Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Posted 13 years ago
My friends and I are currently planning a trip next summer and part of our journey includes going from Munich to Nice.
What is the easiest way to get there? There are no trains listed on the railcc website that I can find but when I typed the route into xxxx (sorry, this website is not railccs friend) it came up with trains (via Bern). Is there a reason these trains aren't listed on this site - are our tickets not valid on them or something?
We've sorted the rest of our journey its just the journey between these places we're struggling with!
Peter
Traveller
9337 comments
Hi.
First thing: the website you mentioned is not railccs friend, so I deleted it. There are much better schedule planners: [u]https://rail.cc/en/search-train-route[/u]
The given schedules at railcc are special routes. It is not a typical schedule planer like you will find at the given link.
Standard schedule planers only show normal train connections. Without any information about extra fees for Rail Pass travellers. Often there are free routes beside without any extra fees - these free routes we show at railcc - or at least the ones where you will save a lot of money. The railcc connections are hand made, not by a stupid machine. :)
[b]Munich - Nice[/b]
A good route in summer is by using a night train:
First Munich - Stuttgart - Karlsruhe - Offenburg by free IC and ICE trains.
Then by free local train from Offenburg to Strasbourg.
There you change to the direct night train (only running in the summer months):
[u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/strasbourg-nice-icn-4283/163[/u]
Then you will save the reservation fees for the TGV trains: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation/tgv-sncf/42[/u]
I hope this information will help you. The schedules for summer and this special and inexpensive night train should be out in May. If you prefer day time travel, let me know - but it is a long trip then.
Here an example:
[u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail/munich-to-nice[/u]
And if you like the information at the railcc website, support it and buy your official Interrail pass in our partner. Delivery is free in standard service - prices like everywhere else - sometimes even cheaper than at the website you mentioned: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
Thank you, Peter :)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Thank you so much! I was looking through your website thinking, seriously, there has to be a train from Munich to Nice?!
We've been planning our trains based on current schedules also - I know these change though. How much do they change each time a new timetable comes out? I assume it's just minor changes to times?
Thanks again!
Charlotte
Peter
Traveller
9337 comments
Hey Charlotte...
I just added the connection Munich to Nice for you today. :)
[u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail/munich-to-nice[/u]
Schedules won't change a lot in summer - always at the beginning of June is the magical date. But the additional summer night trains will be available then.
Peter :)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Hello!
Can I have some help regarding this again please.
I looked at the connections from Munich - Nice again because we go in just under 2 months. I put all the times in to [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] to check them all for the date we're going (which is Sunday 15/07/12) and one of the trains doesn't seem to be running - the 15:29 from Geneva to Lyon. The only other option is to wait for a long time at Geneva but then we get to Nice very late I think.
Could you help me find another route? Ideally we want one where we aren't going to have to pay loads for reservations. If we use the TGVs all of the websites I try and book reservations through are telling me it's going to be very expensive!
We also want to go during the day as we have accommodation booked on both nights.
Thanks!
Peter
Traveller
9337 comments
Hi.
On the date 15/7/2012 you want to travel use this connection. You have two TGV trains included on that date (for the schedules already known today - note there is still the changes in schedules at the beginning of June, so more trains might be available after that date):
München Hbf dep 0626 - TGV - free inside Germany
Ulm Hbf arr: 0748
Ulm Hbf dep: 0805 - IRE - free
Schaffhausen arr: 1014
Schaffhausen dep: 1021 - S-Bahn - free
Winterthur arr: 1054
Winterthur dep: 1058 - IC - free
Geneve arr: 1415
Geneve dep 1442 - TGV!
Lyon Part Dieu arr: 1626
Lyon Part Dieu dep: 1806 - TGV!
Nice Ville arr: 2233
There are of course other connections available via Paris or via Italy.
You will find them on the schedule planer you already use.
Simply compare the train types to the reservation lists here: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation[/u]
And YES - if you want to travel such a big leg in one day, you have to use high-speed-trains. And in France + Italy you have to pay extra for them. I can't change it - I am here to help. Talk to the national railway companies SNCF + Trenitalia why they ask for such high extra fees.
Peter :)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Thank you very much :D
How much are the TGV reservations going to cost us? I know there are different types of TGV trains. And do we buy them at the station, or well in advance?
Peter
Traveller
9337 comments
The first TGV in Germany is free (Munich to Ulm).
For the 2nd and 3rd one you need for each a reservation: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation/tgv-sncf/42[/u]
Book it in advance as the seats for rail pass travellers are limited.
But it is also possible to buy the reservation for example in Munich.
If they are sold out, try your way via Italy (then you should have one EC for EUR 10 and one Eurostar for EUR 10 and one IC for EUR 3).
