Making reservations on train rides
 

I am starting my journey on the 26th of this month. I would like to make some reservations now (especially on night trains). I purchased my tickets through railpass.com. They do make reservations online, but for an additional surcharge of 20 usd per reservation per person, I will be making several reservations (8 in total), doesn't it amount to 160usd? It is simply ridiculous. I would like to know if there are any way that I could do the reservations myself/over the internet with a more practical fee?

Also, I have been having problem contacting them. I have sent emails to them for nearly 2 weeks now, each email is either not replied or I get a failure notification. I can't believe a website which claims itself to be the biggest seller of railpasses in the US could face such problem and didn't notice it for so long. I am rather anxious now, cause time is nearly ticking up to my journey...

Al,

The easy answer to these questions are no, no, no. It is definately not worth paying the fees to Eurail and there is no way to make reservations from the US. You should no problem making reservation after you get to Europe, especially this time of year. Have fun and don't worry.

Greg

The only place I would ever make an advanced train reservation from the USA would be on-line with SNCF. Their prices are the best. Wait until you get to Europe. You have nothing to worry about. You will find the trains will have many empty seats on all routes this time of year.

Relax, you're going to have a good time.

Larry J

Unless traveling with a group that wants to sit together, or on a special train (overnight, or TGV, etc) I wouldn't even bother with a seat reservation for most trains in Europe. You don't say where you are going.

On most trains you simply a ticket from A to B that is good on any train for that route. Most of the time I simply buy a ticket (without seat reservation) and hop on the next avail train going to my destination, then sit in any open, unreserved seat. QED.

I don't think you'll have any trouble getting a bunk at this time of the year. Reserve as you go. Don't pay surcharges to railpass.com. See http://tinyurl.com/y57vft for an intro to night train travel.

You might check out www.euraide.com as they charge the actual price plus a fixed fee for the total order instead of per reservation. I've never used them, but had seen recommendations a while back.

Enjoy your trip,
Paul

If you feel that you must buy tickets in advance, go through the national rail sites. The German site is particularly useful and you can print your tickets on your own printer after paying with a credit card.

Here is a web site that will present to you an icon for ALL of the European national web sites. The German, French, Swiss, and Austrian sites are the ones I use the most and ALL have English subtitles.

The web site is:
http://www.railfaneurope.net/frameset.html

Once you get there, click on the keyword links. It is located to the right of the train cars that will see on the screen.

DB by the way is Deutsche Bahn, the German site.

CHE is Switzerland.

Note that some trains require reservations. As a general rule, the web site will advise you if a seat reservation is required.

As a general rule, TGV trains in France, Thalys trains in Germany-France-Belgium-Netherlands and Cisalpino (Italian) trains require seat reservations.

In my experience, those trains are often full and you would want a reservation even if one were not required.

Seats reservations don't cost much.

But don't pay Rail Europe prices.

Thank you guys, I feel much more relieved now. These are the routes and dates I am taking. We are travelling in a group of 3, but I suppose it doesn't really matter if we travelled together or not, we're all pretty much independent chaps.

Berlin - Brussels

Amsterdam - Basel - Geneva

Venice - Salzburg

Vienna - Stuttgart

So are these 'popular routes' that I need to be worried about?

and there is no way to make reservations from the US.

That statement simply is not true. There are, obviously, ways to make reservations in the US through any agency which has access to the European rail network computer system and those various agencies have that connection.

But I agree with the others that you can do all of the reservations at one time when you get to Europe and do it more cheaply.

What you do not tell us is WHICH of these proposed routes will you be traveling on at night?

Hi A,

>Berlin - Brussels
Amsterdam - Basel - Geneva
Venice - Salzburg
Vienna - Stuttgart

Am I correct that you have a railpass?

I've rounded up the usual suspects and they won't sell bed reservations online for your routes.

I suggest that you check www.euraide.com (they will charge you what the reservations would cost in Germany + S&H) and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

((I))

Well yes, I am travelling extensively throughout europe in the coming month, including 6 countries, those 4 I mentioned were the night travels we will be doing (I know it sounds tiring, but we are used to train travelling).
And yes, I have bought a flexi early bird promo, 5 countries (Benelux, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria), 7 days in 2 months.

May I add that if you sleep well on trains you can save long journeys and hotel bills if you book a berth in a 3 berth, second class, sleeper. It costs about 50 euros supplement. The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable. This shows times.

Amsterdam Central 2032 to Basel 0654

Venice Santa Lucia 2044 to Salzburg 0410.

Those nights are short, so it may be better to pay 40 euros more, stay in bed an extra hour, and wash and breakfast in a morning train:

Amsterdam Central 2032 to Zurich 0822. Then Zurich 0824, with bistro, to Basel 0938.

Venice Santa Lucia 2044 to Linz 0628 Then Linz 0729, with buffet car, to Salzburg 0848.

Ben Haines
[email protected],uk

I would wait until I get there to make the reservations. You're not going at a peak time so it should be a piece of cake. The fees are excessive.

Thanks everyone! Ben, your suggestions sounds good. But I don't understand how we can change car? Does it mean we pay extra 40 euros, then once it stops in Linz/Zurich, I have to hop off then onto another train?

We'll try to consider this more, but we really don't mind arriving early in a city, we'll just sit around in a bakery/coffeeshop, hapily sipping out tea/coffee, then have a deadstart to some tourist locations before they're packed with people

Oh yeah, I bought a railpass (flexi, 7 days in 2months time), it entitles me to as many rides as I want on one day, so if the journey starts after 7pm and is a direct one, only the next day is counted, so even if I changed train at Linz/Zurich to Salzburg/Basel, it means I didn't have to pay extra for that ride right? Since I am entitled to unlimited travel on that day.

as I recall, after buying all my tickets while I was there in Italy, reservation for 1st class seats average 13 euro per person.

In your scenario, day one would be AMS to Zurich. Zurich to Basel in the morning would be day 2.

It is not a direct AMS to Basel train. The conductor on the Zurich - Basel train will neither know nor care what train you took on day 1. All he'll care about is whether you have a ticket valid on day 2 for Zurich - Basel.

But you could simply buy a point to point ticket for Zurich to Basel, rather than use up a day on your pass. Ditto for Linz to Salzburg. Both of those are short, relatively cheap legs.