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Europe Trains Guide Forum  |  General discussion  |  Travel plans, routes and timetables  |  Amsterdam-Paris-Lucerne-Milan-Rome
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Author Topic: Amsterdam-Paris-Lucerne-Milan-Rome  (Read 7744 times)
setiawanboby
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« on: September 30, 2012, 12:54:14 pm »

We are celebrating our 10th anniversary by travelling to Europe on December, since my wife has never been there. I personally had been to Europe a few times for business trips but had never taken train to cross borders. I've read some posts on how to travel by train in Europe (Eurorail, Europass, etc.) but they make me more confussed. Please bear wiith our question that might seem too obvious to some of you (where we live, Indonesia, we don't use trains that much...either we drive or fly). Please advise the most economical trains to from Amsterdam - Paris - Lucerne - Milan - and finally Rome (we'll fly out of Rome). We greatly appreciate all your inputs. Thanks.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2012, 12:00:10 pm by tUt » Logged
tUt
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« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2012, 03:28:54 pm »

In case of your itinerary Eurail pass hardly can be the most economical, so let's just take a look at each leg and see what your options are:
Amsterdam-Paris: if you are ok with booking some time in advance, then it won't be a problem to catch a discounted ticket for as low as €35 per person. Though such discounted tickets will be not flexible, thus for a specific train and date + no rebooking. Such promo offer tickets can be bough via Dutch Railways website In case you buy the same ticket before departure expect to pay >100 euro per person
Paris-Luzern: again same idea here, the earlier you buy the ticket - the more chance to get the best price. Though in case of Paris-Luzern route you have two options: a) buy one through ticket Paris-Luzern (for December it's not a problem to find tickets around 60 euro per person); b) buy first Paris-Basel ticket for the direct TGV trains (at the moment these start from 39 euro), while then just buy additionl Basel-Luzern Swiss domestic ticket (for instance SuperSaver for as low as 12 Swiss francs). Since train change in Basel is basically necessary, then there is no obstacles to choose option 'b', since it will be cheaper in total. Ticket (both to Basel or Luzern) can be bough via tgv-europe.com
Luzern-Milan: same story here, in advance purchase can get you a ticket to Milan for only 23 CHF (which is great deal). Once again in advance purchase via SBB website is a must
Milan-Rome: and as you can guess, here discounted promo tickets are once again the best choice for the travelers who don't want to pay much. TrenItalia offers such from 19 euro.

Resume: as you can see, at best you can manage the whole itinerary Amsterdam-Paris-Luzern-Milan-Rome for as low as 120 euro per person. Doubt that any pass can give the value like that, although, as we already said, discounted tickets are great, but have a number of limitations (no rebooking, no refund, can't change train or departure time), so you need really be sure about your itinerary before booking

So we advise you just to check out all those tickets we mentioned, and then, if you still have questions, we will be glad to help

p.s. if you trip takes place in a later weeks of December, then you might not yet be able to see or book ticket, since in Europe there is a train schedules change at this time, so in some cases you might need to wait a bit until all the railways companies agree on all the changes and open sale
« Last Edit: October 16, 2013, 02:46:13 pm by tUt » Logged
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setiawanboby
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« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2012, 04:59:07 am »

Thank you for the input - really appreciate it.
We will have the itinerary fixed very soon - so we'll try to buy the tickets ahead of time.
We are travelling December 15-30, and as you predicted some of the trains are not for sale yet (some gives restriction of purchase up to Dec. 8 only).
Again, thank you - and I will post an update on the process.
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tUt
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« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2012, 12:07:59 pm »

We are travelling December 15-30, and as you predicted some of the trains are not for sale yet (some gives restriction of purchase up to Dec. 8 only)
Yep, second weekend of December is the time for timetable change almost all over Europe, so it is expected issue for those trying to book anything after the date. Though you can as of now just take a look at some earlier dates (like late Novermber-early December), so you at least get a general idea. Timetable change won't bring any major changes in terms of your itinerary, so late Novermber-early December picture will be more or less the same

Also since you plan to travel on a high season (with all the holidays etc.), it might make catching cheap tickets more difficult, that is why it might be good idea to buy everything as soon as the sale opens (unfortunately no fixed date when it will happen, all depends on each railway company)
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