Eurail Britrail
Anyone know about Britrail Eurail/Eurostar?
I’m travelling on all of these on a trip to Europe/UK (2nd/youth class/flexi pass) and I am wondering for say on Britrail or Eurail if you don’t reserve a seat how do you know where you can sit and which carriage you should be in? I understand that only some routes need to be reserved and due to the nature of my trip I won’t be reserving most of the time.
With the Eurail passes, there are additional reservations/supplemental fees on many of the higher speed trains and night trains. There’s information here on the trains and costs for supplements in various countries: http://www.eurail.com/eurail-reservations-supplements-domestic , http://www.eurail.com/eurail-reservations-supplements-international-trains , http://www.eurail.com/eurail-reservations-night-trains . If you’re here in Italy, make sure you have the reservation before you get on the train.
If you’re on a regional train, it’s unlikely that any seats are reserved. You can sit where you like. On the higher speed trains, sometimes there will be a card above the seat indicating whether it’s reserved or not and what part of the trip it has been reserved for. Look for a seat without a card. I was on a CIS train that was going from Venice to Geneva yesterday evening. I was only going as far as Verona, but I know that someone else had the seat from Verona to Geneva because it had a card that had both reservations on it. Some trains like the Eurostar or Alta Velocità trains here in Italy have only reserved seats so you will have a seat number. If you’re sitting in a seat that someone else has reserved, they’ll let you know and you just move to another seat. The carriages are marked on the outside whether they’re 1st or 2nd class. It’s very easy.