Hello all!
I recently purchased the Eurail Select Pass for 5 days, three countries....Belgium, France, and Switzerland.
We will be flying into Brussels then heading to Paris. After Paris, we go to Interlaken. From Interlaken, back to Paris. And finally, Paris to Brussels with a connect to Brugges and after a few days in Brugges, train back to Brussels to fly out.
I don%26#39;t know if I bought my tickets prematurely because now I am reading that I will need reservations on these trains.....we leave in one week!
It seems the website based in the United States will charge us about $250 USD just for 2 reservations roundtrip from Brussels to Paris. That%26#39;s on top of the already $700 we paid for the Eurail passes. And by the way, it is my understanding that you can only get reservations for which ever class your Eurail pass says, which is first class (we couldn%26#39;t buy 2nd class). So we can%26#39;t even save money on reserving 2nd class seats.
I am desperate for suggestions and help on how to resolve this problem or at least reassure myself that I didn%26#39;t just waste all that money on the pass for nothing.
Thank you!!!!
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Hi cand1781
Don%26#39;t panic! You can make all your reservations when you get to Europe, in fact as far as I know, you have to if you%26#39;re not buying tickets at the same time (which you%26#39;re not). The reservations will only cost you a few euros each. Your only (potential) problem is the Brussels-Paris leg - you don%26#39;t say how long there is between flying into and getting the train out of Brussels. If you are staying overnight in Brussels you should be fine, and even with a few hours you should still be able to get a reservation (I think - maybe someone else can confirm that). You will just need to take some time at the main train station to do your reservations - you may as well make them all at the same time.
Because you are travelling at a busy time, I guess it%26#39;s possible you will have trouble getting a seat so close to your travelling time, but generally it%26#39;s fine.
Someone else (maybe MorganB) may be able to tell you if you can make just a reservation on the SNCF site - don%26#39;t go near whatever site you are using in the US (the infamous Rail Europe??), as 250 USD is ridiculous.
Hope that helps
Penny
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%26quot;Seats, sleepers and couchettes, pass holder tickets for travel on trains such as Eurostar, Italian Day trains, AVE, Talgo, Elipsos, Thalys, Cisalpino, etc. luggage checking, and port taxes, are all subject to additional charges which are not covered by the passes.%26quot;
In other words, the Thalys , which runs from Brussels to Paris is not covered with your pass. A way to get around this is to buy a ticket on a train from Brussels to Lille then change to the bullet train at Lille to go to Paris. That will be included with your pass.
You cant reserve on the SNCF website but you can in any train station.
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cand1781. I think this seems to be a problem for a lot of posters. We buy our eurorail passes and often the travel agent doesn%26#39;t advise us that we will also need to %26quot;reserve%26quot; seats on certain trains. We got overseas and ran into this problem over there and missed our train from Barcelona to Nice as we were told that there were no seats available as they had all been %26quot;reserved%26quot; (even though we had our eurorail pass). We ended up having to catch the regional train and swap and arrived about 5 hours late. From that point on we reserved seats as soon as we arrived at each destination before leaving for the next destination. Each time it cost us roughtly in the vicinity of between 12 - 19 euros depending on the trip. Our trips were from Nice to Venice and Venice to Rome. But, in answer to your question, yes you still do need to %26quot;reserve%26quot; seats even after having purchased the eurorail pass. All the eurorail pass entitles you to, it seems, is freedom to travel on the trains...not the luxury of a seat :)
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From www.eurailinfo.com:
%26quot;Railpass holders may ride Thalys trains, provided that their railpass covers the entire ride. Eurail, Europass, and Eurail Select passes (covering the entire ride) are valid. Belgian, Holland, France, and Germany Single-Country Passes are not valid.
Pass holders must pay a 15 Euro railpass-holder reservation fee to ride Thalys trains. Several travelers have reported difficulty making this special type of reservation, as seats in this catagory often sell out. Make your Thalys reservations early in your trip to avoid this problem. You can specify that you accept %26quot;Standby Seating%26quot; - which gets you on train, but does not guarentee you a seat.%26quot;
A couple of other sites say the same: The Eurailpass is valid for the Thalys train with a supplement.
Penny
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Thank you all for your advice and recommendations.
I realized I forgot to mention that we will be flying into Brussels at 8:00 and then heading for Paris as soon as possible.
So based on what everyone is saying....does it seem impossible for us to get same day reservations???
Worst case scenario is that we have to check our bags and then wait a few hours??? or take Stand-by seats which gets us on the train but a possibility of no seats???
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cand1781. Speak to the travel agent you purchased your eurorail pass from. I rang mine from overseas and she said that she could %26quot;reserve%26quot; the seating from here in Oz but it was a little more involved etc. Perhaps you can reserve the seating before you leave for your trip with the agent. Cheers...Vicki
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cand: there is a Thalys every hour from Brussels to Paris so you wont have any trouble getting on one. Looks like there is contradictory info on the eurail site concerning the Thalys. I hope its included for you!
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