear&quot; is at best irrational and that one can easily wait until a few days prior to the travel date.

If you have a rail pass, then you'll only be able to book a train if you can show your rail pass, which means either going to the people who sold you the rail pass, or booking it in person at a station.
If you're travelling in May, it's difficult to predict when trains will be busy because there are public holidays that month: Austria has the 1st (Mayday) and 25th (Ascension).

There seem to be far fewer visitors on this forum who come from Asia than the much larger majority who come from the US or the Americas - - &quot;we&quot; know some basic facts about the rail passes sold by RailEurope USA, a marketing consortium which (I think) can only sell tickets and passes to residents of the USA (and maybe other countries in north America?)

I'm curios - - would you be willing to share with us some info on what are the choices for purchasing a rail pass for travelers who live in Asia? What did your rail pass cost? and how did you decide which pass to buy? and whether it was actually a good deal for your family? What is the bg picture of your travel/itinerary plans - - if you dont mind me asking?

Have a good trip.

Best wishes,

Rex... from Indiana
(the state named for the people who lived here... which someone mistakely thought were from where YOU live!)

Actually, you do not HAVE to produce a rail pass to book accommodations on a train through an agency depending on the agency. I have actually booked berths on several overnight trips, using RailEurope, and simply told them I had a pass or that I would have a pass and they made the required reservations.

Of course, if you show up and your pass doesn't match the information ON the reservation (such as &quot;passholder rate&quot;) then the obvious would occur.

Rex, the choices are just about the same as everywhere else. Eurail has a pretty good distribution system in India as well as in other major Asian locations - has tieups with several travel agents. The rail pass that I plan to acquire is the Selectpass 3 countries 5 days . The cost is the same as for other parts of the world i.e. I will be paying $325 for an adult (the Indian Rupee equivalent of course)

Have used rail passes the last couple of year - last year was in the UK and the year prior to that in Switzerland and would it pretty effective - it helps that the family likes travelling by train and getting a good view of the countryside.

Overall scheme of things as they stand are that I plan to fly in to Berlin from London, from then go on to Munich (will probably fly Germanwings on that leg), take the train to Vienna, from Vienna do a day trip to Salzburg, take the overnight train to Venice, do a couple of trips to Florence and Milan by train from Venice and then take the easyjet flight from venice to london.

Had i figured out a cheap option to go from Vienna to Venice, I may have avoided the railpass and taken point to point tickets instead.

Cheers...JK

Delhi-London-Delhi will probably be on BA - highly competive pricing available at the moment - the economy return is I believe

Jkbasu:

Are you taking one of the budget flights London-Berlin?

yes, the plan is to take easyjet. Anyone know of a budget flight from Vienna to Venice?

Wish I did..I only know that Air Berlin does both London-Berlin and Vienna-Milan.

have a great trip.

&lt;&lt; Anyone know of a budget flight from Vienna to Venice? &gt;&gt;

The standard answer to a question like this (on low-cost intra-Europe airlines) is customarily &quot;check on the www.whichbudget.com website&quot;.

However, in the case of Vienna, one might not thin to check on Bratislava (sometimes also known as &quot;Vienna East&quot; - - only 45 minutes by shuttle buds from the center of Vienna). Their flagship carrier - - skyeurope.com DOES serve Bergamo (&quot;Milano&quot; Orio al Serio) - - this airport is about 2 hrs from Venice by car (not sure about train connections). I don't know if this would fit your Italy-Austria travel needs or not.

And I'm curious how it might change your rail pass cost-effectiveness calculation, if you are able to use it.

Admittedly, time utilization counts for something. It might be more painless to train Venice-Vienna than to use skyeurope.

I guess if I had a cost effective solution, then I may have dropped the rail pass altogether. Still weighing all the options at present and trying to get a fix on the optimal solution...Thanks and cheers...JK