Can anyone tell me if its better to reserve trains now or wait until I arrive in Italy and France?

If you're traveling on TGV's, better book in adavance for cheaper fares. For regular trains, it does not make a difference.

For Italy you can be prettu sure to find empty seats until the day before your departure, so that I suggest you to book your seats once you are here in italy.

We just returned from Italy and France. We had the railpass for 5 travel days and did not reserve any in advance from the U.S. It's really easy to reserve it there at the train station before you take off, and all except the ES did not need reservations at all. I'd prefer to keep my schedule flexible, so I'd recommend that you don't reserve in advance.

We just returned from France and Italy, and because it was our first trip to Europe I played it safe and made reservations on everything I could. You must have a reservation for the TGV, and the day we rode it, it was very full. What I discovered was some trains are very full and others are not. If you do not have a reservation just keep in mind that there will probably be empty seats on the train but you may end up in a smoking car or you may not be able to sit with the other people you are traveling with. On short rides this may not pose a problem but on longer rides it might. I would suggest that on any ride longer than say 2-3 hours you may want to make a reservation just to be sure you are comfortable for the ride.

Armando<BR>I think it depends on how rigid a schedule you want for your trip.It is a SHAME to miss the GTV trains as there is nothing here to compare.Go to the raileurope.com site and determine if you want a sked.Tickets and reservations cost more booking them here.The fare you pay includes a service charge and the reservation fee itself is $11 per res per person.But if you can live with an open schedule at least you will be armed with a bit of knowledge of the schedules once you get there.<BR>Eric

Armando,<BR>As Diane said, some trains are full and some are not. It depends on route and the day of the week and time of the day. If you can post the date, route, and time, someone here tell you if that is a must reserve early route. Evening train leaving Paris to major cities are usually full of returning businesspeople. Holidays are also must reserve ahead times.<BR><BR>To Eric, <BR>I presume you are referring to the US train situation. If US can redirect billions here, billions there spent on aviation and airports, sometimes building an airport in the middle of nowhere, we would have nationwide TGV network and don't have to mess with the airlines for trips less than 1000 miles. Whenever I have to take a short "shuttle" flight in the US I always think it is a madness that there is no other equivalent alternative without lengthy security clearance just to be sardine canned with the front seat on my face. My mind drifts away thinking about sitting in a comfortable TGV seat watching the French country zooming by....

tgv<BR>Me Too!! I think anyone who goes to France wherever and does not take a TGV somewhere has missed a great adventure!<BR>Take care