anonymous
Traveller
2467 comments
Posted 10 years ago
We will be traveling from the Zurich Airport to Innsbruck and then after a couple of days from Innsbruck to Venice. I've only been able to find fast trains from Zurich to Innsbruck and haven't been able to find a site that indicates stops en route. We'd like the option of potentially stopping on the way. Is there a site that indicates stops? Because we are doing inter-country travel would we need to stop at the border and switch to regional trains? Does it make more sense to go direct to Innsbruck and then backtrack on regional routes? Any suggestions on best stops en route to Innsbruck or in the area surrounding Innsbruck area? Also, family of 5 but all three kids are over age 13. Train trips are Zurich to Innsbruck, Innsbruck Venice, Venice - La Spezia- La Spezia -Florence- I thought point to point was likely cheaper - are there any pass options I'm missing? Thank you very much.
nltrainer
Traveller
1334 comments
Yes-you are missing knowledge of how trains work. They are not planes, like so many seems to think.
1.you can just stay put in the thorugh trains, which run about ev 2 hrs daytime, for Zur CITY-Inn.. There is not even a passprtcheck anymore, as its all Schengen area. There MAY be random customs checks (this is NOT immigration) and they may be interested in how much cash you have on you.
Nearly all those trains do NOT end at Inns, but carry on further into Austria.
2.ANY route planner of whatever railway that lists these trains-of course both from Swiss, from Austria and also the one linked in this site, from bahn.de=Germany, will show train nrs. Click on them and the whole train-''roster'' will appear with all stops and , if so happening, long standing times at some stations.
3.indicate at least a tiny bit of interest as we do not know what interests your family re stops. Backtrack is in fact not even an option here.
4.re tickets: thats very hard to tell, as you also did not tell in what time plus it depends on the stops-or not.
FULL fare tickets allow unlimited stops as long as you do not backtrack along the route inscribed, for 30 days from sell-by date. these are horrendously expensive for CH and AT, less so for IT. It varies per country if the kids will get a discount and how much.
Chepar is the booked advance and fixed tickets, but you loose the fare if no-show, this very much also resembles airline ticketing. you can only prebook from 2 or 3 month advance, again its not airline. You have to do the math yourself if any pass-EUrail would be your only option, can do for 3 countries and for x days in a period, will work out better. With EU-rl you can make and break any stop. Other again as planes, most trains do NOT ''need'' REServations, but you may do so for peace of mind-the main risk is having to stand for a while-or even far worse-that the whole family cannot sit together for a while. After all you did not go travel to meet others, nah?