Night Train-Paris to Italy (Florence or Rome)
 

Can you take the night train from Paris to Italy with a 3 country youth selectpass for France, Italy, and Switzerland? What are the extra charges for the couchette and/or reservations? We hope to travel around May 29 or 30. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Yes but the charges for the sleeping accommodation will be extra as the train pass pays only for the train fare not sleeping berths - expect to pay 25 euros for a 6-person compartment I believe - and book as soon as you get to Paris as those trains can fill up in that fare category at least. Check these fantastic IMO sites for more info on this question - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com.

Thanks for your answer. Since it will be overnight, will it count as 1 or 2 days?

If you leave after 7pm as is the case here then it is one day and the following day will be your unlimited travel day - you in effect travel free from 7[m to midnight - you must board the actual overnight train after 6:59pm - then say you get off in Rome in the morning then you could travel elsewhere in Italy for the rest of that day unlimited - like if you wanted to go to Naples, Pompeii, Sicily, etc - you can cover this way a lot of turf and only use one day on your pass! when putting the day in on a flexipass you would put tomorrow's date, not tonights/ Capiche!

Cheers

This is good news! Hopefully there will still be couchettes available when we arrive in France on May 24.. We will land in Zurich and take the train to France. Do we have to book this overnight when in France? We hope to take this Artesia train on May 30.

The sleeper to Florence and Rome departs Paris 18:52, so the 7pm rule doesn't apply. So takes 2 days on your pass.

But the Paris-Milan/Verona/Venice train departs 20:33, so it does. So only 1 day on your pass.

The supplements for sleeping accommodation are, per person for one berth:

£24 in 6-berth couchettes, £43 in 4-berth couchettes, £61 in a 3-bed sleeper, £71 in a 2-bed sleeper. Sorry, these are in pounds as I'm a Brit, so just convert to dollars or euros.

You can get fares from 45 euros in 6-berth couchettes if you pre-book at www.tgv-europe.com (or www.trenitalia.com if you're starting the journey in Italy), but if you're from the USA select 'Canada' not 'United States' to avoid being bumped to Rail Europe.

If you can get the 45 euro rate your 69-euros-per-day railpass is only saving you 17 euros (as it includes a couchette) so not worth using up a pass day.