Hi! I will be all over Europe with friends (maily France, Spain, Italy, and other parts of western Europe).
We were going to get a Eurail pass… but I had some questions about the “reservations”.
Do you have to reserve every train you go on? Or can you just get on a train? Cause I always thought you could just go to the train with your Eurail pass and get on. Recently, however, I have seen stuff about how there are reservations and how they cost at least $11 a day… and how you need to reserve in advance!?
Meh. So yeah – anyone know about this?
For most trains you can just hop on with you’re eurorail pass. Just pick a seat that’s not reserved and sit yourself down (there are little card holders outside the compartment that will let you know). There are some trains you do need reservations. The train book you get with your eurorail pass will be your bible. It will give you times, whether you need reservations, the type of train it is, where it stops and all that. You can make reservations 10 minutes before you jump on the train, although I’d advice more time with that because trains station lines are hell.
So, should you make reservations a day before hand in each city? Or before you leave for Europe. Also, do you know any info on sleeper cars / those other ones that are like sleepers – but smaller?
Most the time I just showed up at the train station an hour (or a few minutes) before the train left and just made the reservations then if they were needed. Sleeper cars I usually made the reservation when I arrived in the city. I figured I was already at the train station. You can probably still make those right before you hop on the train, because I’ve done that too. My advice is not to plan too far ahead and to fly by the seat of your pants, if something doesn’t work out somehow something even better seems to come along
i’ve been wondering the same thing, and from waht i could tell from the research ive done is that for most trains you can jsut hop on, but some are reserved trains(generally high volume trains) and also overnight trains you need to reserve and pay the fee… but i think for regular day trips for the most part you can jsut hop on and go
depends on a distance, look at comments below.
in reality I was going all over Europe last summer with Eurailpass Flexi and I had to reserve seats 90% of the time, and always with extra fee.
i was planning on getting the eurailpass flexi for this summer… and some of the trains will be overnighters (i.e. paris to madrid).. do you think that would need a reservation? how did you reserve your seats exactly (and how far in advance)?
overnighters do need a reservation, for sure.
i just checked my last years schedule book, and all the Paris Madrid trains marked “R” in it, which means “reservation compulsory”, they also require change in Irun, except the EN train (EuroNight), which leaves at 19.43 and arrives at 8.58, but it must be also the most expensive one.
Usually you can make reservation a day or so before, you can make it right before train leaves but I would not recommend it, cause it may have no place available.
So…. what’s the point of getting a Eurail pass if you just have to pay tons for reservations anyway?
you still save a lot, most of the “day trains” will cost only 3 to 5 euros for reservation, tickets would be more like 50 to 100 euros, on night trains you save much less but still save something too.
if you want to get away with paying even less then that, don’t use the 1st class, (even if your Eurail pass is the first class), the second class reservation fees are much lower, especially on high speed trains.
In a lot of places (Spain), “reservations”, extra cost or not, is simply a seat assignation (sometimes a specific number, sometimes just “2nd class seat take yo’ pick!” added onto the eurail ticket. Local trains, hop n go. If your conductor objects, s/he’ll tell you, but it’s no big deal.
The EuroCity and TGV and Thalys and whatever giant point-to-point trains tend to want you to book “ahead”. You can do that just by turning up at the station and standing in line there (like buying an Amtrak or Greyhound ticket) before the train leaves. You can reserve a seat on a certain train out of town when you arrive…or you can go online and lock yourself into a schedule now.
Overnight trains tend to have seats within the compartments that slide out into bunks…you reserve that bunk. Or take a normal seat and sleep upright.
Remember to put a newspaper or bag under your feet if you’re gonna put them up on an opposite seat. I got yelled at once in Austria. :)
actually, you have to reserve seats on ALL long distance trains, especially the ones going cross the borders, ALL high speed trains and night trains with no exceptions- Thallys in France, X 2000 in Sweden and such, you do not have to reserve seats on local trains or long distance trains travelling short distances, such as Bremen to Hamburg in Germany.
here is brief description of the trains i took:
Helsinki- Karjaa (Finland, reservation compulsory); Karjaa- Rostok,Germany (Ferry, reservation compulsory); Rostok- Berlin (no reservation); Berlin- Munich, night train NZ (reservation compulsory); Munich- Verona (reservation compulsory) Verona- Venice (no reservation); Venice- Milano(reservation compulsory); Milano- Paris, highspeed train, Thallys (reservation compulsory); Paris- Brusselles, high speed train, Thallys, (reservation compulsory), Bruxelles- Koeln, high speed train, Thallys, (reservation compulsory); Koeln- Bremen (no reservation); Bremen- Hamburg (no reservation); Hamburg- Aarhus (no reservation); Aarhus- Hamburg via Fredericia and Flensburg (reservation compulsory); Hamburg- Berlin (no reservation); Berlin- Malmo, night train (reservation compulsory), Malmo- Stockholm, high speed train X 2000, (reservation compulsory); Stockholm- Turku (ferry, reservation compulsory); Turku- Helsinki (no reservation).
About how much is the reservation – and did you just do it right at the station?
you can do it right at the station, i used to reserve them a day before or so, although i think you can do it right before the train too.
costs vary from 3 to 5 euros for the regular train, 20 to 30 euros for high speed trains and as much as 60 euros for the sleeper coach in NZ nighttrain, but it was 2 person cabin with a shower, i suppose you can go cheaper.
the reservation for the ferries differs depending on a season and type of a cabin, for the first one it was around 25 euros and for the second around 20 for the single cabin- but Stockholm Turku is always cheaper then Stockholm Helsinki direct.
Total was around 200 euros or so, i believe.