How can I make seat reservations from France to Spain? I called the number they list and they say you have to do it at the train station, but online the route says reservations required and you must book more than 24 hours in advance. How can this be booked to ensure I get seats and does anyone have advice for trying to get trains in July?
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Booking Tickets in Spain
Best answer by thibcabe
High-speed trains in Italy, France and Spain (+ some cross-border routes) require seat reservations. Some are very popular so you need to book them in advance, esp. in France.
On all other trains you can basically hop on hop off as you want. No need to go to ticket counters every time, you add the train to the app in order to get a ticket and that's it.
The fastest way involves an IC and a TGV :
- TER Cannes - Marseille-St-Charles 09:01 - 11:07 reservation-free (reservation not possible)
- IC Marseille-St-Charles - Nîmes Centre 11:24 - 12:35 limited 10€, then 20€ until the train is full
- TGV Nîmes Centre - Barcelona Sants 12:51 - 16:34 27€ through eurail.com
As 14th July is French National Day a lot of people will be travelling so do not wait to book the TGV.
Let me know for questions.
The route via Portbou wouldn't include the 27€ TGV but would take 2h longer
Edit : trains aren't fully booked a month in advance, don't worry. There currently is a problem at Nîmes Pont du Gard train station, Eurail reservations can't be booked from there. Hopefully it is soon corrected... alternative : calling SNCF. Let me know if that is the problem you're seeing
Which train ?
- The TGV high-speed train into Barcelona ? Either through eurail.com (2€ booking fee per person) or by calling SNCF. This train is very popular (and expensive, 27-37€ per person). Some July dates are already sold out. Alternative : TGV to Montpellier or Perpignan (10-20€) and then reservation-free regional trains via Portbou to Barcelona.
- another train ?
Please let us know the travel date too.
I was looking to take either route. I just want to make sure I get a train on a specific date. I am getting very confused on the booking site because it lists a bunch of train times but many are booked and it does not distinguish this until you click on each time. I was hoping to travel from Cannes to Barcelona on July 14th with two passengers. We already booked our accommodations and since many train times were listed I did not anticipate an issue getting a train. My understanding was that you could show up to the station day of and reserve tickets by showing the pass, if this is not possible I need to figure out an alternative.
High-speed trains in Italy, France and Spain (+ some cross-border routes) require seat reservations. Some are very popular so you need to book them in advance, esp. in France.
On all other trains you can basically hop on hop off as you want. No need to go to ticket counters every time, you add the train to the app in order to get a ticket and that's it.
The fastest way involves an IC and a TGV :
- TER Cannes - Marseille-St-Charles 09:01 - 11:07 reservation-free (reservation not possible)
- IC Marseille-St-Charles - Nîmes Centre 11:24 - 12:35 limited 10€, then 20€ until the train is full
- TGV Nîmes Centre - Barcelona Sants 12:51 - 16:34 27€ through eurail.com
As 14th July is French National Day a lot of people will be travelling so do not wait to book the TGV.
Let me know for questions.
The route via Portbou wouldn't include the 27€ TGV but would take 2h longer
Edit : trains aren't fully booked a month in advance, don't worry. There currently is a problem at Nîmes Pont du Gard train station, Eurail reservations can't be booked from there. Hopefully it is soon corrected... alternative : calling SNCF. Let me know if that is the problem you're seeing
Hi thank you so much I greatly appreciate the response, and all the information is very useful! I was interested in the route via Portbou, so I believe the only one I would need to reserve in advance is the IC Marseille-St-Charles to Nimes Centre. I will try to call SNCF to make the reservation, yesterday my call wasn’t going through but hopefully today it does. Thanks again, this is my first time using the pass and it’s been a confusing process.
You can also make TGV and IC seat reservations for journeys within France here (clearer overview, 4€ booking fee per order) :
https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish
However the journey could be done fully reservation-free if you'd prefer :
- TER Cannes - Marseille-Saint-Charles 09:01 - 11:07
- TER Marseille-Saint-Charles - Nîmes 12:22 - 13:49
- TER Nîmes - Portbou 14:15 - 17:47
- R Portbou - Barcelona-Sants 19:05 - 21:40 (or 21:34 at Paseo de Gracia, in the city center)
OR earlier arrival with the Intercités :
- TER Cannes - Marseille-Saint-Charles 09:01 - 11:07
- IC Marseille-Saint-Charles - Narbonne 11:23 - 13:57 10€
- TER Narbonne - Portbou 14:06 - 15:47
- R Portbou - Barcelona Sants 16:05 - 18:40 (or a later train if you miss the connection)
Same route 2h earlier also possible (with a 45 min stop in Portbou) : arrival 17:10.
i'd choose one Intercités option as even if you miss one connection, there are always at least 2 later trains to make it to Barcelona
The 14th of July is a national holiday in France so I guess that trains might be rather busy that day.
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