Thalys is one of those quintessential European brands — very grounded and yet very cosmopolitan at the same time. We raised a smile when Thalys burbled in a press release that the cafés on Thalys trains are more than merely spots to grab a cuppa. In Thalys-talk those bistro cars are “symboles de convivialité et d’échanges interculturels.” Now you know! With Thalys you get culture and conviviality with your cappuccino.

Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam

Thalys trains run non-stop from Paris to Brussels (and vice versa) up to two dozen times each day. They dash between the two capitals in just 82 minutes — not bad for a run of some 200 miles that takes in a great sweep of Picardy and Flanders along the way.

Thalys has a monopoly in direct train services between Paris and Brussels, as indeed they do on a number of other routes (such as from Amsterdam to both Brussels and Paris). About half of the Paris to Brussels services continue north beyond Brussels to Amsterdam — along the way stopping at Antwerp, Rotterdam and Schiphol Airport.

Daily direct services from Paris to 18 destinations

Other Paris-originating Thalys services fan out from Brussels to serve other destinations across Belgium and neighboring Germany. Here is a summary of direct Thalys links from Paris (all are direct trains via Brussels):

Bruges: 1 per day
Brussels Zaventem Airport: 1 per day
Cologne: 5 per day
Duisburg: 2 per day
Düsseldorf: 3 per day
Düsseldorf Airport: 1 per day
Essen: 3 per day
Ghent: 1 per day
Liège: 5 per day
Oostende: 1 per day

In addition, Thalys has a once-daily service from Paris to Liège via Mons, Charleroi and Namur (so not serving Brussels).

Seasonal services

Thalys also runs a limited number of additional seasonal services geared to the holiday market. These include summer Saturday services from Amsterdam (via Brussels) to the south of France and winter direct trains to French ski resorts.

Passengers board a Thalys train in Liege. Photo: HiddenEurope.

On board

Thalys trains offer two classes of service, referred to as Comfort 1 and Comfort 2. All seats in both classes are fully reservable. This is not, on the whole, a turn-up-and-ride rail service. You need to book in advance.

Travelers in Comfort 1 accommodation making any journey of 50 minutes or more receive a complimentary meal service appropriate to the time of day. Expect a decent three-course spread on midday and evening journeys and lighter snacks at other times. Good French wines and classic Belgian beers are also served without charge in Comfort 1.

Comfort 2 passengers can make their way to the bar for a snack, sandwiches and beverages — but you do have to pay.

Fair fares

Thalys services open for booking three months prior to the date of travel and — as so often across Europe — it pays to book early for the best deals. Fares are keenly priced, with a one-way ticket from Paris to Cologne starting at €35. There are some especially good deals in Comfort 1 at off-peak times.

Thalys also offers great value through fares from London, using Eurostar to Brussels and connecting there with onward Thalys connections to the Netherlands and Germany. One-way fares start at €59 in Comfort 2 (with Standard Class on Eurostar) and €109 in Comfort 1 (with Standard Premier on Eurostar).

Pass holders

We are great fans of the Thalys product. This is a rail operator with a great network served by premium high-speed trains. If we have just one negative comment, it is that holders of Eurail and InterRail passes should think twice before opting for Thalys.

Rail passes are not accepted at all on the seasonal Thalys services to the Alps and Provence. They are accepted on other Thalys trains, but only for international journeys, and the rail pass supplements are hefty — sometimes even more than an advance-booking ticket for the same journey. Here are some examples of the supplements payable by holders of global InterRail and Eurail passes:

Paris to Amsterdam €39 (2nd), €62 (1st)
Cologne to Paris €36 (2nd), €51 (1st)

If you have a pass with more restricted geographical validity, one that covers only part of your intended Thalys route, then even higher supplements kick in.

Alternatives to Thalys

Thalys offers comfort and speed. But if you have a rail pass, you have the flexibility to take detours. Even in markets where Thalys has a monopoly in direct train services, there are always other options. You will need to change trains along the way, but you can then avoid those hefty Thalys supplements.

From Brussels to Amsterdam, for example, just take the regular cross-border service to Den Haag. The latter route runs every two hours. At Den Haag, you can hop onto the next Dutch local train for the short onward journey to Amsterdam.

The post Paris to Brussels and Beyond: Essential Thalys appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Remember, of course, that local and regional train services are often bookable but not reservable. So, although you can book tickets, you’ll not be able to reserve a seat.

