TGV from Paris to Bordeaux
 

Must I reserve in advance my TGV ticket from Paris to Bordeaux or can I do it when I arrive in Paris 4-5 days prior to my trip?

If you reserve 3 months in advance - you'll get huge savings. You can certainly reserve a day in advance and pay full fare, but you'll need to do that from a PC (with a printer so you can print your tickets), or go to a SNCF boutique or a train station in Paris to buy the tickets or pick any up you've reserved on-line & not printed. I have not done the latter 2 in Paris, but the few times I've gone to train stations or walked by a SNCF botique in Paris, there were pretty long lines.

I have no informatioin about trans beigh "sold out" just a few days before departure.

Stu Dudley

I take the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux a lot, and if humanly possible I always get my tickets 90-60 days in advance, on line, thereby securing a PREM fare that may be as little as 19-25 euro, as opposed to 80 or more if I buy it once I've arrived in Paris.

So definitely buy yourself a PREM ticket, in advance, online, and reap the enormous savings. Just be sure you KNOW you're going to travel that day at that time - they are nonrefundable, nonexchangeable tickets.

Of course you CAN buy a ticket in Paris a few days in advance - actually you can buy up up to 5 minutes before departure. But you'll pay a steep price to do so.

If you know your date and time and see no reason why it would not hold up, then book and save.

If booking early locks you in uncomfortably, rest assured that you can make the trip if you book a few days ahead - any train station of halfway decent size will have agents that book it for you, and travel offices in town with the TGV or SNCF logo on display.

Hint: There is a very convenient SNCF office right next to the Orsay museum - go down the steps as if you wanted to go catch a RER train, it's down one flight.

Or if not in a hurry and a cheap skate you can take the slower conventional train route from Paris-Austerlitz to Bordeaux, perhaps changing once or twice but with standard walk up fares at a set and not exorbitant price. Still it would be cheaper to do the PREM fares in advance and blast there on TGVs.

Hi W,

Buy your PREMS fare tickets as early as possible.

You can purchase cancellation insurance for a couple of Euro per ticket.

((I))

I would not recommend you buy that cancellation insurance unless you read and understand the contract. It absolutely is not a policy that allows you to cancel freely.

Thanks to you all for the very helpful responses. Sounds like I better do it in advance to get the price savings. I know there's a thread on Fodor's about how to buy direct from SNCF online (rather than on RailEurope and pay an extra charge) -- it sounded a bit complicated, but I will definitely attempt to follow those directions and do it 90 days in advance.

>> 90 days in advance.<<

Not 90 days - 3 months in advance. So, if you travel on Sept 10, at 6:15pm EDT on June 9 in the US - purchase the tickets.

The SNCF site is terrible. Often it will not work with aol/IE. Try Firefox. Practice a week ahead.


Stu Dudley