Help needed in Booking Europe Train

foxy78

First timer trying to tour europe by train

Am trying to book train tickets for July 17th return july 22nd for 3 adults and two children to visit Rome, venice, florence and milan(and maybe pisa just as a stop to see the leaning tower of pisa)

Could anyone please diect me to what sites/links to get good deals and any views from anyone who has visited these areas with kids please.

Thanks

joerugby

Cityboy wrote: »

This site is invaluable for those seeking to travel by rail across Europe: http://www.seat61.com/

This site is useful to book specific trains and look up fares etc. Always put in the single journey as an exercise to compare costs with the return round trip: http://www.raileurope.co.uk

That's spot on, the man in seat 61 is your friend

Pelican_eats_pigeon

Raileurope doesn't always have the best prices available from the train companies' local websites, don't forget to compare. Within Italy, Trenitalia is the main operating company and they sell tickets on their website. If you are travelling by train from the UK, Voyages-SNCF is good for France.

Voyager2002

foxy78 wrote: »

First timer trying to tour europe by train

Am trying to book train tickets for July 17th return july 22nd for 3 adults and two children to visit Rome, venice, florence and milan(and maybe pisa just as a stop to see the leaning tower of pisa)

Could anyone please diect me to what sites/links to get good deals and any views from anyone who has visited these areas with kids please.

Thanks

Are you going to fly from the UK to Italy, so that you need trains within Italy, or do you want to travel all the way from and to Britain?

Either way, you might like to know that Pisa is very close to Florence, so you can easily see the leaning tower as a day-trip.

The advice from others is good: I would just add that in order to see the best deals for travel across France, you need to look at the French language version of the voyages-sncf website.

foxy78

Thanks everyone - will crack on with the research

Voyager2002 - with regards to leaviing the Uk to Italy - if the train works out cheaper than flying then i'll go with that

Voyager2002

foxy78 wrote: »

Thanks everyone - will crack on with the research

Voyager2002 - with regards to leaviing the Uk to Italy - if the train works out cheaper than flying then i'll go with that

Sadly, a flight to Italy is likely to cost a good deal less than taking the train all the way.

If you are interested in exploring the rail option, have a good look at the Eurostar site and see what it would charge you to get as far as the south of France (I don't think it offers fares all the way to Italy). At the same time, note carefully when good fares are available for the journey to Paris.

Then check out the French language version of voyages-sncf. Most of their good-value fares are from and to Paris: one kind of discounted ticket are called Prems. See what is possible for journeys to Nice (the last major destination before the Italian border).

Pelican_eats_pigeon

I think you can book tickets from Paris all the way through to Milan on voyages-SNCF.

Ponkle22

I previously tried to go via train all the way but was on a tight budget so had to fly cheapy airline to Pisa then travelled to various locations on the train from there. Sadly, as I prefer the train all the way.

Edit: in fact if you do a search for train and Pisa or train and Florence (etc) you will find old posts on here with lots of helpul tips - particularly last year.

TimothyEBaldwin

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Sadly, a flight to Italy is likely to cost a good deal less than taking the train all the way.

If you are interested in exploring the rail option, have a good look at the Eurostar site and see what it would charge you to get as far as the south of France

Actually there is a good chance travelling by train (and bus) will be cheaper for the same length of holiday. The trick is to use a sleeper train between Paris and Italy, and spend a day Paris on the way out and back. You must also consider the entire cost of the journey and accommodation.

And pay attention to the timetables, a cheap early morning flight is no good if it costs a lot of money to get to the airport that early.