booking european rail travel

[didds]

I know Ive asked this before but I am really struggling.

Im looking for a "travel agent" that handles international (european anyway) rail travel eg Wiltshire to Vienna, or Karlsruhe, return.

Railbookers have taken over a month to come back and eventually say as we only need the rail trip and no accomodation they cannot help (as we are visiting friends).

Ive tried to follow the advcie on the excellent seat61 website but it either becomes too convoluted for my capabilities or the sites don't provide any pricing or say there are no services when its clear from other sources there are - or suggest there is only one service with a 6 hour wait at some intermediate stoip when its obvious there are interim services that would also work but they do not list as options etc. And then there the advice im interested in whether a eurail pass may actually be easier/cheaper anyway ... or where my adult disabled railcard may be used and where not etc its a bloody nightmare.

any suggestions for a rail broker in effect.

[dionaeamuscipula]

I know Ive asked this before but I am really struggling.

Im looking for a "travel agent" that handles international (european anyway) rail travel eg Wiltshire to Vienna, or Karlsruhe, return.

Railbookers have taken over a month to come back and eventually say as we only need the rail trip and no accomodation they cannot help (as we are visiting friends).

Ive tried to follow the advcie on the excellent seat61 website but it either becomes too convoluted for my capabilities or the sites don't provide any pricing or say there are no services when its clear from other sources there are - or suggest there is only one service with a 6 hour wait at some intermediate stoip when its obvious there are interim services that would also work but they do not list as options etc. And then there the advice im interested in whether a eurail pass may actually be easier/cheaper anyway ... or where my adult disabled railcard may be used and where not etc its a bloody nightmare.

any suggestions for a rail broker in effect.

I have no actual experience whatsoever of any use, but have you looked at Interrail? Ignore the pass stuff, there is eg a "plan your trip" section with timetable info.

DM

[SalvorHardin]

I used to travel a lot by train around Europe on holidays (and work), mostly Austria, Germany and Finland. That said I haven't gone any further than Brussels by Eurostar since 2008 so this may be out of date. I can't help with a rail broker / agent, as I used to do everything myself, but here's some information that might be of use.

Tickets. You can't have a Eurail pass if you are resident in Europe. Europeans get to use the Inter-Rail pass which gives you free travel for a fixed period of times. It can't be used on the Eurostar and there are some restrictions on the pricier services such as Germany's ICE and France's TGV (you have to pay something for a reservation - I've only used it on the ICE). It used to be that Inter Rail passes didn't work in Britain for Brits (you got a bit of a discount instead - I once had a weird trip from Newcastle to , but I gathter that they changed the rules on this a few years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrail

I strongly recommend a paper copy of the European railway timetable if you're Inter-Railing. Absolutely brilliant for finding alternative trains and different routes. This used to be the Thomas Cook European railway timetable but they closed it in 2013 and another firm started publishing it in 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Co ... _Timetable

https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

Websites. I used to use Deutsche Bahn for booking tickets. Spent quite a bit of time in Nuremberg, Munich and Bamberg. Deutsche Bahn used to be great because you could sort out tickets for most of Europe. I don't know what the situation is nowadays - the last time I used them was in 2008.

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en

Good luck and happy travels!

[didds]

every time i try and use the DB site (which on the whole is excellent) it just alwatys shows me sections that it cannot price for so i can't ever find a trip that I can just click "book" etc.

Its so frustrating.

didds

[didds]

e.g. ...


(screenshot example)

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5D917EA8

[scottnsilky]

Have you tried. loco2.com sorry not able to post link, I just looked at London to Vienna, first off it said ' not able to find tickets' but scrolling down, it came up with London-brussels-Frankfurt-Vienna, which sounds a reasonable option.
I hope that helps,
dp

[Slarti]

every time i try and use the DB site (which on the whole is excellent) it just alwatys shows me sections that it cannot price for so i can't ever find a trip that I can just click "book" etc.

When I was having that sort of problem I phoned them, on a London number, and the young man I spoke to eventually worked out that the last leg of my journey was not on a DB train, so he did Brussels to Munich on one ticket and the final bit on another. He could still book it for me, just not all on one ticket.

There are times a human is better than the internet.

Slarti

[Gaggsy]

Sounds like you need a Bradshaw's, a pair of powder blue chinos and a salmon pink blazer.

[Clitheroekid]

I've used Trainline for European rail travel successfully - https://www.thetrainline.com/. It might be worth a try?