Claudia: Welcome to Fodors. Typically we don't solicit private e-mails for 'personal advice'. If you have info to provide it is usually best to post it in the thread - so others can use the info, sure, but also so there can be a bit of 'vetting'.

You may have some lovely itineraries -- or not.

If you wait til the last minute you will pay an enormous amount for either trains or flights<<>

Trains no - planes I don't know but there are several types of trains - only long-distance high-speed trains generally have an airline-type pricing structure - the vast majority of trains are regional or local trains with a pretty much flat-fare structure for ticketing - I could take trains from one end of Italy to the other on a walk-up basis and pay no more than if I had booked in advance.

So just because you have not booked train tickets weeks in advance it is just not true that you will have to pay enormous last minute fares - just applies to a relatively few trains.

@PQ - the

Aargh - hit the wrong key...

@PQ - the OP is not going to Italy. The OP is not taking regional trains. The OP is planning to travel from Barcelona to Amsterdam. S/he WILL pay a high price for not booking in advance.

Do pay attention to the whole thread before reciting your usual mantra. (Do you have it saved so you just copy it?)

Thursdays - the statement about walk up fares being enormous was given in general and lots of folks read these things thinking well that must be true of trains all over Europe and it is not - not on the vast majority of them - ony seeking to clarify that - if the OP wanted to go direct Barcelona to Amsterdam on a walk-up basis it may cost more than a France-Benelux Railpass - granted - but it was a sweeping statement that others may think applies to trains in general and it does not.

Cheers!

>>Thursdays - the statement about walk up fares being enormous was given in general<<

No -- it wasn't. That post (and most useful posts) are in response to the <u>OP</u> . . . not some generic 'oh, walk up fares don't have to cost a lot'. Context is <i>everything . . .

Conctext is everything and most folks read out of context - just to make sure they did not extrapolate your words to a different meaning - and I wanted to take the suburban train to the French border and a regional train to Perpignan and hop the overnight train to Paris walk up fares are not astounding on those fairly flat-fare trains - though you can get a nice discount full-fare is not enormous IE on those overnight trains and the OP does not have to pay for a night in a hotel.

Once in Paris taking the TGV to Bruges - the highlight of Belgium over Brussels for most - again is a fairly flat fare structure with walk up tickets not nearly what one would call astounding - and then IC trains Brugges via Antwerp to Amsterdam again a flat fare -

so only on certain trains on that route is what you say is true - one could do that on a walk up basis without necessarily paying those astounding fares, which would apply to TGV and Thalys trains only.

Oof. I didn't mean to sound so naive! I was just googling and trying my best to see what I want. I was thinking of booking a flight between Barcelona and Amsterdam since it isn't too expensive or that long of a flight. I don't mean to sound cavalier, I'm just trying to backpack my way through a bunch of different locales.

I'm rethinking all of it.

Wih 12 days you could easily take trains and the overnight trains if into that and say do 3 days in each place - Barcelona - Paris - and Amsterdam with a travel day in between - flying is quick but from the train you will also see the Europe in between the big cities and see something more than tarmacs and airports.

But if your goal is just to go straight away between Barcelona and Amsterdam then fly - but Paris and Bruges could be nice stop en route.

Thanks!