meriandjoyful
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 8 years ago
Hi! I'm Merry, I have an interrailing trip planned for this summer which I'm getting a bit worried about and I would really appreciate some advice about train reservations etc. So my trip is from the 21st June - 28th July and I'm aware that it's high season, which is why I decided to start reserving the necessary seats today. But two of the journeys I need to take seem to be completely sold out of seats for Interrail pass holders?! Not only that, but some of the trains I've been looking at are sold out of normal seats altogether and it's a month and a half before! I don't mind reserving a non-passholder seat for the two journeys that are sold out although it's very expensive (Madrid-Barcelona and Nice-Venice), but there are some trains which it's impossible to reserve a seat for (e.g. the one train a day from Zagreb to Budapest) and what do I do if that train completely sells out and I'm stuck in Zagreb? I can't help but feel that I'm missing something as this just seems absurdly difficult and risky. Any advice would be super useful!! If it helps here is my route:
Madrid-Barcelona
Barcelona-Montpellier
Montpellier-Nice
Nice-Venice
Venice-Trieste
Trieste-Ljubljana
Ljubljana-Maribor
Maribor-Zagreb
Zagreb-Budapest
Budapest-Bratislava
Bratislava-Vienna
Vienna-Brno
Brno-Prague
Thanks so much in advance!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
Where did you try to reserve seats? Most of your trips you wont need any reservations and on some trips you would have to get Interrail reservations locally.
Madrid - Barcelona: Possible online at [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/reservation/[/ux] however have to be sent to your adress by mail. Sufficient to buy locally as there are usually two trains each hour.
Barcelona - Montpellier: Not available online; either buy locally or use alternative services via the old, slower line along the coast which do not require a reservation.
Montpellier - Nice: Available online via [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf/reservation/[/ux] - costs either 9€ or 18€ depending on when you book. I recommend to book a direct train.
Nice - Venice: I recommend the connection leaving Nice at either 09:20 or 09:49, change in Ventimiglia to IC to Milano (3€ reservation recommended), then Frecciabianca to Venice (10€ reservation compulsory). Reservations are available online at trenitalia.com using the Global Fare option. Collect at ticket machine in Ventimiglia.
On the remaining parts of the trip: No reservation needed
Just avoid the ICS services between Ljubljana and Maribor which would require a reservation.
We are official partners of interrail.eu - to support the free information and the forum on railcc, please be fair and buy your official Interrail pass via our railcc partner link: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
Thank you! :)
Flo 8)
meriandjoyful
Traveller
1 comments
Hi Flo,
Thank you so much for that - I was trying to make all the reservations on SNCF, and clearly it doesn't have them all. Just a few questions - when I search for Montepellier - Nice seat reservations on SNCF (on the 30/06/16) it brings up only one train, the 9:06, and which can be reserved for £0.00 - not really sure what's going on here?
Also, I accidentally missed Milan off my itinerary - I'm going from Nice to Milan and then Milan to Venice. Do I need seat reservations for these trains?
Thank you for your help, I will absolutely buy my pass through this website.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
You're welcome - thanks for supporting!
The 0906 departure is a connection with TER (regional trains) only, meaning that no reservation is required - you have to change trains in Marseille though.
When I look at [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf/reservation/[/ux] now it shows me several other connections too, all including at least one train with compulsory reservation.
Nice - Milan: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/marseille-mailand-train/[/u]
Milan - Venice: The direct Frecciabianca high speed trains require a 10€ reservation.