The three-month-rule

There are minor variations in how that three-month-rule is interpreted. For Thalys train services, linking Brussels with Amsterdam, Cologne and Paris, tickets become available three months to the day before travel. For bookings on the Deutsche Bahn website, each new day’s wave of bookings is released at midnight (Central European Time), 92 days before travel.

Eurostar services: Four months ahead

For services linking London with Lille, Paris and Brussels, Eurostar accepts online bookings four months in advance of travel. But if you want to use Eurostar’s direct services from London to Avignon in the south of France, you’ll find that Eurostar is already accepting telephone bookings for journeys up to September 10, 2011.

Looking east

For journeys to and from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, trains are usually bookable 60 days in advance, although we have noted that for journeys within those countries, the forward booking window may be only six weeks.

Finland works on a sixty-day-rule for services into Russia but domestic trains may be bookable longer in advance. For example, they are presently accepting bookings thru late April. Finland is unusual in that its online booking system closes down at night.

Early birds get the deals

Remember that for long-distance trains in Europe, it really pays to book just as soon as you can firm up your plans after bookings open. That one-way fare from Salzburg to Amsterdam for just €39 may be there for the taking 92 days in advance, but a week later may have crept up to €69. Leave booking till just one month prior to travel and you may have to pay €99 for the same journey. Early birds get the best deals.

Rail pass options

Interested in seeing a full list of rail pass options? Visit our booking partner, Rail Europe, to compare rates, destinations covered and see their latest promotions.

The post When Should You Buy Train Tickets in Europe? The three-month rule appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Victor posted on March 11, 2010:

“Hi, three of us have planned a trip to Europe from 27th June 2010 to the 10th July 2010. Our itinerary will take us from London to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Berlin and back to Paris and London.

We wish to travel extensively by rail. Please help us make a schedule that would enable us to touch all or most of the cities as planned above and at reasonably priced rates. We are all adults above 40 years of age and most likely do not qualify for any discounted fares. Please also inform us when and where rail bookings could be done in the UK. Thanks.”

________________

Reply from Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner of hidden europe:

Hi Victor,

We cannot help you with all you ask, but we can venture a few comments that will perhaps inform your thinking, as you and your friends plan your journey. In responding to your question, we hope these thoughts will also be of broader interest to folk here on EuroCheapo.

The key thing here is to think very carefully quite what you and your two traveling companions want to get out of your upcoming journey. Is the journey the centrepiece or are your hearts set on getting to know the various cities you plan to visit? We rather sense the latter.

1. Too packed an itinerary

Europe is a lot larger than many outsiders imagine, and your itinerary touches only a small part of western Europe. You have fourteen days for your explorations (including your days of arrival in and departure from Europe). Let’s assume that you spend at least a couple of nights in London after flying in, and you want to be back in London on the eve of your departure. That brings the time available for the round trip through continental Europe down to ten nights.

Taking the fastest trains, your itinerary from London to Rome and back (as specified) would take 75 hours. Are you really thinking of spending six or seven hours every single day on trains? If you use slower night trains, you can sleep from one city to the next, but your 75 hours travel becomes closer to 100 hours.

Our view is that this could so easily turn out to be the trip from hell. Of course, you could use night trains for some legs, but you are still spending much time travelling. At the pace you propose you have only one day to see some cities. Yes, that is do-able, but how much can you see in that time?

Let’s take an example. You could leave your hotel in Rome before 7 AM and be in the middle of Venice in time for lunch. You could sightsee in Venice for the afternoon, and catch a night train at 9 PM direct to Vienna. You would be in the middle of Vienna by 9 AM next morning – great if like us you sleep very well on night trains. But if you don’t sleep perfectly, you could arrive shattered and it’ll be too early to be able to check into a hotel.

The sequence in which you have ordered the cities is very sensible, but the entire itinerary is too condensed. Over a couple of months it could be fun. Packed into a few days, it might become an ordeal. You could possibly shift Amsterdam towards the end as it could easily be accommodated en route from Berlin to London, assuming you had no real wish or need to go back through Paris a second time. So the home stretch back to London would now look as follows:

Berlin to Amsterdam: 7 hrs by day (with one train change en route at Amersfoot)
Amsterdam to London: 5 hrs by day (with one change at Bruxelles Midi)

Moving Amsterdam to later in the sequence then frees you up to take the Palatino night train direct from Paris to Rome. Departure is around 6 PM each day. Lovely train – you can enjoy dinner on board as the countryside south of Paris slips by outside the window. It is a super way to spend a summer evening.

Bear in mind that our aggregate travel figure is time on the actual trains. Add in transfers in each city from hotel to train and vv, and your time for sightseeing is even more eaten up by travelling.

