Hi! I'm travelling with Interrail through Europe for the first time. I'm a little dissapointed about the fact that I can't make any reservation (not to Paris, not to Basel, etc). I cant imagine that every single train has not even 1 place left. Tomorrow my trip goes from Paris to St.Niklaus (Switserland) and I cant take the trains without reservations. Does anyone has an idea what I can do and where I can check if theres a ticket available?
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Reservation - how to make and where to check if it is available?
Best answer by Al_G
Maybe don’t leave it until the last minute to plan such trips, in Netherlands it is fine to just walk to the nearest station and hop on any train but that is not the way long distance trains in many countries such as France work.
French international high speed services are particularly bad as they have high reservation fees and small quotas for interrail.
For your journey, book a TGV reservation, either at a French station or at b-europe at this link https://travel.b-europe.com/eurail-ge/en/booking-tgv?#TravelWish
to Bellegarde (Ain) it will be €20.
From there take a series of trains that do not require reservations changing at Geneve (Cornavin) and Visp. This connection runs hourly.
Maybe don’t leave it until the last minute to plan such trips, in Netherlands it is fine to just walk to the nearest station and hop on any train but that is not the way long distance trains in many countries such as France work.
French international high speed services are particularly bad as they have high reservation fees and small quotas for interrail.
For your journey, book a TGV reservation, either at a French station or at b-europe at this link https://travel.b-europe.com/eurail-ge/en/booking-tgv?#TravelWish
to Bellegarde (Ain) it will be €20.
From there take a series of trains that do not require reservations changing at Geneve (Cornavin) and Visp. This connection runs hourly.
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There has been a message on the Interail website for months now that it is important to make reservations well in advance for the summer as many people will be travelling by train.
If there are no seats left on the high speed trains, then you either need to travel with the reservation free slower trains or change your travel plans completely.
Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
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AnnaB wrote:
If there are no seats left on the high speed trains, then you either need to travel with the reservation free slower trains or change your travel plans completely.
There are reservations available on multiple trains for the connection I suggested as I check these before posting,
I didn’t check the direct Paris-Switzerland TGV as the quotas make there very unlikely to be available at short notice.
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But that is only for IN FRance-for over the border-the surcharges are far higher and it also seems there are more limited quota (I do not know exact details)-that is why I always suggest to hop over border with FR with local trains.
These young kids nowadays lack any idea of how trains run and how to organise trips-they can only apparently reproduce from these planners and are not even aware that there are ALtrnatives.
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