I am going to be traveling in Italy next May for my honeymoon and I’m trying to set up my itinerary. I didn’t have any problems finding train routes from Rome to Florence but after we leave Florence, we plan to go to Cinque Terre. However, no routes show up when searching trains from Florence to La Spezia on Eurail. Additionally, after we leave La Spezia, we will head to Venice but I couldn’t find any routes for that either from La Spezia to Venice. What should I do about these two train trips?
Solved
Traveling in Italy with Eurail Pass
Best answer by Al_G
It is too early to see timetables for May 2023, they are not finalised or loaded this far in advance.
It is too early to see timetables for May 2023, they are not finalised or loaded this far in advance.
You better had turn around,as this way it lets you make big detours. Go from R first to 5 earth (=cinque terre), then via Pisa=change, hourly local/regional to Fir, then on to Vnz.
IF these are the only trips to make and you do not mind tying yourself into prefixed advacne tickets (not for the Reg) then a pass is likely not of good value. May be different if you also plan to return to Roma.
People from over the oceans all seem to believe one has to fix all this monthes advance-complete nonsense, Practical Italians often let them only do it from 1 month before-2 is the norm for the fast trains. For rough planning-like what ca times, how long, how often, simply use a samedayofweek next week. Tix for regionals buy only on the day-valid not even all day, just next 3-4 hrs. Or if with pass-just write down details and load these.
At this stage, for train routings in Italy it is worth looking at a number of rail planners, but as above reservations will not be available until a couple of months before travel.
The best source of reservations for Italian trains is oebb.at (Austrian railways) and you will need to add interrail/eurail pass as a discount to get full benefit.
One suggestion - of all your destinations make sure you choose a good hotel in Venice with a view of the canals - not cheap but never forgotten. (Oh and don’t forget comfortable walking shoes and a compass for Venice)
Please keep asking the questions.
I wish you all the best on your journey
mcadv wrote:
You better had turn around,as this way it lets you make big detours. Go from R first to 5 earth (=cinque terre), then via Pisa=change, hourly local/regional to Fir, then on to Vnz.
IF these are the only trips to make and you do not mind tying yourself into prefixed advacne tickets (not for the Reg) then a pass is likely not of good value. May be different if you also plan to return to Roma.
People from over the oceans all seem to believe one has to fix all this monthes advance-complete nonsense, Practical Italians often let them only do it from 1 month before-2 is the norm for the fast trains. For rough planning-like what ca times, how long, how often, simply use a samedayofweek next week. Tix for regionals buy only on the day-valid not even all day, just next 3-4 hrs. Or if with pass-just write down details and load these.
Al_G wrote:
It is too early to see timetables for May 2023, they are not finalised or loaded this far in advance.
Thank you for this information!
mcadv wrote:
You better had turn around,as this way it lets you make big detours. Go from R first to 5 earth (=cinque terre), then via Pisa=change, hourly local/regional to Fir, then on to Vnz.
IF these are the only trips to make and you do not mind tying yourself into prefixed advacne tickets (not for the Reg) then a pass is likely not of good value. May be different if you also plan to return to Roma.
People from over the oceans all seem to believe one has to fix all this monthes advance-complete nonsense, Practical Italians often let them only do it from 1 month before-2 is the norm for the fast trains. For rough planning-like what ca times, how long, how often, simply use a samedayofweek next week. Tix for regionals buy only on the day-valid not even all day, just next 3-4 hrs. Or if with pass-just write down details and load these.
Thank you so much for your response back! My fiancée and I have already purchased Eurail passes and I was getting a bit discouraged last night when I was trying to see routes to take to different places by train in Italy and wasn’t having any luck and I was thinking, why did we purchase passes. We are definitely okay with taking the regional trains since those are covered with our passes. Just to clarify, you were saying it may be better first to go from Rome to Cinque Terre and then from Cinque Terre to Florence and from Florence to Venice? If we are wanting to take trains later in the evening or in the middle of the night, do those normally require reservations or can we do regional trains for those times too?
Yorkie wrote:
At this stage, for train routings in Italy it is worth looking at a number of rail planners, but as above reservations will not be available until a couple of months before travel.
The best source of reservations for Italian trains is oebb.at (Austrian railways) and you will need to add interrail/eurail pass as a discount to get full benefit.
One suggestion - of all your destinations make sure you choose a good hotel in Venice with a view of the canals - not cheap but never forgotten. (Oh and don’t forget comfortable walking shoes and a compass for Venice)
Please keep asking the questions.
