I’ve just bought 4 passes for my family to travel to UK, Germany, Austria, Italy and France for xmas. How far in advance can we book tickets? they already seem to be available on the countries train websites but note on Eurail?
Answer
timing for bookings
Best answer by BrendanDB
Which trains do you want to book? What are your travel plans on which date?
Always mention specific details, otherwise it’s impossible to help.
The only train I’lld reserve now is the Eurostar London-Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam.
The reservation service of Eurail/Interrail is not that good. It has been buggy lately. Best use other sources like the local railway companies or www.raileurope.com (Click add raill pass in the search window to get the seat reservation fares).That way you avoid a booking fee per ticket as well.
The rest can wait until a month or 2 before travel, even a few weeks before will be okay. Some trains might not even require reservations, depending on the type of train.
If you plan to travel in France around Christmas (the 5 days before and after), the bookings usually open in Octobre, might be wise to book them as well, as those trains can sell out since a lot of people are travelling for family visits.
Please note that there’s a general timetable change in Europe around the second sunday of December. Not every railway company is as quick to upload schedules after this date.
In general, train services should be more or less the same as the trains that’ll run tomorrow if you want to get an indication of travel time and train frequencies. If you want to make your rough planning, just look for a random date next week. Double check timings a few weeks or days before travelling of course.
Just don’t panic if details a specific train don’t show up now to reserve now, December is still far in the railway world. Especially Italy can be a bit late in uploading these new schedules. From october on,you should be able to make reservations for most connections.
In the mean time you can take a look at this gold mine of information, to get to know the ins and outs of train travel:
https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm
https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-a-eurail-pass.htm
https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
+8Which trains do you want to book? What are your travel plans on which date?
Always mention specific details, otherwise it’s impossible to help.
The only train I’lld reserve now is the Eurostar London-Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam.
The reservation service of Eurail/Interrail is not that good. It has been buggy lately. Best use other sources like the local railway companies or www.raileurope.com (Click add raill pass in the search window to get the seat reservation fares).That way you avoid a booking fee per ticket as well.
The rest can wait until a month or 2 before travel, even a few weeks before will be okay. Some trains might not even require reservations, depending on the type of train.
If you plan to travel in France around Christmas (the 5 days before and after), the bookings usually open in Octobre, might be wise to book them as well, as those trains can sell out since a lot of people are travelling for family visits.
Please note that there’s a general timetable change in Europe around the second sunday of December. Not every railway company is as quick to upload schedules after this date.
In general, train services should be more or less the same as the trains that’ll run tomorrow if you want to get an indication of travel time and train frequencies. If you want to make your rough planning, just look for a random date next week. Double check timings a few weeks or days before travelling of course.
Just don’t panic if details a specific train don’t show up now to reserve now, December is still far in the railway world. Especially Italy can be a bit late in uploading these new schedules. From october on,you should be able to make reservations for most connections.
In the mean time you can take a look at this gold mine of information, to get to know the ins and outs of train travel:
https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm
https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-a-eurail-pass.htm
https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
Thanks for the helpful information, my main concern is booking Eurostar from London to Cologne on December 15, knowing its a busy time of year we just don’t want to miss a seat
Just book London-Brussels for now. From Brussels to Cologne, you can use the ICE trains with optional reservations (from €3 if you want one).
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