Help with rail tickets!
 

I am trying to book the Eurostar one way on a friday, spend the day in Paris and take the latest overnight train to Rome. We've waited too late to get the best fares for a private sleeper, but a couchette is within our means. I was on the phone with Rail Europe to purchase and they want 25 GBP to send the tickets to me in the states! They can hold the Eurostar tickets for pickup, but not the Paris/Rome tickets, which have to be sent immediately. Does anyone have any train ticket sources that might have cheaper shipping? We have to buy the tickets asap to preserve the price (about $411 for the entire rail trip, one way only) thanks for ANY help!!!

Author: kswl
Date: 10/11/2004, 09:56 am

Message: I'm sorry, in my haste I made the message sound as if we need the tickets this friday, and we do not.


kswl: next time, for best response keep all your posts on the same subject in one thread.

sorry! can the extraneous post be removed?

At this point, I am looking at spending the night in Paris and flying on Ryan air to Italy the next day as a cheaper and more restful option than the couchette with 4 other coed travelers we don't know. Has anyone taken this flight, and does anyone know if the shuttle service Ryan runs to Beauvais is very good?

Hi ks,

Go to www.volareweb.com for discount airfare to Rome. They fly out of Orly, which is more convenient.

For the Eurostar to Paris, you might be able to get the cheap same-day RT tickets for less than a one-way. See www.Eurostar.com

For some reason, the same day roundtrip tickets are as unreasonable as the one-way--about $150 pp. Rail Europe's price was better at $95 for me and $84 youth. I looked for a way to sign in as a UK resident on Eurostar.com, but short of creating a ficticious persona to register, I could not see a way to do it. Thank you for the volare website; I wish I had asked sooner. At E 85 per person to fly, plus the hotel in Paris, plus the higher Eurostar fares I can book myself, it looks like we should either go ahead with the exorbitant fed ex fees and sleep in a couchette or fly out on ryanair and find a motel in Beauvais (sic?). Neither is especially appealing, and I could kick myself for not making these arrangements sooner!