Can anyone help save my holiday - trains across Europe not doable

[lurchersforever]

I have (thankfully fully refundable) accommodation booked in Geneva, Vienna and Genoa in the summer. Looked at the seat 61 seat and it all seemed to be doable, if a little complicated. Train tickets were not on sale until recently so I signed up to alerts but I did book the Eurostar when those seats came live at Christmas.

Last week I got the alert for the Paris - Geneva leg so went to book last night. The cost is 4 times the highest cost quoted on the seat 61 site. I then had a look at Geneva - Vienna, which I sure I signed for an alert for and have not received, and that journey is just saying unavailable/available but not as a sleeper but 7 changes, one in the middle of the night.

I think I need to just rethink the whole holiday. Both dc really looking forward to Geneva, for different reasons, so thinking of sucking up the cost of that train and keeping that bit, but cancelling the other cities and looking for one other place that is fairly easy to get to from Geneva and then easy to get back to Paris for the train home.

DS1 really wanted a sleeper train and the new city (yes, does really need to be a city - neither dc like pools etc and are not sporty, like walking but nothing more outdoorsy than that) needs to have enough to do for 10 days or so to fit with the Eurostar home, though I think you can change the dates for that - need to check. DS1 loves museums/history, ds2 loves - cafes and really wanted mountains and the sleeper!

This is really stressing me out now - any advice would be brilliant.

I don't know if this helps or not, but would it be any cheaper to buy inter rail passes www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-passes/global-pass/ ?

Can you fly from Paris to Geneva? What about Lyon after Geneva, as its also easy to get back to Paris from there?

Plenty of interesting cities in Switzerland easily accessible by train from Geneva. Bern has a lovely old town and the Einstein Museum and Lucerne beautiful with a lovely mountain setting.

I'd think about an interrail ticket instead.

Can you call NightJet to see if you can book Zurich to Vienna? +43 (0)5 1717

For Paris to Geneva, when are you travelling, can you look a few days either side. The Olympics is adding complexity to travel this year. But moving the dates could leave you with expensive Olympic accomodation .. or very limited availability.

On 17th July for example, the price for 1 adult and 2 children Paris to Geneva at 8am is €80 but €350 on Friday 19th at 13h.

There are some NightJet trains from Zurich to Vienna (see attached image)... and also from Paris to Vienna NJ468/9.. but only in the next months.. not in the summer so maybe not bookable yet..

You might need to book the trains first and change the acvomodation to suit.

5 cities is ambitious depending on how long you have in total.

London- Paris - Geneva - Genoa - Zurich - Vienna - Paris - London could work.

Are you doing an Interrail ticket and booking reservations or booking tickets seperately.

The last 2 summers we did some train holidays.. the logistics were challenging and required us to change our initial plans, lots of time on the phone / internet with different timing and pricing scenarios but totally worth it when it all came together!!

Good luck!!!

With an interrail ticket, on many routes you still need a reservation so it doesn't take away all of the complexity and isn't alwyas cheaper.

What dates are you looking at? I'm seeing for example Paris to Geneva on a Saturday in July for 49€

Or look at flixbus for some of the legs

How about Milan or Turin from Geneva? Or head up to Germany and then take a train from Frankfurt or Stuttgart back to Paris

Lyon and Nice and back to Paris? Lyon has great food culture, and from Nice you can reach many pretty little coastal villages on local trains.
Or Milan to Munich?
Don’t know about the trains but they are really interesting cities.

Oh, I didn't know it was the Olympics...we are going end of July - beginning of August. I'll have a look at some of the options suggested, but accommodation wasn't exactly plentiful back in the autumn so maybe I've just been a bit over ambitious and need to slim it right down!

I even tried looking at flights for some legs (which I'd be reluctant to do anyway) but can't work out the best place to look for those either.

Thanks everyone!

What about taking a train from Geneva to Zurich and then a sleeper train from Zurich to Berlin.

You could then take a train back to Paris.

Note that French train tickets by SNCF are generally only available 3 months in advance so summer tickets are not out yet.

And yes July is going to be hell in Paris with the Olympics. Prices have gone crazy.

Kids been on numerous school trips to Germany for some reason - they have a teacher whose main job seems to be booking trips! Otherwise that would have been a great shout.

Geneva to Carcassonne then break the journey to Paris at Narbonne.

Not sure if that helps or not

We did a big train journey across Europe last year. Changed everything to get a nightjet from Brussels to Zurich then had our sleeper car cancelled at the last minute. So had a very complicated journey across Germany with multiple changes and cancelled trains. Contrary to popular belief European trains are not better, cleaner, less crowded or cheaper than the U.K.! What we did find though was that every ticket office we stepped into we found someone who spoke English who was genuinely helpful who helped us with the next leg of our journey and we felt well supported.

So if I was going to do it again (and we are but not this summer)
I would forget the sleeper, travel as far as I could each day and find someone near a station to sleep each night.
Accept it will go wrong at least twice.
Book seat reservations as often as I can. Avoid Germany - in every other country they talked about the disaster that is the German rail network.
And certainly not take grandparents. (DC were awesome and went with the flow, GP less so!)

Ps Youth hostel style accommodation for single night stays can be perfect. Look at DAN hostel and generator hostels.

Re. the Eurostar: yes, you can change your travel dates without incurring a penalty charge, as long as you do so more than seven days before travel. However, you'd have to pay any difference in ticket prices if they've gone up since you originally booked.

If you alter dates less than seven days in advance, you have to pay a penalty as well as any difference in ticket prices.

It sounds like the tickets aren't fully released yet (this happened last year too) so I'd wait a couple of weeks before making any final decisions.

I did Turin with teens by train a few years ago. It was really interesting - good museums and food and nice to wander around. Train to Paris through the alps was great.

Agree with this. Happened to me a few years ago.

Ok so I've had some coffee and started it all again and have found that actually Paris - Geneva is bookable for £170 total, which is not 4 times more than seat 61 said. Don't know what happened last night. And I seem to have logged on to a different part of the Nightjet site and can book a sleeper for £350 Zurich to Vienna on the date we want. Assume Geneva - Zurich is fine and doesn't need booking right now. However, here my luck ran out and Nighjet just says 'no offers' for Vienna - Genoa on the date we want. No times available even looking at days/times either side, so maybe not released now? Don't know whether to book what I've found so far and pick somewhere else other than Genoa, which was a bit of a random pick anyway...

Thank you so much for the replies - even the slightly scary one from @Cyclingforcake , which I'm kind of ignoring!😁

What about Prague from Vienna, and back via Brussels instead of Paris?
Easy to get a cheap coach from Prague into Germany, and then a direct train to Brussels from, say, Frankfurt or Cologne?

Honestly it was an adventure. We had a great time. It just didn’t go as planned! The hardest bit was the grandparents flapping every time it didn’t go as planned!

Glad you got it sorted. But I echo what PP said about tickets potentially not being released yet. We're going to Limoges in the summer and I'm waiting with bated breath to book the tickets from Paris (already booked the prohibitively expensive Eurostar - thanks Olympics!).

If I journey you think should be direct is offering you five changes, it is likely that the tickets aren't available yet.

Keep us updated, I love a train holiday!