Where can I make my reservation for my Eurail Global Pass?
 

Hi, guys. I had bought a Eurail Global Pass and going to France, Spain, Italy, Zurich,Switzerland and Netherlands for a little vocation in July 2011. It is my first travel to Europe and I can just speak a general English. Thus, I think seat reservation is nice for me. However, I got some trouble in reservation.
#1, Which website can I pre-book my reservation for my travel? My journal is as following: Paris - Lyon, Lyon - Nice, Nice - Avignon, Avignon - Barcelona, Barcelona - Milano, Milano - Venezia, Venezia - Firenza and so on..
#2, Is online-reservation necessary for my travel? May I make reservation in the local train station when I arrive Paris or somewhere in Europe? I just wonder whether it is OK that I reserve my seat before getting on the train in station. In July is a time for travel in Europe, is it possible I cannot get on the train due to I have not mad a pre-reservation seat?
#3, Please list some specific website of reservation seat. I cannot figure out the real seat reservation website.

Thanks a lot and best regard

nobody notices it?

Sometimes there aren't as many people on FOdors on Sundays, Mike, so you might wait a bit.

I am afraid I can't help you as I am not sure on how you can reserve seats on the internet when you have a railpass. I think I remember someone mentioning how you can do it for one country, but I forget which one.

However, you do not have to reserve online in advance, you can do it at the train station when you get to a country. Because you are first entering France, you could go to a train station shortly after you get there aned make all your seats reservations at one time for the French trains you plan to take. Of course, then you must know your exact itinerary and what trains you plan to take. Reservations are usually only required on the high-speed TGV (and IdTGV) trains, but I think they can be required on some other longer journeys that are very popular. But they aren't necessary at all for short train trips, and in fact, you usually cannot reserve seats on short, local train trips.

But you can reserve seats on the trips for the major cities you mentioned, and you should. You probably can reserve for the train to Barcelona in France, also (especially if it is a French train). Each seat reservation costs around 5 euro, I think.

There are some trains that do get completely booked up, but that isn't common. It mainly happens during some holiday or a very peak time period for people to return home from a holiday (say on a Sunday late afternoon).

IN general, I would say that you can always reserve a seat at a train station in the country of the train. The only problem is worrying whether there will be seats left on a train you want, which is why you can do it ahead of time as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot,Christina.

It is really helpful for me. Cheers again`xD

My daughter had the same question this weekend. She has a Eurail Global Pass, and has a couple of train connections she needs to ensure she can book a reservation on. The problem is some TGV lines (in her case, traveling from Zurich to Paris) save just a limited number of seats for Eurail Passholders, and these trains do sell out in advance (several of the trains were already sold out for her dates).

So, after spending a great deal of time on www.sncf.fr, www.bahn.com, and a variety of other rail sites, the only place she found where she could make an online reservation for her Eurail Global Pass was RailEurope.com. This is unfortunate, as RailEurope adds multiple fees to a simple seat reservation, including $18 to ship the reservation ticket to your home address!!! No option to print your reservation on your computer -- only other option was to retrieve your ticket from a self-serve kiosk once in Europe (which might be a problem due to incompatibility with some US credit cards).

So for train connections you MUST make, best to look into a seat reservation ahead of time.

Hope this helps.

<i>Mike0412 on Jun 25, 11 at 8:49pm
#1, Which website can I pre-book my reservation for my travel? My journal is as following: Paris - Lyon, Lyon - Nice, Nice - Avignon, Avignon - Barcelona, Barcelona - Milano, Milano - Venezia, Venezia - Firenza and so on..
#2, Is online-reservation necessary for my travel? May I make reservation in the local train station when I arrive Paris or somewhere in Europe? I just wonder whether it is OK that I reserve my seat before getting on the train in station. In July is a time for travel in Europe, is it possible I cannot get on the train due to I have not mad a pre-reservation seat?
#3, Please list some specific website of reservation seat. I cannot figure out the real seat reservation website.</i>

#1. Looks like you are backtracking and wasting time. Do Paris>Barcelona then go east.

#2. Only reserve seats if it is required, e.g. TGV, Thalys, Eurostar Italia, and other premium trains. Do it when you get to Paris. Seat reservations are generally a waste of money, and a huge waste if you buy them through RailEurope. The rails are not so busy in early July as after Bastille Day.

#3 No idea. Each country has its own rail web site. You can learn a bit about trains in general from
http://tinyurl.com/eym5b.