Train reservations during off season?? Help!! need answer!

[redeyezman]

Here is what happend so far with the trains.

1. I bought a reservation for a 5PM train to paris
2. I showed up 3 hours early, with global pass, and reservation ticket.
3. The main guy (conductor/head of seating) looked at his roster and saw he had tons of seats open, and sold me 2 seats for 10 euro a person. This was the fast 4 hour train from Amsterdam to Paris
4. I paid and made it to Paris early!

I don't want to keep buying reservations if I know ill be able to just step on the train for 20 euro! We would rather travel during the day to enjoy the train ride, and not become exhausted. Does anyone who has used the train extensively? We got 4 nights in here I would like to figure this out for sure soon!

[Balou]

Try asking over at TA http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g1 ... ravel.html

Peace,
Balou

[matty223]

[quote="redeyezman"]Here is what happend so far with the trains.

1. I bought a reservation for a 5PM train to paris
2. I showed up 3 hours early, with global pass, and reservation ticket.
3. The main guy (conductor/head of seating) looked at his roster and saw he had tons of seats open, and sold me 2 seats for 10 euro a person. This was the fast 4 hour train from Amsterdam to Paris
4. I paid and made it to Paris early!

I don't want to keep buying reservations if I know ill be able to just step on the train for 20 euro! We would rather travel during the day to enjoy the train ride, and not become exhausted. Does anyone who has used the train extensively? We got 4 nights in here I would like to figure this out for sure soon![/quote



, some trains arent a full as others, its always good IMO to have a reservation ( i might be wrong)
have a great trip
Peace matty

[Uncle Ron]

DB charges E2.50 per reservation one way. Not sure about other national rail lines/companies. The only time I have a reserved seat is when it's mandatory, ie... City Night Line.
With DB, the car/wagon I head to first is the Board Bistro/Restaurant. No seat reservations required, and to prevent receiving flack from (whiny) passengers, I usually order something to drink.
My opinion, you shouldn't have any problems traveling w/out reservations. Be mindful though of some legs you may travel. Even in the off-season, locals commute, esp. between 6-9am and 4-7pm.

Happy train travel...

[xxbkrawkxx]

dude lol who the hell reserves a train .

[matty223]

the wealthy lol

[Rasa]

dude lol who the hell reserves a train .

you have to reserve your seat for most trains of long distance in Europe... I have been Eurail passing it around for the past month and some lines don't require a reservation but if they do and you dont have one when the conductor comes you have to pay 25 euro as opposed to 10 euro. I got lucky last night on my way to Geneva from Lyon when I tried to wing it and go without a reservation, the gents kindly only charged me 10 euros when they came around and checked.