Hi, I'm new to this and am trying to plan a trip with my family this summer. I have checked websites of all the trains and reservation fees that I would have to pay but am having trouble with SNCF. I read that they have limited interrail tickets available, but on their website I can't seem to add that its an interrail pass booking.
That is correct, unfortunately. SNCF removed Interrail reservations from their website over a year ago, for reasons unknown. Please complain to them that this is very customer-unfriendly.
Is it possible to find out the availability of interrail places available before I purchase my interrail ticket?
Belgian railways have a page for domestic TGVs and IC trains in France and one for Thalys/Eurostar.
There are also international TGVs to Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, but as far as I know, availability the only possibility to check availability online is on the Interrail website, after having bought a pass, which is not very practical.
And if there is no interrail availability on certain tgv trains for example, then do I have to buy full price tickets?
Either that or find a reservation-free alternative (here are some examples). Within France, there is a limited quota of 10€ pass holder seats and when they're sold out, you pay 20€ until the train is full. For all international TGVs/Thalys/Eurostar though, there's only a limited quota for pass holders.
additional: it is generally always possible to find a seat on a INLAND TGV-even if it may be 20€ (most busy times: fri/sun and start/end of national hols). Plus that most lines to/fro Paris have much more as 1 train/day-so be a little more felxible.
Note that I got the impression that those TGV that bypass PAR and link outer corners of FR are now not 10/20 but 20/30 as extra.
It is in most cases fairly easy-but more time-consuming and more need to change, to pass borders on local unreserved trains, depending on actual foreign destination. In fact best advice is to try to avoid those TGV amap and explore by regional TER trains the many hidden corners of this country. Just beware of the many strikes they also like to do very much
Finally: some of the TGV-lines now also have low-cost OuiGO TGV-lookalike trains, that do not take passes but have airline style low fares (if booked advance), these may work out cheaper as passday+supplmt.
Thanks for the tips. I'll look into making sure I have alternatives.
Note that I got the impression that those TGV that bypass PAR and link outer corners of FR are now not 10/20 but 20/30 as extra.
@mcadv Where/how did you get that impression?
You've repeated this statement a few times now but I haven't been able to find any examples and you don't provide examples either. As far as I know, domestic TGVs are 10 or 20 EUR and not 30 EUR. Please provide examples of 30 EUR pass reservations for a domestic TGV, so we can all learn from it.
