Last minute problems with my seat reservations | Interrail Day 2

Follow my second day on my Interrail trip through Europe, when I realized that traveling through France with the TGV and Thalys required a seat reservation. And making this reservation wasn't as easy as I thought. I couldn't pay for it through the SNCF (French railway company) call center and website. Join me as I travel from Brussels - via Paris - to Barcelona to visit my friend who lives there.

📍 Itinerary
IC Gent Sint-Pieters - Bruxelles Midi
Thalys Bruxelles-Midi - Paris Nord
Metro Paris Nord - Paris Gare de Lyon
TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Barcelona Sants
IC Gent Sint-Pieters

👀 You can contact me by leaving a comment below, or by using the links below:

🎥 All footage was taken on the road between Leipzig, Germany and Ghent, Belgium.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Which equipment do I use?
Phone Gimbal: Zhiyun Smooth 4
Microphone: Rode Wireless Go
Microphone: Rode Wireless Go II

--------------------------------------------------------------

Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0

#interrail #discovereu #solotravel #travelbytrain #slowtravel

KLIK

[naaama]

I had a similar experience with SNCF. The site was a complete mess. If they require mandatory reservation AND have a quota for Interrail passangers, they should atleast make their site to work. I finally managed to make my reservations by testing different language versions of their site. They seemed to differ quite a bit.

[janswildlife]

Hi Clara ... Better if you get a one month global pass next time, 4, 5, or 7 day. I recommend a paper pass and better not to use the new digital app. Getting reservations is always hassle, I have been doing this for the last five years on a similar route to you.

I recently came back from Spain via Barcelona-Lyon (maybe you remember I was planning to cycle from Germany to Spain, which I completed a few weeks ago). Using the paper pass was super and hassle free but this year I used the new app., which was awful and they docked one day off my 5 day pass when I never travelled.

I could not get a reservation from Lyon to Karlsruhe at Lyon station and in the end travelled via Switzerland, which required no reservations and turned out quicker, even travelling on a German ICE. Reservations used to be fixed at between 12-20 euros. Now they are all over the place and sometimes cost as much as 40 euros.

I saved about 60 euros by not booking the three reservations to Karlsruhe so you need to do it yourself and shop around. Unless you are on a tight time schedule I recommend NEVER getting a reservation and avoid ticket offices. What's more you can wait up to an hour in a ticket office queue to get a reservation when you could be already on your way. But you need a Global pass.

[somanianands]

hey, How easy to get seat reservation from Bruxelles-Midi - Paris Nord (Thalys) ? Can I get reservation on station on time?