A major part of our planning process is to make sure that we have all of our connections such as airline reservations, train tickets, etc… pre-purchased before we leave home.  Of course, you can have your travel agent do that for you, which is one of the many reasons to use a travel agent.

If you are the independent type and don’t use a travel agent, then at least follow their lead and make your reservations and purchase your reserved tickets before you leave home. Make sure that you give yourself plenty of lead time, at least a month or two, so that the tickets can be shipped to you.  That way you know that you have a seat on the airplane or train and won’t be going standby or with an open ticket. Once you start looking, you will find everything you need on Rail Europe.

We recently took a grand vacation to Europe that involved a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, a train trip from the airport to the city of Zurich, a bus tour to the Alps, a train trip to Basel, a river cruise down the Rhine to Amsterdam, two bus tours plus an on-off bus tour and a canal cruise in Amsterdam, the high speed train to Paris, intercity train and subway to our hotel, several trips on the subway, an on-off bus tours of Paris. the intercity train to the airport, and finally the flight back home.

Over 90% of all of the tickets were purchased and in our hands before we left home. No fuss, no muss. No worrying if we will be able to get from point A to point B or how to do it.

So, I will walk you through the process for getting tickets for your train travel in Europe just in case you don’t want to use my services as a travel agent to do it for you.

The first job, of course, is to decide where you are going and when you are going.  For our recent trip to Europe, everything revolved around the Romantic Rhine River Cruise with Viking River Cruises. The cruise was scheduled from May 5th to May 12th. To deal with jet lag, we flew to Zurich early, leaving home on the 2nd of May.

Here is where the first issue comes up. We arrived, because of the time difference, at about 11:00 on the 3rd of May. So, make sure to double check for the local time. That meant that we needed a train or a tram ticket from the Zurich Airport to the City of Zurich at about noon. I wanted to take the train because I was going to be taking the train from the Central Station to Basel in a couple of days, and I wanted to be familiar with the train station. I also considered taking the tram if it would deliver me directly to the hotel.

I Googled, “train from Zurich airport to Zurich Central Station” to locate the info that I needed. I also read several of the posts to get some insight from other travelers. After some searching I discovered that I could take the #10 tram and it would deliver me directly to the hotel. It would take about 30 to 45 minutes because of all of the stops enroute. The train would get to the central station in about 10 minutes. Since our hotel was only a few blocks from central station, we opted to take the train.

Almost everything you need to know about trains is found on the Rail Europe website.   Here was the site that we used for additional information.  Just fill in the blanks, and order your ticket, but don’t forget to look at the fine print.  After looking at the fine print, I discovered that there would be an $18 fee to order the tickets and have them sent to me. That combined with the fact that the trains ran every 15 minutes or so, left me to decide that we would buy our tickets when we arrived at the airport. I just had to make sure that I had Swiss Francs available to make the purchase. I will talk more about Swiss Francs and Euros in another blog post.

So, even though I am not booking this part of the trip before leaving home, I am not done yet. I still want to know how to get from the arrivals gate at the air port to the departure gate for the train. More homework.

To find out about getting from the airport to the train, I went back to my original Google search and found the link for Swiss Federal Railways – Zurich Airport. After clicking on this site I found that the train travel center was located beneath the airport. Looks like all-in-one service from this airport. I also found that the tram also runs every 15 minutes as well. I spent a little extra time on the airport site to check out the info on getting through customs.  Now,  I have done my homework and know that it will be an easy transition from the airplane to the train.

I also spent a little extra time online learning about the Central Station in Zurich.  I found that there was a complete shopping center under the train station, including a grocery store, bakery, deli, etc… Our favorite was the Migros grocery store. We saw them every we went in Switzerland. Not mom and pop stores like we would look for in France, but very convenient and with decent prices. We picked up fresh bread, pastries, wine and cheese to take back to our room.

They also had a separate entrance for their Migros Take-Away, a deli where you could get sandwiches to go. Great for taking on the bus trip to the Alps.

For the next leg of the journey, I went back to the Rail Europe website and checked the schedules for the train from Zurich to Basel, our next major connection. Just like before, I typed in the from and to cities and found fares from about (25 Euros) $35 to $48 for economy and up to $74 for comfort seating per person. The trip would take about an hour.  There were very frequent trains so I wasn’t too worried about getting tickets. I checked into the Basel area and found that there was more than one train station, so I checked to see which station would be closest to the pier where we were getting on the ship. The ship was closer to Basel Bad Bf than it was to Basel SBB, but it would require a transfer to an intercity train and it cost more, and the baggage would be more of a hassle, so I opted to take the train to the Basel Central Station and then take the taxi to the pier. A quick check on the taxi fares showed that it would be about $35 Swiss Francs, total for both of us.

The last major connection would be from Amsterdam to Paris France. Back to the Rail Europe site once again. Searching from Amsterdam Central Station to Paris Gare du Nord shows that we would be using the Thalys Rail Service for this trip. The cost for economy was from $124 to $206.

We did book this one online because we wanted reserved seats for the longer trip and I wanted my tickets in hand before leaving home. Also, I wanted to make sure that we were going forward, not backward. If you are traveling as a family with 3 or 4 people, you can get facing seats with a table in the middle if you want. (see the photo above) Regular seats have a drop down tray table just like an airplane. Just like ordering airline tickets online, you just fill in the blanks, provide the credit card info, and you are finished. The $18 fee for having the tickets sent to me was worth it to know that it was already paid for and we did not have to worry about getting a seat on the day we wanted to travel.

Always get to the train station early so that you don’t have to rush. We made sure to stop by the train station a day or two before we were leaving to find out where we would be catching the train. In fact, unlike air travel, you can actually go out to the loading platform where your train will leave from to really get the lay of the land. We also found out where to look on the side of the carriage, next to the door, to see about where to expect our carriage the next day so that we were there and ready to go when the train arrived for us.  Just hop on, put your big luggage on the rack, sort of like the one on the airport shuttle, and take your carry-on back to your seat and put it in the overhead area just like on an airplane.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

• Packing Checklist
• Parent Authorization Letter For Unaccompanied Minors
• Medical Treatment Authorization Letter
• Travel With Minors – Permission Letter

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

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