Train tickets in Italy?
 

Hi. I am planning to travel through Italy in the month of June 2017. I already bought flight tickets and sleep in every city. However I didn't buy train tickets to travel through cities yet. When is the best time I should do that? Do I buy it there at the station or do I buy it earlier?

Same goes to Greece, Spain and Portugal, Sweden and London?

Thank you,
Marina

Your best advice for such train-related questions will come from Mark, the wizard behind www.seat61.com

Sooner rather than later for any long-haul rides. Earlier is cheaper on fast tains for long distances. For short-haul rides, it's all the same.

ditto sc

Yes booking early enough to get the limited in number discounted tickets can save a ton over buying tickets once there and you can do yourself on www.trenitalia.com or its competitor http://www.italotreno.it/en -regional trains wait until you are at the station to catch the train - flat fare and reasons not to book in advance.

Pretty much same for other countries - if traveling a lot on trains check out some kind of railpass. For lots of great info on trains and passes check yes www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Ohn- what are you planned train trips -then folks can comment better on when to buy.

Book thru national railways sites not say RailEurope in U.S. as they do not often carry discounted tickets but generally sell full-fare tickets. https://www.thetrainline.com/ is one British-based re-seller of tickets that usually matches discounted tickets (folks here say).

You can always or near always get tickets once there but if doing that look at railpasses.

You can get bargain prices on long-distance train tickets in Italy if you buy well in advance (up to 120 days). The best prices sell out early on popular routes. These cheap tickets can't be modified or returned for a refund; if you're not sure of your time of travel, it would be better to pay full price.

On the short-distance regional trains, there are no discounts, and it's best to buy these tickets at a train station (any station) when you arrive in Italy. These tickets are good for any train on the day of travel you specify, and they need to be stamped in a little time-stamp machine by the trackside just before boarding the train so that they can't be reused later the same day.

Check http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en for tickets on all routes. The regional train schedules and prices may not be shown very far in advance; just choose an earlier date (the same day of the week) if you see no trains, or only a few on the date you choose. The fast long-distance train schedules are published at least 120 days in advance.

Another train company also serves the main long-distance routes, with a reduced schedule, and often has better prices than Trenitalia. Check their prices on http://www.italotreno.it/en . I wouldn't buy tickets from Italo unless you can make the entire day's journey with them, because if you miss a Trenitalia train because an Italo train arrived late, or vice versa, you won't get issued a free new ticket for a later train.

trainline.eu sells Italian tickets, trainline.com is the UK-only site. Trainline.eu does not charge any fees and will display all trains plying a route across Trenitalia and Italo.

thanks for that correction about trainline.eu!

Marina -what again are your total trains? If a lot and if first class especially investigate the Italy Railpass that lets you chose which trains to take once there - but you'd have to be doing several longer trains to make it viable.