Most rail websites are travel agencies that specialize in European rail travel. They sell “global” tickets and charge handling and shipping fees resulting in prices from 30% higher than you’ll pay at the train station in Europe to almost double the price. In order to buy tickets at normal prices or to take advantage of any specials you will need to use the individual national rail company websites. http://reiseauskunft… is the German rail website — best for checking schedules anywhere in Europe and for buying tickets for routes in Germany or that start or end in Germany. www.sncf.com is the French rail site and www.trenitalia.com is the Italian rail website.

You may not be able to buy some of the international tickets on-line. If you can’t, wait until you get to Europe to buy the tickets. Have you checked into buying a railpass? A railpass will probably save money for this itinerary.

If there’s at least one German city involved in the trip, take a look at www.bahn.de . For many routes there are 29 Euro and 39 Euro deals available if booked far enough in advance. These deals can generally be booked about 89 or 90 days in advance, until the cheap seats run out. The drawback is that these tickets are non-flexible.

For Amsterdam to Paris, take a look at www.thalys.com and www.voyages-sncf.com and www.tgv-europe.com .

For a trip like Rome to Munich, do you plan to stop anywhere? Venice would be a natural stop, because you can get a direct 4.5 hour trip from Rome to Venice on www.trenitalia.com (although many non-Italians have trouble with credit cards on the site), followed by a ticket from Venice to Munich booked on www.bahn.de (about 6.5 hours). But if you are going to break in Venice, you might as well stop and enjoy it a bit. And booking two nonrefundable tickets close together is asking for disaster.

The savings from booking far ahead can be quite substantial – easily 50 Euros or more per ticket on some routes. If you decide to go for a railpass, which certainly allows more flexibility than nonrefundable tickets, make sure to consider all the hidden costs too, such as compulsory reservations for some trains that you have to buy separately from the railpass.