Our feeling is that each city on your list deserves a week – not just a few hours. At the very least, you need two full non-travel days in each city just to begin to scrape the surface. That implies three nights in each city. With the time you have you could perhaps pack in three cities on the continent (ie. apart from London) but surely not more.

2. What kind of Europe

Europe is a continent of countryside and small towns. The places you propose to visit are busy, cosmopolitan, and (dare we say) much favoured by international tourists. They are spots you can be sure of finding Starbucks, crushed ice and waiters who speak English.

But there is another Europe – the Europe favoured by many Europeans. If you could throw in a dose of small town Europe, you would find out so much more about our continent, our lives and our varied cultures. And if you are to travel so fast, then it is easier to get the flavour of a country in a smaller place. Better Bergamo than Rome; better Potsdam, Görlitz or Quedlinburg than Berlin; better Shaftesbury, Lavenham or Cambridge than London.

Why not drop some big cities in favour of smaller places? Relax. Take time and watch the sun set behind the mountains in the Alps. Less might be more.

3. Advance booking is the way to deep discounts

You suggest that you may not qualify for any discounted fare. This is not the case. Anyone in Europe can qualify for a discounted fare.

Let us take Vienna to Berlin as an example, using the only direct trains that link the two cities. These all run via Prague and Dresden (yes… more temptations Victor, we know, for now you’ll surely want to pack in an afternoon in each of those two cities as well).

If you just pitch up in Vienna and buy the Berlin ticket on the day (and that is always possible), the regular one-way fare is €117. If you purchase the ticket well in advance (we always recommend 10 to 12 weeks), then you can ride the same route on the same trains for €29. Even with the cheapest fares, you can still break your journey (in Prague, Dresden or anywhere else on the way), but you have to specify that at the time of booking. With the full fare you do not need to pre-specify stopovers.

If you book slightly in advance, say just a week or two before travel, you will still get a ticket for way less than €117, but it will no longer be €29. For a midweek off-peak day, booked a week in advance, you might pay €49. For a peak summer travel day, you might pay €99. But chances are that you will still get a discount.

But it is not as if students or seniors can somehow get privileged access to the rock bottom €29 fare. You can secure the most heavily discounted fares if you book well in advance. Advance booking is the key to cheap travel – not age.

4. Night train fares and the Eurail pass

If you take our suggestion above of using the Palatino train from Paris to Rome, bear in mind the fares structure. We give this as just one further example of how much fares can vary. That run can cost as little as €76 per person if booked in advance (using the Artesia Depart+Go fare). Or as much as €265 each if you book at short notice and opt for the highest class of accommodation (ie. sole occupancy of a sleeper compartment).

Be wary of rail passes sold outside Europe. If you are doing a very packed itinerary, spending hours each day on trains, they may be great value. But check the small print. For many routes they may not offer entirely free travel.

Let’s go back to our Artesia example above, using the Palatino night train from Paris to Rome. Book now, and as we said you could get tickets for €76. If you have a rail pass that includes either France or Italy, you might imagine you would ride for free. But actually not – a Eurailpass valid in France or Italy will give you a €6 discount on the €76 Depart+Go fare. So you pay €70 in all.

5. More information and booking

Web sites are great for travel planning, and you can book most or even all these tickets online now – even before you leave the US. We would advise that, rather than waiting (as you imply in your question) until you arrive in the UK to book tickets.

And remember that the best deals will always be on the websites run by the rail operators – not those run by agents outside Europe. To get the best from those websites, use the native language versions of them.

Once your exact itinerary is clear we can advise you the best site to book each leg. You could end up using such a variety of services, that you might be looking to a mix of train companies for your bookings: Eurostar, DB, Thalys, Artesia, SNCF, Trenitalia, SBB, ÖBB and more besides.

With a packed itinerary like this, and so many trains, there will surely be a hitch or two along the way. In such cases, there is no substitute for a printed timetable – and it is good at the planning phase too. We suggest you purchase the current (ie. March 2010) issue of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable. Details are available on the Thomas Cook website. That will be a great asset in planning.

You might also consider getting the June issue in due course too – just to ensure that the schedules you have with you on the actual journey are bang up-to-date.

6. Apologia

So, Victor, we fear we have not answered your questions quite as you would have wished. But we hope that in these words there is something that will assist you in your travel planning. We wish you and your two traveling companions a fun time as you journey through Europe.

The post European Train Travel: Some important considerations before booking tickets appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.