sarett
Traveller
5 comments
Posted 14 years ago
Hi,
I'm taking an Interrail trip from the UK to Portugal over Easter. Since it basically seems to be way too complicated to book supplements in advance from the UK, I initially decided just to chance it and hope that there would be enough space on the trains. I've seen the advice on Peak TGV supplements, so I'm not too worried about that. As the trip's getting closer, though, my worries about the night trains are increasing, so I thought I'd ask here for any experience that you might have with Easter travel.
I'll be travelling on Wednesday the 31st from Irun at 22.00 towards Lisbon and would like a place in a couchette. Any experience with how busy this train normally is / how full the couchette compartments are? Any experience with how full trains are those few days before Easter?
If it sounds like it might be better to book in advance, I'll up my game and sort something out, but I'm tempted just to leave it and hope for the best.
Thanks very much in advance for any help.
Sarah
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
I am sure the trains will be full - but as you are traveling alone, you should have the luck to find a seat/bed. But I recommend you to buy the reservation as soon as you arrive in France!
Peter :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
I once travelled in the Pentecost period in France and we didnt get any reservations for the TGV (we were a group of 8 persons though)...so I assume trains might be pretty full, just like Peter mentioned. However, I'd say make your reservations as soon as you arrive in Paris - at the big stations (Nord, Montparnasse etc...) they should be able to give you the Surex reservation as well. If it happens that you dont get a reservation for the Surex, you could try to get into Portugal via Vigo:
Day train Irun - Vigo and continue the following day to Porto. Just ask if you need details on that option. :)
Flo 8)
sarett
Traveller
5 comments
Thanks very much for these responses. I thought it might be a bit risky. There's two of us traveling actually, but we'll take our chances and hope for the best when we get to Paris.
I'll look up the other option you mentioned, Flo, just to have that as a second possibility if the first doesn't work out.
Sarah
sarett
Traveller
5 comments
I just thought I'd update this topic in case it's of interest to others.
Trains in France are SUPER busy at Easter. It was very very difficult to find reservations for any trains once we got to Paris. The only night train we could get was to Port Bou, on the 'wrong' side of the French/Spanish border. In the end, our journey was 75 Euro more expensive and 35 hours longer than it should have been, all because we didn't book in advance. Lesson learned!
The slight silver lining was that since we booked the night train from Paris so late (4 hours before departure), we got a 6-person couchette compartment just for two of us!