Hi, I’m new to this site and I’m trying to plan an inter-rai trip from the UK to southern Portugal and return. I’ve started by looking at the section from Paris to Montpellier, but I’m having problems with the reservations. Several trains on this route show as “Pass not valid”, but the train I want to look at (14.42 from Paris Lyon) shows as “seat reservations required” which is good. However, no matter what date I look at, the site always shows as “Sold out”.
It’s hard to plan this trip with numerous trains being non reservable, but it’s even harder when some of those that are reservable, are always shown as sold out. My question is, is it usual that most of the TGVs on the route from Paris to Montpellier are not available to Inter-rail passholders? Also, is this true of many other high speed train routes in France and Spain, or have I just been unlucky when starting to plan our trip?
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Please mention your travel date.
Additionally, please note that you can also travel via Hendaye. You'll the need Euskotren to travel from Hendaye to Irún or San Sebastian/Donostia, which is not included in the pass but very cheap.
Some trains Paris-Montpellier may be Ouigo, where passes are not valid. But we need date and departure time to be able to say something.
Thanks for the comments. I haven’t provided a date yet as we’re still in the early planning stages, and I’m just trying to work out our options. We’re both retired and so we have less stamina than younger travellers, but we should be up to travelling for a week or 10 days.
Where we’re coming from is that my wife would like a few days (about 4) on the Algarve, in May or June 2025 and of course we could fly there in less than 3 hours from Manchester (or Liverpool or Birmingham - our closest airports). However, I’m trying to convince her that getting there and back by train would make for a great holiday, whilst enjoying the journey too. I’ve worked out that we could get to Montpellier fairly comfortably in a day from our home (in Shrewsbury - leaving at 05.18 and getting there at 18.11), and then from there to Seville the next day, before continuing by bus to somewhere like Portimao on the Algarve after that. Returning, I’m thinking of stopping overnight in Madrid and then Marseille, and from there it’s easy enough to get back to Shrewsbury in a day.
As yet we don’t have any firm dates, I’m just looking at feasibility, but when numerous trains are non-reservable, then it looks like it might be tricky to make pans for such a trip. We could add a couple more days of course, which would then make the planning easier, but for various reasons we don’t really want to be away for much more than a week.
For info we’ve previously done things like leaving Shrewsbury early in the morning (also at 05.18), down to Euston, walk to St Pancras and then Eurostar to Paris, time for a leisurely lunch there, then back by Eurostar etc, and into our own beds by that same night for a fabulous, albeit full day. So we enjoy such rail-based experiences, it’s just whether or not the Inter-rail reservations allow us to plan a rail trip to the Algarve!
It's already useful to know that you're looking at May or June.
SNCF domestic trains/journeys can't be booked yet for those dates. Reservations until 11/5/2025 are opened on 11/1 and reservations for later dates around 4 months in advance (see this page). Ouigo trains however can already be booked.
The TGVs Paris-Barcelona should also already be bookable for May and June, but this isn't always the case, especially for the 14:42 departure. Maybe the timetable is isn't final yet. In any case, it's a daily train and the best place to book it is www.raileurope.com.
Thanks for the tip about www.raileurope.com @rvdborgt! I hope it’s okay that I hop on this thread with a related question.
I am trying to book a trip with two friends. One friend lives in the US and has a EURail Pass and me and another friend live in Germany and have Interrail Passes. I’m hoping to book seat reservations since we have the rail passes and would ideally like to sit at a 4-seater table but when I try to book seats on RailEurope, it says the rail pass will apply to all the passengers.
Since that’s the way the system works, I tried adding a return trip seat reservation from Paris to Marseilles on Apr 13 & Apr 18 for our trip with me and my friend in Germany on our Interrail passes to my basket with a preference for a 4-seater and upper deck. And then went and added the same trains/trips for my US American friend and put 4-seater and upper deck preference to the basket. You can only see the assigned seats after adding to the basket and each time my American friend’s seats are not assigned near ours for both trips. I have tried 2x already and both times, they were not seated in the same cabin/near each other. The first time one trip was next to ours but the other trip wasn’t. When I tried again, both trips were in different cabins...
Do you know if I can book their seat reservations under Interrail like ours? In other words, can I book seats for all 3 of us together as Interrail pass holders so we can all sit together or will that be problematic when they check the tickets/seat reservations? Do you know of a solution to this problem so we can all sit together without any issues when our tickets/reservations are checked by the controller?
Below are screenshots of what I mean…
Thanks in advance for the help!
Just book all reservations with the same discount. There's really only 1 pass holder fare. The reservation will mention "Tarif PASS EURAIL INTERRAIL”, regardless of which one you choose.
This sounds like a great trip @Coldham
0518 sounds like a horribly early departure to me!, with a fairly long travel day. But you will know if you’re up to it, having done it before.
It’s worth knowing that there are direct TGVs from Lille to Montpellier, which would save you having to cross Paris.
I don’t know if you were planning on first or second class. Your journey happens to have some very decent first class trains operating. And since there’s currently a 25% off in the sale, I would certainly consider first class pass.
Don’t have any worries about availability. Most of these trains aren’t open for booking yet, and you’ll have ample opportunity to make the reservations you want and need.
Montpellier and Seville are both great cities, and a bus from there, or Huelva is an excellent way to continue into the Algarve.
As @rvdborgt says, you also have the option of going via the other end of the Pyreneees, and crossing back into France at Hendaye.
Thanks for the comments. We probably won’t be making reservations until the New Year, at this stage I’m just looking at options. To summarise, from what I can see, some trains can’t be reserved at all, and some can be reserved fairly easily so long as there are places available.
But there appears to be a third category which seems to always say “Sold out”, whatever day I look for. I’ve looked at many dates for the 14.42 from Paris to Montpellier, including several quite some way into the future such as in April. Every time, it says “Seat reservations required”, but every time I click on the icon, it then says “Sold out”, for every single date.
So I wonder whether the trains in this category are actually never available, in which case they should really also be in the category that just cannot be reserved?
Likely wrong data on Interrail (or even SNCF). They’re definitely not sold out and the pass will be valid.
Sales for SNCF domestic trains in April will only start on 22/1. Also see:
