Any train you choose to take on this route is “included” in your railpass. Your railpass will serve as your ticket. Reservations are required on overnight trains, so you’ll have to pay extra for that. I See two good options, the Elipso 477 at 20:23 which has no connections, is the most comfortable choice, but reservations will be expensive. I don’t believe there are cheaper 6 berths on this train, so I’d assume about € 50 for a 4 berth. The NZ 3731 train at 21:53 has a connection At 8:11in the morning, so a bit more hassle, and longer on the train, but the reservation would probably be cheaper — more likely in the €30 range.

Pamplona to Nice is over 24 hours with 4 or more connections, so I’d definitely opt for flying.

According to the Elipsos website the passholder fares are €50 for a reclining seat and €75 for a berth in a tourist class sleeper.

Yikes. That is a pricey reservation. Thank you to both of you for checking that for me!

oldlady – I did a quick check of Pamplona to Nice. My understanding was that I could catch the Pamplona train around 7 am, make it to Barcelona by 11 am or so. Then catch a noon-ish train to Nice and make it there around 10 pm. I know that is a crazy long time, but we would rather have a full day on a train then spend extra on a flight.
But you say it takes 24 hours? Did I calculate this wrong?? I figured we would be on the train for 14-15 hours.

All of the options I saw on bahn.de were in the neighborhood of 24 hours, although there is one option that’s 17 1/2 hours leaving at 6:35 and arriving in Nice just after midnight. If you can catch the train in Barcelona at 12:22 you can make it to Nice by 22:30, but the earliest train I see (6:35) from Pamplona does not reach Barcelona Sants until 12:40.

I was using bahn.de and using weekday schedules. Where did you find your routing? I guess at least part of this is supposed to be fairly scenic, but I’d sure fly if I could find anything $125 or cheaper.

Those Elipsos trains are quite pricey. There’s a cheaper and slower train that requires a change in the morning that doesn’t show up on the Bahn site for some reason. It leaves Paris around 10:00 p.m. and gets into Barcelona around 11:00 a.m. It looks like a berth in a six person sleeper is 17.50:
http://www.raildude….

That site only shows going to Portbou, but when you make the reservation just get it to Barcelona and you’ll change trains at Portbou.

oldlady – I think it was the bahn website I was on. I don’t know if it would make a difference or not in the schedules, but it would actually be a Saturday train we’d be taking, not a weekday. Are the weekend and weekday schedules different? Hopefully they are! Otherwise, I will have to take your advice and fly. Thank you so much for helping me figure this out!

augustin25 – That is great info!! 17.50 is definitely a lot more reasonable. I’ll be sure to check that out.

You both have really saved my butt! THANK YOU!

oldlady – I just doublechecked. I am leaving Pamplona on Saturday July 7. Unless I am reading this wrong, there is a Pamplona-Barcelona train leaving at 7:25 am and arriving at 11:15 am. Then from there I’ll catch the 12:22 pm Barcelona train and be in Nice by 10:27 pm. Is that right??? Sure hope so!
Thanks again.

I forgot to mention that the cheaper overnight train to for Paris-Barcelona is only available on July 2nd, not the 1st. You can also check the Pmaplona-Barcelona schedule on the Spanish rail site: http://www.renfe.com… I would book your Paris-Barcelona and Pamplona-Barcelona reservations as soon as you get to Europe. Those are very popular routes.

Yes, in this case the Saturday schedule is different from the weekday schedule, so it should work.