Travel on trains in Europe. Subtleties for the purchase of train tickets

Airplane &# 8211; This is not the only way of movement for travelers. In Europe, the railway system is well developed, trains there are beautiful, clean, modern and quite inexpensive, if you correctly search for tickets.
Today we will talk about the intricacies of buying tickets and the use of railways in Europe.

How to find the lowest prices and where to buy train tickets in Europe?

As in the case of airline tickets, train tickets can be bought in both the ticket office and online via the Internet.

The most simple and most common way is the most unfavorable way &# 8211; It is buying a train station or railway station. But it is simple and understandable.

A little more difficult to book online train ticket online, here you will not prevent knowledge of English or language of the country on which you will travel by train.

First of all book tickets for >Raileurope, however, there they can be more expensive than on the site of the national railway.

Below are the sites of national railways of some European countries, where you can book train tickets online.

If you are looking for a ticket cheaper, the perfect way to search &# 8211; This is to compare prices for Rail Europe and on the railway site of the country for which you travel, or where sits on the train, if you travel from one country to another.

And now to the advice of cheap train tickets:

1. Try to buy tickets in advance. In the case of trains, this rule works even better than with air tickets. The difference can be more than 2 times. Sale opens, as a rule, in 90 days, in some places for 60. And on the Eurostar train, which runs between London and Paris for 120 days.
2. If you are up to 26 years old, then look for special tariffs for young people, they are cheaper than the full tariff. But if you buy much in advance, it is likely that even an ordinary ticket will be cheaper than the youth.
3. If you are traveling by, check the offers for groups such tickets can also be cheaper than standard tariffs.

What types of train tickets are?

Globally, all w / e ticket can be divided into 2 categories. Tickets with pre-reservation and tickets with an open date.

Tickets Pre-registration, in turn, can also be of two types:

• A single document, which contains information about the direction, train number, time, car and particular location in the car.
• Two documents open ticket + reservation which shows the travel date, the data train, train, place, etc.NS.

Tickets with open date do not require reservations. For example, you bought a train ticket to Paris &# 8211; Milan, which means that you can take any train at any time to be in this area and which does not require prior reservation. In this case, you do not have a specific vehicle or place you occupy any free.

Not all trains need a reservation, in some places it is recommended, that is,.E. you can book liked the place or the date the trip, but you can and just take the train and occupy any free space, in principle,.

Need a reservation or not depends solely on the train:

• Reservation is always needed (Reservation Required) on high-speed and overnight trains, t.E. Overnight. Even if you are traveling on a travel, then such a train you need to make an additional booking for a specific place, often, she paid.
• reservation recommended (Reservation recommended) &# 8211; in this case it is not necessary, but you must admit, it’s worth a little extra for a reservation, but you will have your own space and do not have to walk through the cars and look for him.
• Reservation is not needed (Non-Reservable) &# 8211; in this case you buy a ticket with an open date, which is valid on any train in a given direction, provided that it does not require reservation.

How to get a train ticket?

If everything is simple with the air tickets, everyone has long moved to the electronic version, then the old system and paper tickets have left in many places.

No matter online You booked or not, tickets can be:

• Paper (Paper Ticket) &# 8211; In this case, you book and pay it online, and then the transport company sends it to you by ordinary mail.
• Electronic (Print AT Home E-Ticket) &# 8211; After payment, you print a ticket at home and take it with you. Depending on the train, you can send a PDF document or a link to it, which you want to print a document. If there are no investments, then email is your ticket &# 8211; We print and take it with you. And the last option &# 8211; you send the reservation code, this is the only case when printing the paper version is not necessary. The system is almost the same as with electronic tickets, you need to show your passport and reservation code, for example, from mobile.
• Paper tickets that need to be printed at the station (Print at the Station E-Ticket) &# 8211; These tickets must be printed at the checkout or in a special self-service kiosk.

After payment, you will receive Email with a booking room that you want to enter when printing a ticket from a special machine. On some routes, there is one subtlety that must be taken into account. You can print a ticket in the kiosk only at the station from which you go initially. For example, if you have a ticket to both sides of Paris &# 8211; Rome, then print tickets to Paris &# 8211; Rome and Rome &# 8211; Paris must be in Paris, in Rome to do it will not work.