We want to travel from Florence to Landstuhl by train but have tried both Die Bahn and Trenitalia w/ no luck. They either say route is not available or they don't give you a ticket price. Any suggestions? My fiance is living in Landstuhl and spoke to a ticket agent in Kaiserslatern who suggested we purchase a Select Saverpass for 5 days and 5 countries as we will go from Landstuhl to Paris, Paris to Rome (overnight), Rome to Florence and Florence to Landstuhl. I think we are better of w/ point to point tickets. But without being able to find the price from Florence to Landstuhl it is hard to decide. HELP!

They don't show you the price because you have to use 3 different countries trains...Germany, Switzerland and Italia. So you have to look for each train individually on their respective websites. In the www.bahn.de look at the intermediate stops. It tells you when you change of country.

still wondering if the select pass is better than the point to point tickets

I think so. I don't think you will save anything with the point to point option..and as you don't have many direct trains, the point to point looks complicated...you will finish having 10 or more tickets for the whole trip. The pass makes it easier.

Hi Al,

Before you buy a railpass, enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

You can also get a good estimate of the cost of each leg of your journey.

Landstuhl to Paris (5hrs)
Paris to Rome (14hrs)
Florence (2hr)
back to Landstuhl in 5 days? (12+ hrs)

1st question to ask is why are you doing so much moving around? Why not just go to France or Italy for 5 days?

PS

Are you aware that it takes about 11:30 hr and at least 3 changes of trains to make this trip.

Didn't I earlier suggest to you how you could do it by air?

Thanks Ira
I had to use Frankfurt as a starting point because railsaver did not recognize Landstuhl but that shouldn't make any difference as it is still Germany. It is recommending a 4 country 5 day pass. Yes you did suggest air but we can't find a flight from Florence to Landstuhl or there abouts

Hi - just a thought on the air and maybe you did this already. Did you check www.whichbudget.com ?

It looks like there are some airlines that fly between Frankfurt and Rome or Milan. I don't see Landstuhl listed.

I too think you've got too many long train rides. ricksteves.com has some useful information on rail passes, you might want to give that a look. One tool will help you compare point-to-point and passes - similar to the railsaver site.

This is over a 2 week time period and really only the paris to rome and florence to landstuhl legs are long. We are staying anywhere from 3-5 nights per city.

Hi Ali,

Note that railsaver doesn't know about discount tickets.

Also, you will have to pay extra for sleepers and for seat reservations.

Check flights from Pisa PSA to Germany.

It is about 1 hr by train from Florence SMN to PSA.

You could fly into Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Cologne.

Ryanair has PSA/HHN for 22E.

Consider traveling from Florence to Forli Airport near Bologne, about 60-65 miles. up . From there take a Ryanair flight to Hahn Airport in Germany. This route can be dirt cheap depending on when you go. Sometimes it is just the fees and taxes! The Ryanair schedule says Hahn is a Frankfurt airport, but it is actually closer to Landstuhl - about 50-55 miles or so. From Hahn take the bus to Ramstein which is "next door" to Landstuhl.

this is nearly an insane (sorry - really not exaggerating) rail itinerary. Flying makes just sooooooo much more sense. Not only would it be many hours faster - it would cost less.

Thanks for the help--we will be looking into flying home to Landstuhl from Italy--didn't realize we would have to change trains 3 times. We do however want the train experience janisj especially the overnight from Paris to Rome--to each their own. Thanks to all for your help to my many questions--you will help to make our first trip to Europe more enjoyable.

Ira
Do we have to make reservations for each leg of the journey with the railpass or is each train different? I realized that we had to make res. for the sleeper but thought that the railpass gave you a seat on the train.

>and as you don't have many direct trains, the point to point looks complicated...you will finish having 10 or more tickets for the whole trip.

What has the number of changes to do with 10 tickets? You will still have exactly one ticket, from Landstuhl to Florence.
In any case, you almost double the distance by making a detour to Paris, unless you want to go to Paris. The simplest way is to go to Basel via Mannheim and get the overnight train from Basel to Florence.

AliRN

The railpass gets you a seat...sort of.

For some trains, generally designated 'R' (Regional) or 'IR' (inter-regional) on train schedules, reservations aren't taken and usually not required. If you happen to pick a busy day, you could find yourself standing in the aisle. From the sound of your trip, you probably won't be using any of these trains, since they are 'milk-run' trains not designed for distance travel.

For 'long-haul' i.e. non-regional express trains, reservations are taken and sometimes required. You MIGHT need a separate reservation for every train/leg in the journey - see below.

If reservations are required (usually on high-speed express trains like the TGV in France or the Eurostar Italia in Italy) then the cost of the reservation will be included in the (point-to-point) ticket. Railpasses don't cover the full cost of high-speed train journeys as a rule, so you would need to arrange for a supplement to be paid that would automatically include the cost of the reservation.

Although railpasses do cover the IC, or inter-city express trains, which usually allow reservations but don't require them, again you might get a seat without a reservation or you might find yourself standing in the aisle on a busy day.

Hi A,

>....thought that the railpass gave you a seat on the train.<

NO.

A railpass gets you onto any train that doesn't require a reservation, but _doesn't_ guarantee you a seat.

Seat reservations must be purchased before you get on the train - about 3E.

The high-speed trains (TGV, THALYS, ES*, IC+, etc) _require_ reservations. These will run about 10E.


PS, I forgot to mention to look up airfares at www.whichbudget.com.

There are no through tickets in trains like in flights. If you have to change three times of trains (and countries, so different companies also)..you have to have one ticket for each leg...(the 10 number was just an exaggeration as an example because the op will be doing more train travel than the Firenze-Landstuhl)

>There are no through tickets in trains like in flights. If you have to change three times of trains (and countries, so different companies also)..you have to have one ticket for each leg...

Oh really?

Funny I never noticed. I only spend every second weekend on cross border train trips with multiple changes, but I must have missed that.