Train Reservation - any station is fine?
 

I will fly to Porto and start a 1.5 month train trip from Porto to Helsinki. I will take like 20 overnight trains of which reservation is compulsory.

Actually I have checked all train schedules in bahn.de and oebb.at, but I don't wanna do my reservation in Raileurope. I'd rather do it in a train station after I arrive.

The trains I will take span over many countries. Can I reserve all Eurail train reservations in Porto or Lisboa stations? Or I have to do it in some particular train station?

Also, does anyone know if I can make reservation for the ferry connecting stockholm and helsinki?

THANKS!

You will certainly want a railpass for that itinerary

with the pass you get the free Eurail Timetable and Eurail Travelers Guide that gives you the web site of the Hel-Stockholm boats where Eurailpass holders i believe can reserve a free bunk

or at least reserve

Otherwise you will probably have to make your reservations mainly inside each country

chances of doing all in Lisbon i think are nil

that said with a railpass i think at www.bahn.de you can make reservations for trains not in Germany with a pass - at least that's what i've read.

You should be aware that accommodations on overnight trains can be very limited - and often sell out relatively far in advance. So - unlike day trains - which you can usually reserve a couple of days in advance - if you wait you may be shut out of overnight berths.

most overnight trains can be reserved two months max in advance with some exceptions like Artesia France-italy i believe 90 days - that is will a railpass - some online cheap fares ticket cum reservations can be made much earlier

I've never had and real problems doing them in Europe but i'm flexible

if the Paris-rome train was full i'd take the Paris-Milan overnighter and go on other trains to Rome, etc.

Or if Munich-Venice were full i'd hop over to Zurich and do a train from there, etc.

But as above poster said some trains can be hard in certain times at least and on north-south routes during holiday periods.

I'll search for another source TimS gave me that i have in my separate thread on European trains and will say that raileurope.com is not all that more on couchettes - a few dollars more perhaps if you compare as i have - their $15 order fee is per order so if do ten night trains thru them you only pay the $15 once and if doing couchettes really not all that much more - for peace of mind if it's important to you. I always recommend BETS www.budgeteuropetravel.com, a RE agent without some of RE's mailing fees, for their expertise and personal attention in my long dealing with them. Wherever you buy your pass - i'm just assuming with that type of itinerary a Global Eurailpass of some type is a bargain - do any reservations at the same time or you may incur an addition handling/mailing fee if doing so later. Unfortunately many agents are aloof to do reservations since RE seems to pay no or nearly no commission for them and they are time consuming. ricksteves.com, a great source for rail travel and night train info for instance does not do any reservations but refers you to the Raileurope web site - so if you buy a pass from steves site then you have to pay RailEurope's $18 or so mailing fee for the reservations. BETS charges no mailing fee i believe on most orders. But as i say i've found reservations not too difficult to make in Europe but then again i travel mainly in off season.

I'll search for a web site TimS gave me where you can apparently reserve online thru DB, German trains - but also try calling the phone number to got from him to see with a railpass you can reserve at actual European rates - which i believe on couchettes are not all that much cheaper but are on i think double and single compartments.

Looks like a great trip.

Whether you need to reserve in advance depends entirely on when you are going. Got a date?

For info on using night trains I recommend learning more at http://tinyurl.com/eym5b before you go.

Rail pass looks like your best bet, offhand. I suggest that you call BETS in Ann Arbor at 800-441-2387 for info and a pass.

The Silja Line ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki is included with Eurailpass, including a bunk, same sex and 4 to a room.

Hi W,

20 trains in 42 days?

I did something similar when I was in my early 20's.

I couldn't remember a thing when I got home.

You can make all of your reservations at one train station - usually.

((I))

No you cannot IME

only inside a country are you sure of making reservations for any train in that country

In Amsterdam recently they even balked at making a night train reservation from Cologne to Berlin, only doing it from Duisburg, the way Amsterdam originating folk would go

I pled my case that i wanted to traipse around Cologne during the afternoon and get the night train from there and he did it

but clerk said no they do not do reservations elsewhere except in Benelux - and Holland is right next door to Germany

I've found this true many times even though all stations are connected to the same computer say RailEurope or BETS or any agent who does make pan-European reservations

Just seems often a policy of not wanting to bother.

Try but i'm sure you'll find it's not possible

Heck even in Madrid recently they would not make a reservation for French TGVs that tied in with the Barcelona-Montpellier Talgo.

>Just seems often a policy of not wanting to bother.

