Booking train tickets in Europe
Discussion
Specifically Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Going to be visiting these 3 countries in a couple of weeks and my train spotting son will be expecting some train journeys. I've never travelled on a train outside of the UK.
In the UK I usually book e-tickets. Is this the process in these 3 countries? Anything I need to be aware of, or any useful tips from seasoned travellers?
I've done a little bit of research on the Netherlands as it's our first stop and we'll be an hour outside of Amsterdam and plan to get the train into the central station. On the NS website it does look possible just to book e-tickets and the alternative of buying tickets with 'chips' in or their travel cards just looked a bit complicated and unnecessary.
In Germany out local station will be Kuperdreh between Essen and Dusseldorf and in Belgium it will be Peruwelz near the French border. Haven't looked into the tickets in Germany or Belgium yet but hoping it will just be a case of booking an e-ticket with a view to a fairly basic day or half day out from these stations.
Thanks...
Going to be visiting these 3 countries in a couple of weeks and my train spotting son will be expecting some train journeys. I've never travelled on a train outside of the UK.
In the UK I usually book e-tickets. Is this the process in these 3 countries? Anything I need to be aware of, or any useful tips from seasoned travellers?
I've done a little bit of research on the Netherlands as it's our first stop and we'll be an hour outside of Amsterdam and plan to get the train into the central station. On the NS website it does look possible just to book e-tickets and the alternative of buying tickets with 'chips' in or their travel cards just looked a bit complicated and unnecessary.
In Germany out local station will be Kuperdreh between Essen and Dusseldorf and in Belgium it will be Peruwelz near the French border. Haven't looked into the tickets in Germany or Belgium yet but hoping it will just be a case of booking an e-ticket with a view to a fairly basic day or half day out from these stations.
Thanks...
Finding routes is easy, Google maps will do that for you,The challenge is that buying tickets in each country is a bit different.. and then in some places you have more than one system - mainline and local services. Then you need to work out the sometimes beaten up and arcane ticket machines in each place. Some places you need to scan or validate tickets... So, best to check on respective websites before you set off.
It's all detailed under the drop-down section "A guide to European train travel"
https://www.seat61.com/
https://www.seat61.com/
chip* said:
It's all detailed under the drop-down section "A guide to European train travel"
https://www.seat61.com/
Thanks, plenty of good info on there.https://www.seat61.com/
abzmike said:
Finding routes is easy, Google maps will do that for you,The challenge is that buying tickets in each country is a bit different.. and then in some places you have more than one system - mainline and local services. Then you need to work out the sometimes beaten up and arcane ticket machines in each place. Some places you need to scan or validate tickets... So, best to check on respective websites before you set off.
Yes, Google maps has been pretty good so far in checking out routes and where to change etc.I suppose it's just a case of working out how best to buy the tickets really and the website in the other post below certainly has some good into.
We did a trip last year that took in Belgium, Germany, Italy and France. We used thetrainline to find train times but never booked online or with etickets. Apart from the Dijon to Paris TGV that required booking in advance, we took numerous trains but simply rocked up at the station and bought tickets from machine/ticket office. Tiny little village in Belgium called Theux, got the train to Brussels and also Liege. Germany, again little village Beimerstetten to Ulm and also Munich, and then Bergamo to Milan. We've done similar all over the place in recent years - Japan. S Korea, Canada.....just turn up and buy the ticket. I wouldn't over think this.
Ezra said:
We did a trip last year that took in Belgium, Germany, Italy and France. We used thetrainline to find train times but never booked online or with etickets. Apart from the Dijon to Paris TGV that required booking in advance, we took numerous trains but simply rocked up at the station and bought tickets from machine/ticket office. Tiny little village in Belgium called Theux, got the train to Brussels and also Liege. Germany, again little village Beimerstetten to Ulm and also Munich, and then Bergamo to Milan. We've done similar all over the place in recent years - Japan. S Korea, Canada.....just turn up and buy the ticket. I wouldn't over think this.
Good to know. ThanksI was in Nice last year to watch the Tour de France.
I had a day spare to go to Monaco.
Station in Nice was packed, and although they had many self service machines, the queues were horrendous.
Got my phone out, opened the Trainline app, and had a QR ticket within a few minutes. Straight through the gates and onto the train. Was amazed!
I had a day spare to go to Monaco.
Station in Nice was packed, and although they had many self service machines, the queues were horrendous.
Got my phone out, opened the Trainline app, and had a QR ticket within a few minutes. Straight through the gates and onto the train. Was amazed!
For local journeys just buy a ticket at the station on the day - there is little advantage in booking ahead for those. Longer intercity journeys usually have dynamic pricing so booking ahead can save money - you could use De Bahn (the German train operator) to book all your trains in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.
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