I've been looking at the Rail Europe website, pricing trips from the Netherlands to Belgium and France, and I noticed that they charge an additional $11 and up, each way, for a seat reservation. Seems like kind of a ripoff to me. Is this standard, or just a Rail Europe online charge? If I went to the train station in Amsterdam and reserved a seat, would I still have to pay an extra fee?

RailEurope has a big mark-up on everything except railpasses, which seem to have a fixed price. Even there, other places offer free bonuses that Raileurope does not. Train tickets, and reservations, will be cheaper to buy in Europe, or on-line at the German or French rail sites, for instance.

However for those who own a pass eg.Interrail,Eurorail ,there is no chance to book in the german or french site.they can do it only in raileurope.com.<BR>

yes, you will still have to pay for a reservation. Probably not as much. I don't know current rates on that, probably about $6-8.

Another way to get reservations is through www.euraide.de, especially if you need a number of them and are worried about waiting till you get to Europe. I did this last year and they were very helpful.

Thanks for the quick response, everyone! After reading your suggestions, I think I'll wait 'til I get to Europe and make my reservations there. A $6-11 fee each way sounds more reasonable than $11-25, especially since there are four in my group.

<BR>Between Amsterdam and Brussels a reservation is not required on many trains. However on the Thalys deluxe trains, not only a reservation is required but a supplement above the normal fare is payable. Between Brussels and Paris all of the direct trains are Thalys and require reservation and supplement.<BR>Since the track between Amsterdam and Brussels has not been replaced to take advantage of the high speed possible in a Thalys (equivalent to a TGV) you might as well take a regular train on that leg. If you have the time or just want to stop between Brussels and Paris you can take regular trains on that run also. Otherwise the Thalys will zip you the 190 miles between Brussel Midi and Paris Nord in under 1-1/2 hours.<BR>www.enjoy-europe.com

Thank you, John.