That's why I added a caveat. :)

well usually is not the right caveat IME

rarely you might be able to

usually implies you usually will - not in my experience anyway

maybe i'm missing the boat here and i'd like to hear from anyone with a railpass who has made reservations from stations outside the countries

i'm sure at times it's possible - maybe in Germany or Switzerland?

still looking for any personal experiences as i keep reading from that's possible but flies in my experience

Several months ago I called BETS and asked this very question. They said that it used to be easier to book reservations in one country for trains traveling solely within another country. It's not a question of CAN it be done (it can) but WILL it be done (probably not). The reason given is that a national rail line in one country receives none of the revenue for reservations for travel solely within another country. If they take time to do it, it will be purely as a courtesy.

I'm in favour of overnight trains and made a total of six journeys in sleepers last year, but 20 journeys seems a lot. You may find you want to change your itinerary, so I don't think it's a good idea to reserve everything in advance. If you could reserve 20 night trains in Portugal, you'd have to back there to get a refund if you wanted to change one of them.
The different railways have computer reservation systems which are linked to a certain extent, but rail bookings are very complex: there are tens of thousands of stations in Europe. The booking system in one country probably doesn't have access to all trains in another country. Some night trains can be booked online.
Overnight trains rarely book up far in advance, except in holiday periods and around weekends. I've often booked a berth at a few days or even hours notice. I can be fairly flexible, and will even use a couchette if the sleepers are fully booked. As PalenQ says, there are usually alternative overnight trains and I like to have more than one option when trying to make a booking.

couchettes IME much more likely to full on short notice booking than sleepers - simply because of the price perhaps

the only time in literally 100s of overnight trains with a railpass i could not book a couchette a few days ahead of the train was in Sicily for a train to Milan - but i could book a place in the sleeping car

I've also found that sleeper trains are likely to much fuller on Fridays and Sundays with folks coming and going from weekend family visits or weeklong vacations

also during the high season around the first, middle and end weekends of July and August when folks go and return from vacations

at amsterdam schiphol international ticket train stqtion desk i asked if it were possible to make reservations for trains in other countries and the answer was a firm NO only for trains originating in Holland

they said no station in Holland would do such reservations and i think this is what most countries do

PalenQ,

I received a different sort of BS from the international ticket office in Amsterdam a couple of years ago.

I was able to reserve a Thalys seat from Brussels to Paris in Amsterdam. In fact they suggested it. Then I asked for a bunk to Irun for the next night. I was told that the bunks were full. They did sell me a seat reservation.

When I arrived in Paris I went to the reservation office and bought a couchette bunk to Hendaye. That cost €23. The train was obviously not fully booked. When I got to the platform that evening it turned out that my bunk was in 2nd class. I had a 1st class Eurailpass so I asked the conductor for a 1st class berth. They told me to take the one I was assigned and they would come around later to sort it out. A half hour after the train departed two officials came around with a bunch of paperwork and eventually reassigned me to a first class T4 cabin. I was the only person in the cabin for the night. Sweet dreams on the SNCF.

Bottom line is that it pays to keep asking until you get the answer you like.

Hopscotch - yes, keep don't give up - i suppose if i really plead with the guy at the Schiphol Airport International ticket window he may have done what i really would have liked - booked the CNL night train to Zurich and then a Zurich-Rome night train.

I know they have the same Euronet computer booking system common to all European railways so could indeed do that. But must be a policy decision that since there is no profit to NS, Dutch Rail, why take staff time to do so. I suppose most Dutch would book these trains online thru other national rail sites like www.sbb.ch for Swiss trains.

And there is also a 3.5 euro booking fee in Holland if you go to ticket windows to reserve even domestic trains as they seek to force folks to either use station machines or the internet. Fine if your Dutch but travelers often can't - station booking machines don't take most American credit cards that lack the necessary chip.

BTW - oddly enough the luggage lockers in Amsterdam Centraal only work with credit or debit cards - no cash and since American cards usually lack the necessary chip Americans i guess just can't use the lockers. I never really tried but asked the staff at the window and they said that's what they heard but weren't sure as the system is new. I noticed at other major Dutch stations that lockers often only worked with some kind of card - not coins. (Ones at Schiphol Airport do work with cash)

Anyway i guess 'International' in Holland ticket windows - the very few of these there are as most have been closed, means only a very few international trains - only ones originating in Holland.

Hops - interesting to hear your experiences in these matters!

Tot Ziens!