ash318

I am leaving from Paris with my husband on the 24th of Dec.
We will fly to Vienna from CDG.

24-27th in Vienna
27th-30th in Salzburg
30th-1st in Zurich
1st-3rd in Lucerne

then Lucerne- Paris.

I need to know
a. do i need to book my tickets online now, or can I do it as I get there?

Since I live in Paris now, are there some discounts that I can get, we are 28 and 29 yrs old, so not sure.

If anyone has any ideas, that would be great.
Much appreciated. First time taking the trains in Europe, hence clueless!!

Merci!!

altamiro

>a. do i need to book my tickets online now, or can I do it as I get there?

For the last leg to Paris, you can get cheaper tickets if you buy them in advance. Not sure whether it matters where you buy them - you can just as easy go to the next SNCF boutique in your neighbourhood and buy them as well, I assume.
For the rest, donīt bother with advance buying. Get a ticket from Vienna to Lucerne via Salzburg and Zürich when you are there; it is an international ticket valid for 60 days with unlimited stopovers, probably slightly cheaper than buying tickets for each leg separately.

speckles

Some European trains require reservations (including some French routes) and some don't and some can't be pre-booked (usually regional trains).

On my first train-trip around Europe in 2006, I booked most of my journeys when I first arrived in Switzerland (from Australia) as I like to preplan. Some of the routes (Switzerland to Venice and Cologne to Paris) required reservations and were full or near to it. Other journeys had plenty of seats and train travel experts will advise that you don't need to book a lot of your journeys. It might depend how busy it gets at that time of year too. We were there in Aug/Sept.

I'm sure someone with more train savvy will provide more detail.

In the meantime, try searching on European Trains in the search box above.

altamiro

>Some European trains require reservations (including some French routes) and some don't and some can't be pre-booked (usually regional trains).

As a rule, high-speed trains in France and Italy, as well as French-based high-speed services like Thalys connecting France with the neighbouring countries, have to be booked in advance. So do night trains (sleeper/couchette cars).

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, almost all trains can be boarded without reservation, thus eliminating any need for advance booking. Sometimes reserving a seat a few days in advance is recommendable though (the usual Fri/sun afteroon runs), otherwise you might end up sitting on your luggage.

Dukey

I've done the Vienna-Salzburg-into Switzerland route and unless there is some crazy exodus of people from Vienna you probably don't need a reservation as i doubt all the seats will be booked.

If Vienna is still the origination point i would get on the platform as the cars are pulled/pushed in and be one of the first to board so you can look for any unreserved spaces.

In my experience 2nd will have more passengers than 1st.

Dukey

Sorry..mis-read your post.

Salzburg will not be the orginiation point for your leg into Switzerland but somehow I doubt you'd need seat reservations. However, since they only cost a few Euro you might want to make them for peace of mind. there are worst things you could spend your money on.

altamiro

>However, since they only cost a few Euro you might want to make them for peace of mind.

I agree.
And if you change your plans on a short notice you lose those 3 Euro - but still can use any train you like.

ash318

A big thank you to those who replied! I made the reservation with seat allocation from Zurich back to PAris on the TGV.

I have read on the oebb.at webs site, that there are some saver prices, but I have no idea how to book.

Has anyone booked on this web site, as I want to book from Vienna to Zurich, VIA Salzburg, and when I click on the " VIA" and add the city, it just gives me options just up to 1 day, but I want to stay longer..

would appreciate any help. Thank you so much!

altamiro

>Has anyone booked on this web site, as I want to book from Vienna to Zurich, VIA Salzburg, and when I click on the " VIA" and add the city, it just gives me options just up to 1 day, but I want to stay longer..

Please read what I have written. You donīt need to "book" anything. Your ticket is not connected to a certain train or connection. Simply buy the ticket in Austria - or in France at an SNCF boutique (they hve an access to the full booking database in Europe; online systems do not have all options available to ticket agents of the state railways)