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Train fares and tariffs / Re: Germany-France-Italy circuit

« on: September 13, 2011, 07:21:52 am »

Thanks, that's given me a lot to work off, and I’ll do some more planning.

I wanted to try some options/prices with the Baden-wurttemberg Lander ticket, but when I go through the buy online link on bahn.com, it asks for the travel details, then brings up some choices, but all prices are showing 48Euro for 2A/1c for Frankfurt-Nuremberg for the Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket. I tried even Stuttgart to Nuremburg in case it was extra for multiple states, but that didn’t change the price. When I changed it to 3 adults the price went up to 54Euro, and when I went back to 1adult it stayed at 48Euro. Are there some other surcharges on the 29Euro, or did I misunderstand something? (They're all just RE trains, so I don't believe it's the train.)

Regarding trip 2, you mentioned a CNL option was available. However, looking at the booking engine and http://www.bahn.com/i/view/mdb/bahnintern/international/schweden/MDB81178-cnl_all_routes_at_a_glance.pdf the two lines don't appear to connect/have a night option. As it's not so long it doesn't seem so bad, but if there is a night option, I'd like to consider it.

Regarding trip 4, I've found why I'm not finding any sleeping information. I found an evening Artesia running at 8 p.m. from Paris to Milan in November, which would be preferable, but in December, there's only a midday one. It turns out that "Due to works planned on the french railway network, the Artesia night trains between Paris and Venice (trains nr 221 and 220), are temporary unavailable for bookings on the following travel dates:" I'm not sure what that means as it says bookings are "temporarily" unavailable but if they're doing trackwork, I would presume that would mean the services are permanently unavailable on those dates.
I also found that there's a strike of Italian sleeping car workers so they aren't selling any couchettes nor sleeping cars on the Paris-Milan route - nor are there any restaurant facilities at the moment. Really not having much luck with this! :-( Fingers crossed sleeping cars and night trains return by end of December.

P.S. Sorry, it was railEurope and tgvEurope that have the 11/12 child crossover point.

2

Train fares and tariffs / Germany-France-Italy circuit

« on: September 12, 2011, 04:45:07 pm »

First off, I'm really impressed by the analytics here!

I'm trying to work out the best approach for a trip I'm planning this December-Jan. Complicating this is that the railways haven't released timetables/fares yet! So I'm trying to make plans based on what's showing now for early Dec, but have no idea how applicable that will be. Will current pricing be the same then, or are fares higher (or availability lower) around Christmas-New Years? Choices I'm considering are:
1) rail-pass/es (The RailEurope passes don't look good, but there is a DB German rail pass, which seems like it could be good value for 2A/1C if I can get more trips on to it).
2) point-to-point - but don't have any idea what prices will be like. Specials appear now, but will they still be available when these travel dates are released?
3) rent-a-car. Seems similar price to railpass plus point to point, but will have parking hassle/cost. A fall back option if train takes too long at similar cost.

This is for 2 adults, 1 child - also complicating the calculation is the child turns 12 around New Year, and DB at least, maybe others, have different pricing for age 12 vs 11. Rough trips (with nights spent in first city before trip) are:
1) (2nts) Frankfurt-Nuremberg
2) (2nts) Nuremberg-Berlin
3) (3nts) Berlin-Paris (Wouldn't mind Koln, but don't think there's enough time)
4) (3nts) Paris-Genoa (This is the tough one! See below)
5) More flexibility in these legs with Italy back to Germany but expect first leg will be Genoa-Rome
6) Rome-Verona/Venice?
7) Venice-Munich or Frankfurt

Where possible, would prefer overnight trains to save sightseeing time, though Berlin-Paris seems to be the only good match for this (T450). Have noted there's also a Rome/Venice-Munich option, but not sure that will fit in well.

(FYI The sequence came about with German places in Dec to try to catch the Christmas markets, then this seemed to be the most efficient location to visit Paris, which is one of the must visits, Genoa is a must do due to another booking there, then we have 10 days in January between leaving Genoa and then leaving Frankfurt, and those Italian destinations seemed probably the most interesting and realistic uses of time for that. It's about 2 or 3 days in each city, which isn't a lot, but there's so much to see as well!)

The issue with step 4 is that it's hard to get a good route, and many prices don't show, plus I need to be in Genoa before 31/12 around midday. As the closest Friday, I used 9/12 for this. DB brings up the best option I could find of:

Paris-Bercy
Fr, 09.12.11 dep 18:54 13:27 2 EN, R
Fares not available
Genova Piazza Principe
Sa, 10.12.11 arr 08:21

Paris-Bercy Fr, 09.12.11 dep 18:54 EN 227 EuroNight
 Sleeper and couchette train, Subject to compulsory reservation, Global price, Bordrestaurant
Piacenza
Sa, 10.12.11 arr 04:44

 Transfer time 1:11 h

Piacenza
Sa, 10.12.11 dep 05:55 R 20376 Regionalzug
Voghera Sa, 10.12.11 arr 06:45

 Transfer time 28 min.

Voghera
Sa, 10.12.11 dep 07:13 R 2179 Regionalzug
Genova Piazza Principe Sa, 10.12.11 arr 08:21

...as well as some others, but says "Pricing not available" for all of them.

I then tried TGV-Europe, which says no options available when I say I'm in Australia. When I say I'm in France, it does give some options but the only realistic one leaves around 11 a.m. 30/12, which pretty much wastes two days (30+31/12). I tried FS instead, and they also don't give the German option, (nor SNCF option) but instead a 15:24 and 22:48 departure on 30/12, neither of which are as good as the DB suggestion.

My only conclusion from the above is that booking European trains is very complicated! If you have any suggestions or recommendations for this, I'd be happy to hear them.