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Night Train Question
Fri, 05/11/2007 - 11:17
lottoitalialt
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I was doing some searching last night on the internet using http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en to look up approximate costs for reservations on night trains.  All of them seemed to work out fine, but I was having some difficulty with leaving Munich on July 10 at approx. 8:56 pm and arriving in Paris at approx 6:50 am on July 11.  It showed the trains leaving at those times.  Two of them had several changes throughout the night, but the one (at the time I mentioned above) I believe was a straight shot train NZ 260.  When I went to look up its price on the web site http://www.db-nachtzug.de/site/nachtzugreise/en/start.html it said there were no seat available.  Is this going to be a problem when I go to purchase two tickets for this train when I arrive in Europe on July 4?
 
My schedule is pretty much set with hostel reservations in every city so I was just wondering the chances of this train actually being sold out, or if its just this web site.
 
Thanks!
 

Fri, 05/11/2007 - 14:13
#1
oldlady
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Try again today — sometimes you can’t book more than 2 months in advance.  I got as far as having to enter my credit card number on a 4 berch couchette — there were even special fares available.

I don’t think you’ll have a problem with this ticket.  It’s the middle of the week, although Bastille day is the next weekend.  There are other trains, day trains, buses, flights, trains from Innsbruck, Salzburg or even Vienna.  I’m betting you’ll be able to get to Paris somhow on this schedule.

Fri, 05/11/2007 - 15:05
#2
lottoitalialt
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hmm…you were right.  It seemed to work today, must have been a two month thing.
 
Thanks.

Sun, 05/13/2007 - 13:27
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captain poopypants
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how far in advance should i book a couchette on a night train (munich to rome, leave sunday night)?

also, if i have eurail, how much would the upgrade to couchette cost (if possible)?

thanks as always

Sun, 05/13/2007 - 15:06
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Quote:
how far in advance should i book a couchette on a night train (munich to rome, leave sunday night)?
  I’d try to book this a week in advance.  There are lots of options, but only one that doesn’t have connections.  Sunday nights are busy with people going back home after a weekend trip — although I doubt many folks go from Rome to Munich for the weekend — except maybe for Oktoberfest.  If you’re sure of the date, you can buy it as soon as you land in Europe.  Many of the major airports have an on-site train station.
Quote:
also, if i have eurail, how much would the upgrade to couchette cost (if possible)?
  This site has information on the costs of various types of accomodations when using a railpass on the most popular overnight trains.  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/euraide/overlist.htm  I believe you can buy reservations through this site, but they charge $35 extra.  That’s for all the reservations you make at one time, so if there are several in your party or you’re reserving a lot of different trains, it’s not too bad.  Most sites inflate the cost of the reservation and then charge both shipping and a handling fee on top of that.  I have not bought reservations through the site, so have no personal experience with them.

Sun, 05/13/2007 - 17:02
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captain poopypants
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you are a beacon of knowledge

thanks

Tue, 06/05/2007 - 15:00
#6
Spydey
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here are the details of my nighttrain reservation:

overnight train – 9/25 afternoon/evening – 9/26 morning = 1 night = $106.56 US dollars
CityNightLine
website: http://www.citynightline.ch
9/25 CNL 318 departs from Munich at 10:40PM (22:40)
9/26 arrive in Amsterdam C at 856AM
4 person cabin