train travel through Europe - confused
 

I would like to travel from Paris to Venice (2 nights in Venice) then train it through to Munich. I have been reading up about the Eurail pass and to me it starting to sound more inconvenient and expensive than perhaps using regular trains. Not intersted in flying as I want to experience some lovely scenery along the way.

Does anyone have any suggestions on which way to go?

Janine,

I have to agree, the Eurrail pass is more expensive unless you plan to travel everyday of your trip. I think it is better to buy point to point tickets or even fly. I checked the French National train site, SNCF (English), and it brought me to RailEurope.com site. You can also check the German train site at bahn.com. Anyway, not knowing what time of year you are traveling, I punched in the fares for a random date in June.

From Paris to Venice in Economy was $141 and Venice to Munich was $133. You could book those tickets right now online. I did a quick look for Paris to Venice flights on Expedia and it was $188 for 7 June and $233 from Venice to Munich. I know you have to take a bus from the Munich airport to central Munich, about 35 or so Minutes, and the last time I did it it costs maybe 10 Euros.

Personally, I'd spend the extra $150 to fly both legs. Two 9 hour train trips vs. two 90 minute flights is definitely worth the expense for the extra sights you'll be able to see, not to mention the comfort.

If you are considering flying, look now and book early.

Hi janine1,

I urge you not to book through Raileurope, as the point-point prices can be very inflated.

If you would be interested in taking the train from Venice to Munich, the discounted, advance-purchase fare is only 39E.

The train trip is only around seven hours, too, which is competitive with flying (consider getting from Venice to the airport, then waiting 60 or 90 minutes, then flying for 90 minutes, then waiting for your bags, then the 45-minute train from the airport into town). There is one direct train (no changes) that leaves Venice at 13.30, so it would be a lot easier than flying, too. There is a night train for this route, too.

If I were you, I would go to the German rail site at

www.bahn.de

and see if there are any discounted fares left.

Have fun!

s

agedude - you were directed to raileurope because you selected the USA as where you reside. Try again but this time select your residence as any country you like except the USA, the UK works well.

www.voyages-scnf.com (in French and only available if you select that you reside in a French speaking country).

www.tgv-euroe.com (basically the same as above but available in English if you indicate you reside in an English speaking country except the USA)

voyages-sncf does not require you to select any country where you reside, that isn't the way it works. I use it all the time and it never asks me that. It merely asks you where you intend to pick up your tickets.

A lot of us use voyages-sncf.com Christina, but the only way to end up on raileurope after starting on some other SNCF website is to select USA as a residence.

These websites have been in a constant state of modification over the last two years beginning with the removal of English from voyages-sncf. If one does select English, which is an option offered on the voyages-sncf.com splash page, he will be redirected to tgv-europe.com where, if he chooses that he resides in the USA, he will be forwarded to Raileurope.

Hi J,

For Paris to Venice you go to www.sncf.com.
For Venice to Munich go to www.trenitalia.com.

If you need help with French and Italian go to http://imtranslator.com.

If you still need help, come back and ask.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

Here's another point against the railpass -- according to an email I got fron sncf.fr, it's not possible to reserve trains online with a railpass. So I'd opt for individual tickets if I were you, or fly, as one of the posters has suggested. I know 9 hours sounds like a romantic train journey, but in my experience, the reality is much more prosaic. (but then I travel 2nd class:)

A railpass is for an extended trip, not just for a couple of A to B journeys. So forget it.

What you want here is cheap advance-purchase train tickets, available direct from the European train operator(s). Thre's absolutely no need to fly anywhere in Europe, you'd miss so much.

If you want the direct Paris-Venice sleeper train (a secnic ride along the River Yonne in a summer evening), book in English at www.tgv-europe.com.

If you enter 'United States' as your country it'll open the search reslts on Rail Europe with more expensive fares, so don't do this, simply select 'Canada' as your country (or be a rebel, select 'Afghanistan', in fact it makes zero difference as long as it's not United States) and book online, collecting tickets at the station in Paris.

Fares start at 40-50 euros one-way with couchette in 4-berth or 6-berth if you pre-book, or about 130 euros in a 2-bed sleeper.

To travel by day via the scenic Swiss Alps, book Paris-Zurich at www.tgv-europe.com, a variety of high speed TGV trains daily taking just 4h45, fares from around 45 euros if you pre-book.

Then stay overnight and take a Zurich-Milan EuroCity train, there's one at 07:09, 09:09, and so on, through the scenic Gottahrd route. Book this at www.sbb.ch, fares from just CHF34 (about $25) if you pre-book.

Finally, allow an hour in Milan then book a Milan-Venice train at www.trenitalia.com, looking for a cheap 'Mini' fare.

Venice-Munich by direct sleeper can be booked at www.bahn.de from 49 euros with couchette or 79 euros with bed in 2-bed sleeper.

Or there's one daily direct daytime train, through the scenic Brenner Pass route through the Alps, book at www.bahn.de. Other daytime options involve a change at Verona, and you'd book them by first booking Verona-Munich at www.bahn.de (as it's a German train) then booking Venice-Verona at www.trenitalia.com (as this is an Italian train).

>>>>Other daytime options involve a change at Verona, and you'd book them by first booking Verona-Munich at www.bahn.de (as it's a German train<<<<

If you purchase an international ticket from Bahn.de departing from Italy, do you print it yourself? Trenitalia requires (or has in the past) picking up any international tickets purchased from them online in Italy (or printing the ticket yourself at a self-service kiosk in an Italian train station).

www.bahn.de (German Railways) does self-print tickets for its own trains. So it'll book the Munich-Venic/Rome/Florence City Night Line sleeper train in either direction with self-print tickets, the same for its Munich-Verona EuroCity trains (with occasional trains going through once a day to Venice and Milan) which it runs on an 'open-access' basis in its own right, under new EU 'open competition' rules, as opposed to in partnership wth Trenitalia.

Trenitlia doesn't do self-print tickets for any international train, even its own ones, only ticket collection a Italian stations, so only use it for journeys starting in Italy.

Incidentally, as the Verona-Munich trains are run by DB (in fact, in partnership with the Austrian OBB) without any Trenitalia involvement (there's politics here I won't bore you with) you won't find these trains shown anywhere on trenitalia.com, even if your journey starts in Italy. You can't even uy tickets at Verona station as this is run by Trenitalia who regard these trains as the 'enemy', even though they pulled out of running them a year or two ago because they weren't interested.

Oops, I said I wouldn't bore you wih the politics...

thanks everyone for all you useful information - love this site