Peter :)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
yes, I found 2 connections via Italy that would also be possible for us to use on [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]
Thanks for your help :D
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Hey - sorry to ask another question on this!
I found this one and another connection (Munich-Nice via Karsruhe-Offenburg-Strasbourg-Lyon) and either are fine for us - but a couple of them have really small transfer times between connections. How reliable are European trains usually? I know here in England it's easy for a train to be 5 or 10 minutes late so I don't normally like small gaps between trains! I think one of them has two gaps of 7 minutes and the other has a transfer time of 4 minutes.
The last thing I want to happen is that we end up missing a connection. We were going to go via Italy but on the route we were going to take there is apparently engineering work on the line on this day so the services will be disrupted - I don't know how much though because all the information is in German!
Thanks again!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi,
it can be a good day and all your connections work, or it is a bad day and you miss one train due to some unplanned incident - it is hard to almost impossible predict. If it is the last or only connection of the day I would try to change my plans, or try to have an alternative connection ready in case you miss a train. The Thomas Cook European Railway Timetable is quite handy because you can look for possible alternatives while travelling and dont have to wait and ask at a station.
What connection are you talking about exactly? Timings?
Flo 8)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Well, if we were to get the connection Peter told me about - we only have 4 minutes or so in Winterthur which makes me a little nervous!
If we go via Karlsruhe and Offenburg, in both places we only have 7 minutes so if one is a little late the whole thing could be disrupted. We have accommodation booked in Nice so I'd rather not have to stay over somewhere because our train is late!
I've browsed [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] and we could get a much earlier train (around 3:25 I think) that would get us into Offenburg a few hours earlier, and there are lots of trains from Offenburg to Strasbourg so we could definitely get our connection out of Strasbourg (we'd get a TGV from Strasbourg to Lyon and then Lyon to Nice) and have a few hours in Strasbourg too, so we may do that.
This is the only connection we're really having a problem with, but I'm sure we'll figure something out! :D
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Humm...this indeed is a tricky connection...I would recommend to go that way:
München Hbf 0706 - 1144 Zürich HB :arr: EC, no reservation
Zürich HB 1309 - 1650 Milano Centrale :arr: EC, 10€ reservation
Milano Centrale 1705 - 2107 Ventimiglia :arr: IC, 3€ reservation recommended
Ventimiglia 2117 - 2204 Nice Ville :arr: TER, no reservation
The only critical part on that trip is the connection in Milano...if you miss it you are more or less stuck since you probably wont get the last connection in Ventimiglia because there is only one minute connection time... However, there are still some alternatives: Instead of sitting around in Zürich, what about this:
Zürich HB 1202 - 1258 Bern :arr: IC, no reservation
Bern 1334 - 1638 Milano Centrale :arr: EC, 10€ reservation
Or what about this:
München Hbf 0731 - 1242 Verona PN :arr: EC, 7€ supplement payable on board
Verona PN 1340 - 1535 Milano Centrale :arr: TreNord, supposed to be free with InterRail - we're waiting for official approval.
The München - Verona service will be disrupted on that date due to construction works on the Brenner route and a bus replacement service runs between Innsbruck and Brenner. However, you will have enough spare time to compensate for in case of delays. Between Verona and Milano there are additional fast services available as well.
What do you think?
Flo 8)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Thank you very much! The connection through Italy looks like it could be good - because we have so much time to wait the construction work shouldn't affect it too much. When will you have confirmation if TreNord is free? I found a connection on [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] from Verona to Milan on the EuroStar Italia but that needs a reservation which means the whole journey is getting more expensive!
There's also one I found on [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] where the train leaves Munich at 3:25 - we'd rather not check out of the hotel that early but if this is the best connection we don't mind. We could get to Strasbourg and then wait for a connection via TGV - I think this would be a bit cheaper than going through Italy but not much.
Thanks again for your help! All of our other routes are sorted now, it's just this one! :D
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi,
I've seen the 0325 departure from Munich as well but I think it is indeed quite early and the route via Italy is more convenient and safer since there are less changes necessary. :)
We just got a report by travellers who used TreNord trains without problems on the Edolo route. :)
Flo 8)
Toshiya
Traveller
19 comments
Thank you - I guess we're sorted then!
One final question though - if we were to get the EuroStar Italia from Verona to Milan instead, how far in advance do these tickets need to be booked? Is there a danger we'd get there and find they're fully booked or we'd need to pay the full fare? I'd rather it be flexible with which trains we can catch just in case :D
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Usually you can get reservations for Italian trains at rather short notice - there are ticket machines which are easy to operate. Of course it can happen that a train is sold out but I dont think this is a big risk during the day on this route.