kristas66

I have a quick question regarding one leg of my trip next month. I will be reserving the fast speed trains for Venice - Florence and Nice - Aix en Provence but am not sure what to do about the La Spezia - Nice leg. I will be staying in Manarola in Cinque Terre and then travelling to Nice. I understand that I will be taking regional trains and there might not be a benefit to pre booking (if I could even find fares online!) but I have also read that I should pre book La Spezia - Ventimiglia and then hop on a regional train to Nice once we get there.

We have a set itinerary so we want to be able to pre book as much as possible and not have to wait in line at train stations to book our next leg.

I have looked at the Bahn.de website and it seems to have some options but they are very long and not bookable at this time.

Any suggestions on whether we should just book that leg once in Italy or should we book the La Spezia - Ventimiglia leg and then just hop on the train to Nice once there?

Thanks!

kybourbon

>>> but I have also read that I should pre book La Spezia - Ventimiglia<<<

Don't know where you read this as there is really no need.

You don't have to wait in line at train stations. Use a ticket machine in Venice or Florence if you don't want to wait until the actual day. Regional tickets can only be bought online 7 days in advance and they are more restrictive than if you buy them in Italy (short time window to use them). If you buy them in Italy, you can buy them several months in advance and they are good for a longer time span once activated (6 hours). They can't sell out as they don't have any reserved seating.

Yes, you will have to change trains in Ventimigilia. You will also have to change elsewhere (Genoa?, La Spezia?, Riomaggiore?) depending on which train you pick.

There are a few IC trains on part of this route where you can get reserved seating. I'm not a fan of IC trains as most have compartments instead of open seating which are hard to get in and out of with luggage.

FYI - Know how long your stops are as most regional trains use pull through stations and often the stop is 1 minute. You will need to be at the door with your luggage in advance of your stops.

If you want to see prices, enter a date within the next 7 days on Trenitalia.

kristas66

Thank you so much for your advice! I will prebook my high speed trains this week and then wait until I am in Italy to book the La Spezia - Nice leg.

Thank you for the advice on the regional trains and the very short stop times. I will make sure we are at the door with our luggage!

PalenQ

Yes, you will have to change trains in Ventimigilia. You will also have to change elsewhere (Genoa?, La Spezia?, Riomaggiore?)>

There is at least one direct La Spezia/Monterosso to Ventimiglia train I found last week - and you can wait until Italy and should to buy those regional train tickets but you cannot book them - they are open seating trains with no reservations possible - rarely full - for lots of great info on Italian/French trains I always highlight these IMO fantastic sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Unlike kybourbon I have found IC trains to be more comfy than regional trains and they are faster to in that they do not stop so much - but those also have a pretty flat fare strucutre so just wait until Italy and then book - yes book a reserved seat on segments that do offer convenient IC trains.

PalenQ

anyway if leaving La Spezia or Monterosso in the morning it seems nearly all the rail links to Nice involve taking IC trains to Genoa then either an IC or regional train to Ventimiglia and regional trains from there to Nice. so you pretty much have to take an IC trais and you will get a seat reservation I believe when you buy that ticket in Italy - at any station but if buying before the actual day of travel specify that when buying.