Hey!

I will be traveling a bit more through europe. Going from Turin, Italy into Switzerland and France. I was just wondering how Passports are dealt with on trains. Are they checked before boarding or during travel? Are they typically checked at all?


Also, Does anyone know of safe, clean hostels in the south of France and Switzerland? Or can someone help me find a helpful website?

Thanks!!

You're travelling between countries that have no immigration control between them.

There may be ad hoc identity checks during the journey.

All three countries are now in Schengen, so all routine passport checks have been eliminated, and travel between those countries is regarded as internal, domestic journey. However, there is always a chance of a random check, and this is usually done by border officials or police boarding the train and checking documents and possessions of selected passengers - those profiled to have a higher chance of being illegals or carrying contrabands. So have your documents ready, just in case.

Check out Hostelworld, cross-checked by Tripadvisor reviews. Hostels, like everything else in Switzerland, are clean and dependable. France is more variable, so pay attention to what others havewritten about the place.

it depends on the type of train..for NIGHT trains the passport is sometimes collected by the car attendant when you board and given back to you in the morning..otherwise it is as described above.

So that, in the event of a random check, they don't have to wake you up!

http://bugeurope.com/

A good source for checking out hostels. There are lots of good hostels but some are party hostels and some are quiet. You'll be able to figure out which is which.

Here's a link to hostel international site.

http://www.hihostels.com/web/index.en.htm

You also might want to post on the Thorntree site which is geared toward a younger, hosteling crowd.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

When I took the overnight train from Florence to Paris 3 years ago, the attendant collected my passport when I boarded and gave it back to me the next morning.

As far as I can tell, no one actually opened it and looked at it.