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Paris Airport to Basel?

M

Hello!

I am new to this forum and new to the European Rail System. I will be traveling with my husband and son to Europe in June for a month. I will have plenty of questions to come, but my first is this.  We have purchased Global Passes 1st class.  We arrive in Paris at 6:10am and need to go straight to Basel the same day.  When I look on the Rail Planner app, I cannot seem to find a train departing from Charles de Gaulle 2 - TGV, which as far as I can tell is where we need to leave from. Can anyone advise me if there is a train that will take us from the airport to Basel?

Thanks so much for any help!
Meghan

Best answer by thibcabe

There are no direct trains. The easiest option would be to take a TGV to Strasbourg and then a TER regional train (still going up to 200 km/h !) to Basel.

The schedule that best fits your itinerary :

  • TGV Aéroport Charles de Gaulle TGV 08:59 - Strasbourg 11:05 mandatory reservation
  • TER Strasbourg 11:21 - Basel SBB 12:40 reservation-free (or a later train, there are 2 per hour)

The TGV reservation (10€ per person) is best done here :

https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish

Let us know for any question. :)

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Meghan
razib866
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T
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  • thibcabe
  • Full steam ahead
  • March 24, 2023

There are no direct trains. The easiest option would be to take a TGV to Strasbourg and then a TER regional train (still going up to 200 km/h !) to Basel.

The schedule that best fits your itinerary :

  • TGV Aéroport Charles de Gaulle TGV 08:59 - Strasbourg 11:05 mandatory reservation
  • TER Strasbourg 11:21 - Basel SBB 12:40 reservation-free (or a later train, there are 2 per hour)

The TGV reservation (10€ per person) is best done here :

https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish

Let us know for any question. :)

razib866
ralderton
M
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  • M
    megholloway
M

Thankyou so so so so much for your fast reply! AMAZING! I looked at this site and think that I can do this! I am so confused as to why on the Rail Planner App, Charles de Gaulle TGV station does not even come up as an option to travel from? I thought that I had to book all of my reservations through this app? But I can use this site that you recommend to make my reservations? Also do you think we would have enough time to make the 08:59 train? We will be arriving from International and will have to collect luggage etc.

Meghan
razib866
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  • thibcabe
  • Full steam ahead
  • March 24, 2023

You can make reservations on the Eurail website (not app) but there is a 2€ booking fee per person per train while on the link I provided (Belgian Railways) the booking fee is 4€ for the whole order (no matter how many people or trains).

You’ll for sure be able to take the 08:59 train, don’t worry. Maybe eat breakfast too !

The Rail Planner app is only updated once a month so it is not the most-reliable option available. Usually it is the website of the train companies but bahn.de (German Railways) or sbb.ch (Swiss Railways) cover all Europe.

Btw on the Eurail website, I need to enter PARIS AEROPORT CDG2 TGV ROISSY (France)  to find trains, CHARLES DE GAULLE ETOILE (FRANCE) doesn’t work. That might be the reason why it doesn’t work (not sure)

 

Edit : just a note. The pass and the reservation are completely separate. Reservations won’t appear in the app and you need to show both the pass and the reservation when the ticket inspector comes.

M
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    megholloway
M

Oh my goodness thankyou thankoyou thankyou! All of your information has been so very helpful! I cannot thankyou enough!  I am much clearer now on how it works! Many thanks from Down Under 😀

Meghan
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    thibcabe
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  • thibcabe
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  • March 24, 2023

You’re welcome !

Let us know for any other questions and enjoy your trip !

A
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  • AnnaB
  • Railly clever
  • March 25, 2023

The recommendation from the experienced travellers in the community is to only make reservations through the Eurail website if no other options are available. Please read more about that below. 

 

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process you choose the start day of the validity of the pass. Once the validity has started it can't be changed even if you haven't travelled. The advice is therefore to wait with activating the pass and starting the validity until the first day of your travel as you only can deactivate the pass no later than 23.59 CET on the day before the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you can't deactivate the pass and change the validity. 

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass and create the ticket (QR code), until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.

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