Train Reservations/Conflicting info on rail sites?

[gamegrl1]

My concern is over booking reservations for trains. The Rick Steves site said to reserve “any train you cannot afford to miss”. I want to reserve a couchette on a night train from Nice to Venice in the beginning of October. So last night I looked at two different rail sites: www.raileurope.com and the DeutsheBahn site: bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en to see schedules. The thing is, they both had different information. Raileurope showed no overnight trains (just ones arriving in Venice near midnight, and I’d prefer not to be arriving in a strange city so late). DeutsheBahn, however, showed several overnight trains, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it show which had seats available. It also said that the train I wanted couldn’t be booked online. But then do I have to wait until I get to Europe to book a sleeper? If they’re all sold out 5 weeks from now that would be so lame! Any advice?

Is there one particular site I should be going to, to try to reserve space on a train? I mean, I guess I thought the sites above were both kind of “major” sites, but it strikes me as odd that they seem to have conflicting information. I’m ready to buy railpasses but haven’t yet – not until I sort this out.

P.S. We’re planning 5 other train trips – all of which are “reservation compulsory”. The info. I’m seeing on this board seems to indicate that we should be okay just booking these once we get to Europe (we’ll be in France & Italy, end of Sep – mid October). Does this sound about right?

[Eagle]

Sounds like you'll be in France and Italy about the same time I will. With regard to making train reservations, especially on those routes marked as "compulsory", my preference would be to make these the day ahead of travel at the station I'll be departing from. I'm hoping this tactic will work without any "complications" on this trip, and I won't find a particular train all booked up. Considering the time of the year, the rail traffic should be less than in the peak travel season.

Hopefully some of the other regulars will post a few comments on this.

Happy travels!!!

[gamegrl1]

Anyone else want to weigh in on this? (PLEASE?) We leave in 8 days. I feel okay taking my chances on the day trains and just making reservations when we arrive in France.

I'm concerned about the night train, though. I just called RailEurope and hung up when I heard the recording say there'd be a $10 charge for booking by phone. There's no charge to book online with RailEurope, but it shows 0 night trains while DeutcheBahn shows 3. But you can't book online with D.B.

I'm having a hard time figuring this out as the site doesn't seem super user-friendly...I can't figure out if R.E. is wanting to give me reservations only or a whole ticket (don't need it - already have a railpass). Has anyone used RailEurope to make couchette/sleeper reservations? Is it worth the fee, and did you end up getting exactly what you wanted? I'd really like to book with a live person so I can ask questions and be sure to get what I want, but I'm just hesitating. Thanks so much!

[gamegrl1]

Here's the latest - so I called RailEurope this morning and a very nice man booked not only a 3-person couchette for me, but took care of all our other train reservations too! It was great and totally worth the $10 fee because now I have peace of mind knowing it's all taken care of. (and I hardly notice the $10 bucks because the rest of it was so expensive...yikes! )
Anyway, it worked great - everything's taken care of and I got to talk to a live person who answered all my questions - they can even get you things like museum passes, etc.! I'd recommend their services and use 'em again. Ok, commercial's over.

[rchua]

you don't have to reserve those seats until you get to europe. once you get to your first city go to the train station and reserve your next leg of the trip or all your train connections a few days before you depart for the next city.