Paris - La Spezia

[clever1963]

This summer I will be travelling in Paris for several weeks and will be meeting my sister at the Charles de Gaule airport to travel by train to Italy. We are going to Cinque Terre. We will meet early in the morning, between 8 and 9 but the exact timing is hard to predict. When I went to the eurail site it seems as if there are only a couple of trains leaving that morning for Italy and those leave too early for us to realistically catch them. It seems that there are no other trains until the evening. We have a hotel booked and would like to be there that night so we do want to travel by day.

I thought trains left very frequently. Any ideas on how we can travel to La Spezia early in the day?

[Eagle]

clever1963,

Welcome to the Boards!

To begin with, could you clarify one point. If you're going to be in Paris for several weeks prior to your sister's arrival, why are you meeting at CDG??? My suggestion would be to have your sister travel to the station you'll be departing from in Paris. This will likely be either Gare de Lyon or Gare de 'Est. She can travel from the airport to the appropriate station using RER "B" and Metro (I can provide further information later).

Travel from Paris to La Spezia by rail is going to be a LONG trip (about 12-14 hours)! With your sister coming off a long international flight, she will be VERY tired at the end of the trip!

One option you might consider would be to use an EasyJet flight from Paris / CDG to Milan / MXP. They currently list flights departing at 13:40, arriving 15:10. Once in Milan, it will be much quicker to reach the Cinque Terre. I can provide further information on that leg of the trip if needed. Are you staying in La Spezia or one of the five villages?

One point to note regarding the Euro budget airlines, is that they often use a "sliding scale", so the prices will increase as the flight fills. Also, tickets are usually non-changeable and non-refundable once booked, and there's often no seating assignments. Be sure to note their luggage limits carefully!

Finally, using the Eurail site to determine rail schedules or whatever is NOT the best idea. For the most comprehensive rail website, use the www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml (German Rail) website.

If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip (especially the "Rail Skills" chapter). It provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel in Europe.

Happy travels!

(* Do you want the Poll question removed??? I'm not sure if I'm able to do it, but can try if you want.)

[clever1963]

Thanks for your prompt response. Much appreciated. I am meeting my sister because she is travelling alone for the first time and is feeling anxious about it. My tour group needs to go there anyway as this is the departure day for the majority of the group so my ride is included. So to put her at ease I decided to meet her there so we could may our way together wherever we need to go. The additional cost is not crucial to me.

We have already purchased rail passes France Italy so getting a flight might not be the most economical choice for us at this point.

I did receive the eurail booklet outlining the schedule but I will check out the site you suggested. Thanks for that.

[Eagle]

clever1963,

As you'll both be travelling with Railpasses, you might consider trying to find an SNCF Boutique towards the end of your tour and purchase Reservations for bothy you and your sister. That way when you meet her at CDG, you'll have everything sorted for the trip to La Spezia.

From the airport, you'll need to get to Gare de Lyon for the rail trip. Use the RER B and Metro. You can get information on the route by having a look at parisbytrain.com (it provides an excellent description of the transportation options).

The duration of your trip will vary depending on which train you use. As the trip will be a minimum of 12 hours with at least two changes, leave as early as possible! What time does your sister's flight arrive? There's a train departing at 09:09, arriving La Spezia at 21:19, so that's one possibility.

If booked early enough, the budget flights are not really too expensive. You'll need to balance that against the cost of paying for reservations on the train. Using a flight to Milan would save you a LOT of time, and you'd reach Italy at a reasonable hour of the day.

[clever1963]

WOW. Thanks for the info, Eagle. My sister arrives at 6:45, hopefully no delays. It will probably be 7:30 or 7:45 before we leave the airport. It shouldn't take more than an hour for baggage I hope. So is it realistic to get from Charles de G to Gare de Lyon for just after 9. I was aware that it was a long day of travel. No problems there. But it would be nice to get there that evening even if it's quite late instead of having to postpone things for a day.

I do have time to pre-book once I get there. And certainly I can look into the flight costs.

Thanks for taking the time to respond with such detail. Very much appreciated.

[Eagle]

clever1963,

With your sister arriving at 06:45, it will take at least an hour to disembark, collect luggage and go through Passport control. it will depend to some extent on how many flights are arriving at that time, and how much staff they have "on duty" at the time. Have a close look at the Paris By Train website, as it includes photos which are a big help in navigating around the airport.

Regarding flights from Paris to Milan, I just checked the EasyJet website and found a flight from CDG to MXP, departing 13:40 and arriving 15:10. The current price is €69.99 PP (but that could change).

Under ideal conditions, the rail trip from CDG to Gare de Lyon should take about 25 minutes. Take RER B to Chatelet (as I recall, that involves a short walk from Chatelet-Les Halles), and then Metro Line 14 (direction Olympiades) to Gare de Lyon.

[clever1963]

Eagle, thank you so much. I so much appreciate the details you've provided. Those prices for flights are very reasonable. I am really regretting my decision to purchase eurail passes. I wish I had discovered this site prior to doing that.

I will look into these options and see how this works out.