katzen

Ok, here I go again!
I am on the bahn.de site. I plugged in travel for August 5 from Paris Nord to Mainz, Germany. One-way Travel.
Info Below:

Single ride: Paris Nord
Mainz Hbf Sa, 05.08.2006 dep 06:55
arr 12:38 5:43 1 THA, EC

As far as price the check-out page is reading:
"The Check of the offer and the fare will take place in the service center"

I thought bahn.de sent tickets to the US?

Thanks again. I truly need a book for 'train' dummies.

Musicteacher

First of all, it is too early to reserve for August 5. You must wait until 60 days beforehand.

The reason you can't get a fare from the bahn.de page is because part of the trip is on the Thalys train, which has its own separate fares.

If you travel on the Thalys via Cologne, you will pay at least half again as much as on the regular train via Saarbrucken.

You are correct; the DB does mail tickets to the U.S. What the statement means is that the service center has to calculate the price for you, taking into account what type of Thalys ticket you want (changeable or non-changeable, etc)

For an overview of European train travel see this site:

http://www.seat61.com/

suzInOhio

try the french rail page www.sncf.fr

They show trains from Paris Est to Mainz, one transfer in Frankfurt, 90E (I checked a date in June). You can purchase the ticket online 60 days out, and pick it up in Paris at the train station. I have done that, have also had them mail it to me. I did not check into other options, but they are possible.

rkr_flyer

I've made the best experience with the sncf.fr website. They've sent me tickets abroad and one time I had to change plans and they fully refunded the tickets.

Intrepid1

Frankly, are you going to be in Paris for a couple of days BEFORE your trip to Germany? If so, unless it is a holiday or really busy travel period you could probably wait and get the tickets when you first arrive in Paris, especially for a train leaving at that early hour.

TimS

Tickets can now be booked at sncf.com up to 90 days in advance (120 days for the new iDTGV).

katzen

TimS posted in one of my other (million) posts about the trains saying to buy the Paris to Koln ticket and then the Koln to Main Ticket. The day I need to travel is August 19th. Early morning.

Intrepid1, so you think I'll be ok if I purchase my ticket in Paris? I was thinking I could get a PREM fare if I booked 90 days out. I'm unfortunately one of those people who like to have everything in place before I leave ... because with my luck I'll end up screwing the ticket process up when I'm over there and be up a creek with no paddle! We will be in Paris for 2 days prior to me leaving for mainz.

MusicTeacher, I will have to check out the route via Saarbrucken .. I"m trying to take the 'fastest' train so that once I reach mainz I have some time to stroll the town. The next morning I leave early for Frankfurt Airport.

So basically, I need to purchase (2) tickets for this trip ... Paris Nord to Koln and Koln to Mainz. I was also trying to keep it cheap .. but cheap and fastest route don't always go hand in hand.
Thanks for the help!

katzen

on the SNCF site when I plug in for August 5 (I'm only using this date because it's a saturday which is the same day I'll travel and it's the closest 90 days out to my date of travel with is august 19) and it pulls up Paris EST to mainz ... but I'm looking to leave early morning.. and the earliest it shows is after 8:00am.

Is my best bet purchasing 2 diff. tickets. Paris to Koln and then Koln to Mainz?

Thanks!

TimS

katzen: I found another route for you via Karlsruhe which gets you to Mainz only a little later than going via Koeln and is cheaper.

Paris Est to Karlsruhe, leaving at 06:41 - E69.70
Karlsruhe to Mainz, arriving at 13:41 - E24.00

If you take the THALYS to Koeln, it will cost over E80. Koeln to Mainz, arriving at 13:11 - E31.00.

Musicteacher

To summarize what I and the others have told you, the earlier you want to arrive in Mainz, the more you will have to pay:

Lv Paris Nord 6:55 Ar Mainz 12:38 via Cologne
5:43 total travel time, full fare 115.50 EUR (you might get a reduced fare on the Thalys portion)

Lv Paris Est 6:41 Ar Mainz 13:41 via Karlsruhe
7 hours total travel time, 87.60 EUR

Lv Paris Est 8:52 Ar Mainz 14:57 via Saarbrucken
6:12 total travel time, 75.60 EUR

These are your choices, and you can decide how much it is worth to you to get there earlier in the day.