Skip to main content

We are traveling through Spain and France and are thinking about getting the 7 day Global Pass. We used rail planner and it appears all the trains we picked require a reservation. Are seat reservations cheaper when you have the Global Pass? If we have to buy seat reservations what’s the value of the Eurail Global pass?

Should we wait until we arrive in Spain to book all our seat reservations at the train station or book all our seat reservations in advance online? What’s the best way to book the seat reservations based on the trips below? We are traveling Madrid to Valencia to Barcelona to Montpellier to Bordeaux to Paris to London over a 25 day period.

Spain and France are unfortunately one of the worst countries to use interrail/eurail in. The seat reservations sometimes are cheaper than full price tickets, so it might be worth it anyway. 
 

Booking in advance for the international connection makes sense. There is a quota on the TGV’s from Barcelona to Montpellier, and these reservations are expensive. It is a lot cheaper if you use the Renfe AVE International. These can be booked at Spanish ticket offices, on weekdays good in advance, on weekends three days in advance. See interrailwiki.eu/spain for Spain, interrailwiki.eu/france for France. 
 

Booking of the TGV’s is cheapest via Raileurope. 


Booking in advance for the international connection makes sense. There is a quota on the TGV’s from Barcelona to Montpellier,

There is no pass holder quota anymore on those trains. There may be a quota in general to limit the number of tickets/reservations from southern France to Spain, in favour of people who travel from/to Paris.


Booking in advance for the international connection makes sense. There is a quota on the TGV’s from Barcelona to Montpellier,

There is no pass holder quota anymore on those trains. There may be a quota in general to limit the number of tickets/reservations from southern France to Spain, in favour of people who travel from/to Paris.

Ah, that’s new then, it used to be that case at least. Or it could be that in a classic SNCF moment it was just fully sold out all the time😅


Reply