Venice Travel Forum

My daughter and her friend are going to Munich for a few days from Venice then they will return to Rome to fly home. My question is what is the best way for them to get train reservations. Should they wait till they are in Venice and go to the train station or should we try to book something from here. When I look at the websites I see multi day passes, there seems to be so many options I am totally confused.
We checked out the bahn.de website. Also, what would be the most economical for them.
Everyone has also been so great on these forums...Thanks so much!!
Jeannie

Most likely, you would get a better value on bahn.de than with a railpass. If they choose to take a night train the CNL departing Venice Santa Lucia at 10:51PM and arriving Munich at 6:30 the next morning, it could cost as little as EUR 78 for seats, EUR 138 for 2 beds in a "couchette" (unisex 6-bed cabin), and EUR 238 for a privite cabin with 2 bunk beds.

For Munich to Rome, it appears the best value would be 2 couchette beds for EUR 198 (a private cabin for two can be had for EUR 278, and 2 seats would be only slightly less than the couchette beds). But if you haven't booked the airfares yet, consider buying plane tickets "open jaw" -- that is, have them fly into Rome (I assume?) and fly home from Munich. You can do this fairly easily by selecting the "multiple destintations" option on most travel websites. The airfare is usually the same (or just a bit more) than a round-trip fare, thus allowing you to save most or all of the transport cost and time to get back to the originating airport.

Hope this helps!

Mark

Sorry, I forgot -- the night train from Munich to Rome would be the CNL departing Munich at 9:03PM and arriving at Rome Termini at 9:05 the next morning. The best web link for Deutsche Bahn is http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en .

As I said in the other thread in which you asked a similar question (http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-411074-1-1-Travel-0-36623-Munich-discussion.html), the special fares on the German railway will be very hard to beat either on the ground or in the air - but you HAVE to act now!

In the week or so since I priced the direct day and night trains from Venice to Munich, the cheapest ticket for the day train has risen from 33 euro to 43 euro one way 2nd class. 43 euro is still a bargain compared to the other rail fares (and even air fare, when you count the fare plus fees plus taxes plus travel to/from the airports), but every day you delay, the fares will go up as the cheap seats get taken.

Normally, if you were just traveling in Italy, I would say, "Don't worry." What makes this special is that these are deeply discounted fares offered by the German railroad, that your daughter just happens to be eligible for since she is making this "side trip" from Venice to Rome via Munich.

You can buy these tickets online now at http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/planning/onlineticket.shtml

Of course, this presumes that your daughter and her friend are pretty well settled on their itinerary, since these are non-refundable tickets (I believe); I don't know what the change fee is or if that's even allowed. You should look for this.

However, if they know when they're going, then you won't be able to beat these prices, as long as some discounted tickets are left...

Bill

Thanks, Bill -- I didn't know you had answered this question already in another thread. I'll defer to the "Italian Rail Travel Guru"... ;o)

Cheers, Mark