How to book train tickets for European travel

European trains are not like China. Regular fares are very expensive, generally more expensive than cheap air tickets. However, the train environment is good and not crowded. Many lines are very touristy in nature. The trains depart and arrive on time. There are no restrictions on how many large pieces of luggage passengers can carry. Railway companies in different countries will also launch some very cheap trains. Special discount tickets, so it is very cost-effective to grab special discount train tickets when traveling between countries.

After getting the visa, you can start searching the Eurail (China) website, Deutsche Bahn, French Railways, Austrian Railways, and Italian Railways official websites according to your itinerary. The main thing is to see which railway company sells tickets at the best price for the same section of the road, and buy from that company. It is recommended to choose a sightseeing train route that departs during the day and arrives during the day, because sleeping on the train at night will be uncomfortable.

Summarized several rules of European train tickets:

1. Special tickets for popular routes can only be purchased online. Train tickets within a European country are often purchased in groups of 5 people. The most cost-effective way is to buy tickets. If there are more than 5 people, the system will prompt you to apply for a group ticket. However, the ticket price for this application is only much cheaper than the ordinary ticket, but it is often still more expensive than the special ticket. Therefore, when booking tickets, you can first try to purchase tickets for 4 to 5 people to see the per capita ticket price, and then look at the per capita ticket price when applying for group tickets for 6 people or more. Buy whichever one is cheaper. These 5 people refer to 5 adults. If there are children under 14 years old traveling, 2 children will be counted as one adult. Therefore, if there are exactly 4 adults and 2 teenagers under 14 years old, you only need to buy a 5-person ticket, which is the most economical.

2. You can choose electronic tickets for most train tickets. That is, after the ticket is successfully booked, the official railway website will send the PDF file of the ticket to your designated mailbox. You only need to print out the file and bring it to Just travel to Europe. In this way, there is no need to pay express delivery fees and ticketing fees. However, the daytime train line from Venice to Vienna can only be ordered on the official Eurail website. This line is known as the most beautiful train line in Europe. You can buy it directly from OBB, and the cost is only one-third of that of Eurail, which saves a lot of money.

3. Use a credit card to pay for bookings on the official website. This credit card must belong to the ticket holder. Because the last 4 digits of the credit card number used to pay the fare and the name of the credit card owner are registered on the issued ticket. On European trains, the ticket inspector has to check the ticket holder's ticket + the credit card used to purchase the ticket (check whether the last 4 digits of the card are the same as those registered on the ticket). Only if they are consistent with what is recorded in their system will they be allowed to board the train. If you don’t bring a credit card to purchase the ticket, the printed ticket is equivalent to a piece of waste paper. This method is very useful in restricting scalpers, and it is much simpler and safer than registering a personal ID number for China's high-speed rail.

4. A credit card cannot buy the best discounted tickets multiple times, which is very effective in curbing money scalpers.

5. If you take the high-speed rail, you rarely check your passport, but when checking the ticket, you need to check the credit card used to purchase the ticket, because the last few digits of the credit card number used to purchase the ticket are recorded on the special ticket. So everyone remember to bring the credit card used to purchase tickets with you when traveling.

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The official website addresses of trains in European countries are listed below: