Family trip to Europe.

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Does this mean that if i purchase this then i don't need to book a specific time yet and this can be booked close to the time?

Well, you obviously can purchase full fare ticket even on the day of travel, but with some of the departures you will also require obligatory seat reservation, so you won't be able to avoid being tied to a specific train. Also in certain cases (like OeBB bus from Villach to Venice, which one of the connections suggest) all the free seats might be already sold out and there will be no way to use this or that connection simply because no free seats left, it less concerns full scale trains, but buses run by OeBB are definitely at risk of being sold out during high-season

Hi Tut,
I am having trouble booking the trip from Salzburg to Venice.
Each time i go through the steps to book
and fill in all the details (name,email credit card etc.)it then comes up with the following--(Unfortunately an error has occurred while booking.(423)
I am looking to book for 10th Sept at 8.12 as this is the time we would like to leave(2 adults and 2 kids13 &10)
Am i missing something.
I have also tried to book for differant dates just to see if i am booking too early but i keep getting the same error message.

Each time i go through the steps to book and fill in all the details (name,email credit card etc.)it then comes up with the following--(Unfortunately an error has occurred while booking.(423)

Hmm... well, we aren't specialists on technical side of how booking systems works, but on your place we would:
a) make sure that everything is fine with your bank card (like transaction isn't blocked by your bank etc., since sometimes certain cautious banks do tend to treat foreign transaction suspiciously)
b) if on your side everything is fine, then email directly to OeBB and ask about the problem, they should know what is wrong and whether it can be fixed any time soon. Usually in HTTPS "error 423" refers to "Requested resource is currently locked", so it might be simply an OeBB problem.
c) if the problem won't be sold afterward, then you can always try buying your tickets from OeBB via email, with ticket-by-post option (unfortunately order page is in German only) or via OeBB call-center. Booking via email is probably easiest option + you won't need to pay extra for call or ticket mailed to you, but just receive a code with which you can later print your ticket when already in Austria

thanks.
As far as the card i know that it works so i will try to email OeBB.

Hi Tut,
You will be happy to know that i have booked our first leg of our trip  (Paris-Munich)and all went well.
Looking ahead to the trip from Venice-Lucerne.Can you tell me the best way to go about booking this?(we will be leaving Venice on 17th Sept)
We know that it will be a long trip so we are looking to travel as direct as possible and not travel at night but leave at around 9.00am.
Is traveling to Milan then to Lucern the best way to go?

We know that it will be a long trip so we are looking to travel as direct as possible and not travel at night but leave at around 9.00am

Well, the problem is that the only direct train from Milan to Luzern departs in the evening (20:10-23:41), so if you intend to start from Venice at around 9am, then you will either need to wait in Milan for this evening train or travel with one more change, thus making it two changes in total for Venice-Luzern route.

Can you tell me the best way to go about booking this?(we will be leaving Venice on 17th Sept)

Traveling via Milan is the most reasonable, so first you need Venice-Milan leg, here three major options in terms of tickets: a) don't buy anything in advance, but just use cheap regional train (full fare adult ticket is just 17,95 euro or 62,25 for 3 adults (in Italy adult tickets for >12 years old) and one child); b) buy discounted 'MINI' offer tickets for high-speed train from TrenItalia website (start from 9 euro per person); c) again don't bother with buying anything in advance, but purchase tickets already in Venice and take advantage of so-called 'Family Offer' (122,5 euro for all 4). While for Milan-Luzern you basically have two options: a) buy in advance from TrenItalia website discounted international ticket 'SMART 2' offer (from 29 euro)* and b) catch local S train from Milan to first Swiss station (Chiasso), those run often and cost like 5 euro full fare, while from Chiasso already Swiss domestic ticket (preferably discounted SuperSaver)

* TrenItalia website sells ticket only for direct trains to Switzerland, so when you enter Luzern you'll see only evening one (rest are Milan-Zurich, which don't go via Luzern), but with all the other connections you just need to enter Arth-Goldau, it's closest station to Luzern which multiple direct Milan-Zurich trains pass. So you just get off in Arth-Goldau and change there for half an hour train ride to Luzern (obviously with buying short domestic Swiss ticket for Arth-Goldau segment). Swiss rail network map can be found here, so you get a better idea

Hi Tut,
I have had a look at the Trenitalia website to checkout what you said.
I typed in Milano Centrale to Zuerich hbf,for 17/9/2012 at 11.10am.
For 4 passengers with SMART it will cost 76EURO and SMART2 it will cost 116EURO.(WHAT IS THE DIFFERANCE BETWEEN SMART AND SMART2 AS YOU RECOMEND SMART2).
Once we get to Arth Goldau we get off and catch local train to Lucerne (we can buy these tickets once at Arth Goldau)
Also the seats that the site allocated me were for coach 5 and seats 51,52,53,58.Are we going to be all together?
With above smart options are these better to book now or can i book at Milano.

For 4 passengers with SMART it will cost 76EURO and SMART2 it will cost 116EURO.(WHAT IS THE DIFFERANCE BETWEEN SMART AND SMART2 AS YOU RECOMEND SMART2).

Sorry, our mistake. The thing is that there is two price levels of discounted tickets (SMART and SMART2), one of them is cheaper and other a bit more expensive. So obviously your goal is to get a cheaper one - SMART. Thus disregard recommendation about SMART 2, didn't recheck which is which

Once we get to Arth Goldau we get off and catch local train to Lucerne (we can buy these tickets once at Arth Goldau)

Yep, it's just half an hour journey, full fare adult ticket is 12,2 CHF, while children pay 50%, so it will make 36,6 CHF in total for all 4

Also the seats that the site allocated me were for coach 5 and seats 51,52,53,58.Are we going to be all together?

Yes, seating plan for ETR 470 used on the Zurich-Milan route:

With above smart options are these better to book now or can i book at Milano.

Well, SMART offer tickets are discounted and sold in limited number per train, so once they are all sold out there is no more way to buy them, that is why it is better to buy SMART tickets as early as possible, thus to ensure that you get the best price (in your case 19 euro per passenger)

Hi Tut,
I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that i tried all your suggestions for our trip and booked all our trips and managed to save thousands of dollars compared to buying the Europass.
Everything went well and all to plan.

The bad news is we have to cancel our entire trip.
One of our family is very sick and with only five weeks to go until we leave we need to be here for them.

I would like to thank you with your help that you have provided for me.
Without your help there would have been no way of doing the train part of this trip on my own.
I know that i asked a lot of questions but you were very patient.
We are hoping to do our trip the same time next year.
I know now a lot about trains in Europe and feel very confident for when we need to book for the next time.
Thanks for your wonderful web site and hopefully i will get to ask you more questions again next year.


Frank.

Sorry to hear about the bad news... it's life, so everything can happen... Hope your relative will get better and you will be able to make the trip next year, we will be glad to help once again