ChrisK
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 5 years ago
My wife and I are taking our kids (ages 9, 10 and 20) to Europe in July. These are the trips we know we need to make:
Amsterdam to Lyon
Lyon to Geneva
Geneva to Lyon
After that we would like to visit a few other cities including Paris and Brussels, but we are open to suggestions. We thought a night train would be a neat experience and also save the cost of a hotel, but we\'re not sure if that is practical. We need to end up back in Amsterdam to fly home.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi and welcome to railcc!
For single trips you can check timings and prices for instance on [ux]https://rail.shop/omio/[/ux]. Please be aware that tickets and timings for July might not be available yet on some routes; to get an impression of fares and timings you can search for any other, earlier date though.
You start and finish your trip in Amsterdam, correct?
Is it necessary to start with the trips you mentioned (Amsterdam - Lyon - Geneva - Lyon)? Or would it be possible for you to visit other cities in between and/or travel a different route?
For instance it might be more convenient to you to avoid changing trains where possible; so could travel Amsterdam - Brussels - Lyon - Geneve - Paris - Amsterdam all with direct trains.
There are no night trains suitable for your itinerary; unfortunately SNCF (French Railways) have withdrawn almost all trains in France, with the remaining trains not helping on your route.
Anyway, since you wanted to add some other cities on your itinerary it would be possible to travel to the south of France by night train; for instance from Paris to Latour de Carol (in the Pyrenees) or to Perpignan or Cerbere on the Cote Vermeille/Mediterranean Coast. Both of these trains terminate on the Spanish border so you could also go to Barcelona or Girona.
Depending on what you are interested in there are many options for additional stops along your route. For instance you could travel in a circle, going Geneva - Amsterdam via Switzerland (Bern/Zürich/Luzern/Basel) and Germany (Frankfurt/Rhine Valley/Cologne). Or you make a trip from Geneva to the Swiss Alps or even to Austria (Innsbruck; from Innsbruck you could take the night train to Düsseldorf to return to Amsterdam).
Or you go to the Mediterranean Coast (Marseille, Nice) or the Atlantic Coast...there are many options... ;)
When looking at the Eurail pass keep in mind that you will need additional seat reservations for most long distance trains (namely the Thalys and TGV high speed trains between Amsterdam/Brussels/Paris/Geneve/Lyon: [ux]https://rail.cc/en/eurail-train-reservation[/ux]
However, at least on some (shorter) trips, such as Amsterdam - Brussels; Brussels - Paris, Geneva - Lyon or even Paris - Lyon you can travel with regular Intercity or regional trains instead for which you do not need a reservation.
When buying regular tickets keep in mind that the cheapest offers are usually valid for the booked train only and cannot be returned or exchanged.
Flo