I wish you all the best on your journey
Thank you for your response! It is sounding like it will be best for me to wait until a few months before to look at regional train schedules as we both have passes and would like to take regional trains as much as possible since those are included with our pass. Do you think it would be okay to still look to book our different hotels/hostels for our trip even though we don’t know the exact train schedules at the moment for May? We have a pretty clear idea of what places in Europe we will be going to and for how many days we will be staying at each place.
Firstly your pass covers you for all trains, just that for the faster trains you pay for a reservation. In Italy these fees are 3 euro for IC (Intercity) trains and 10 euro for the Freccia trains (High Speed).
The choice is yours depending on the budget, but for the longer journeys will be better on the High Speed or Intercity trains. Although you can prebook these via oebb.at, you can also get them in Italy at train stations. If you do use oebb you need to select the discount option for Interrail/Eurail to get the seat only fare.
For all your trips there are plenty of trains so pre-booking hotels etc is no problem - but I suggest you book with no cancellation fees up to arrival date, costs a bit more but if plans change…..
Yorkie wrote:
Firstly your pass covers you for all trains, just that for the faster trains you pay for a reservation. In Italy these fees are 3 euro for IC (Intercity) trains and 10 euro for the Freccia trains (High Speed).
The choice is yours depending on the budget, but for the longer journeys will be better on the High Speed or Intercity trains. Although you can prebook these via oebb.at, you can also get them in Italy at train stations. If you do use oebb you need to select the discount option for Interrail/Eurail to get the seat only fare.
For all your trips there are plenty of trains so pre-booking hotels etc is no problem - but I suggest you book with no cancellation fees up to arrival date, costs a bit more but if plans change…..
Okay thank you for the tip and for these reservations, do you typically have to wait until closer to the time of travel like 2-3 months? Thank you for the advice on booking hotels as well.
Bdorn92 wrote:
Yorkie wrote:
Firstly your pass covers you for all trains, just that for the faster trains you pay for a reservation. In Italy these fees are 3 euro for IC (Intercity) trains and 10 euro for the Freccia trains (High Speed).
The choice is yours depending on the budget, but for the longer journeys will be better on the High Speed or Intercity trains. Although you can prebook these via oebb.at, you can also get them in Italy at train stations. If you do use oebb you need to select the discount option for Interrail/Eurail to get the seat only fare.
For all your trips there are plenty of trains so pre-booking hotels etc is no problem - but I suggest you book with no cancellation fees up to arrival date, costs a bit more but if plans change…..
Okay thank you for the tip and for these reservations, do you typically have to wait until closer to the time of travel like 2-3 months? Thank you for the advice on booking hotels as well.
It is highly unlikely you will find reservations available until one or two months before travel. Except at real peak times there should be no problems with reservations on the main lines, there are plenty of trains.
Yorkie wrote:
Bdorn92 wrote:
Yorkie wrote:
Firstly your pass covers you for all trains, just that for the faster trains you pay for a reservation. In Italy these fees are 3 euro for IC (Intercity) trains and 10 euro for the Freccia trains (High Speed).
The choice is yours depending on the budget, but for the longer journeys will be better on the High Speed or Intercity trains. Although you can prebook these via oebb.at, you can also get them in Italy at train stations. If you do use oebb you need to select the discount option for Interrail/Eurail to get the seat only fare.
For all your trips there are plenty of trains so pre-booking hotels etc is no problem - but I suggest you book with no cancellation fees up to arrival date, costs a bit more but if plans change…..
Okay thank you for the tip and for these reservations, do you typically have to wait until closer to the time of travel like 2-3 months? Thank you for the advice on booking hotels as well.
It is highly unlikely you will find reservations available until one or two months before travel. Except at real peak times there should be no problems with reservations on the main lines, there are plenty of trains.
Thank you for this information! Outside of Italy, we will be traveling in Austria, Poland, Germany, and France. Do we probably need to wait until one or two months before our trip to make reservations for those countries or to even be able to see train schedules?
+15Bdorn92 wrote:
Thank you for this information! Outside of Italy, we will be traveling in Austria, Poland, Germany, and France. Do we probably need to wait until one or two months before our trip to make reservations for those countries or to even be able to see train schedules?
Timetables can be checked usually earlier :) Booking Reservation depends from up to 6months in Germany to just 30days within Poland.
Reply
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.