Hi,
I’m going to travel through France at the end of July (cca. from Strasbourg to Perpignan) and I wonder if it’s possible to get a lower price than what is calculated by sncf-connect.com.
Would going by lower-category trains pay of? (In such case, could you recommend me some points-in-middle, as the site wouldn’t find a connection from Str. to Per. without TGV.)
Is it possible to buy regional tickets?
Thank you for any advice.
PS: Congratulations to your flourishing community!
If you have time (and want to see small/middle-sized french cities), you can try to use only regional train (TER). They are not very fast, but doesn’t require reservation !
For instance, July 26th, you can make :
- Strasbourg (6h21) -> Mulhouse (7h14)
- Mulhouse (7h46) -> Besançon (8h59)
- Besançon (9h14) -> Dijon (10h18)
- Dijon (10h41) -> Lyon (12h43)
- Lyon (13h20) -> Avignon (15h52)
- Avignon (16h31) -> Perpignan (19h48)
Each of this travel would cost about 20€-30€. You will always be able to buy a ticket in the station (I don’t recommend buying them in advance : they sometimes cost more online). If a train is late or you want to have more time somewhere, on those liaison each train is every 1h - 2h.
I’m only half joking… This could be a beautiful travel !
Do I need a place reservation for TERs? (I’ve found some article about introducing of reservations from 2020, but I cannot find the current state.) And how much crowded TERs usually are?
The general rule is you don’t need reservation on TER. It might be possible to have a reservation, but in many trains this is not even doable (seats are not numbered).
The crowd in trains depends mainly on the travel and time of the day: those trains are mainly used by people commuting to work, students, people going to see their familly… I would say that you will usually find a seat.
There is no place reservation on TER. You paid the ticket and have to find your place among the free one.
Bicycle are usualy free and limited to 6 per TER.
As stated above, avoid late friday and week-end.
Monday mornings and Friday evenings are crowded (because of students going home for the weekend). Otherwise it is quite OK.
If you plan any sequence of trips in TERs for more than ~60€ ask if there are regional cards. In my region the card is 30€ and lowers the price of tickets by up to 50% for any TER or IC train departing from my region, so I can do Pau -> Niort for around 40€ on a good day instead of +80€
You can go on comparabus.com It will calculate from many forms of transport : train, carpooling, plane, bus.
Thank you, this has been really helpful.
No the price will be the same in any other site, you can try trainline for exemple. If you want your journey to last less than 24h you should definitly take the TGV !
Thank you, I just didn’t realize how large France actually is.
And what about ouigo.com ?
Thank you, I shall check it.
Those are low-cost tgv. You must arrive early. Only few small bagage are allowed. Anything above their requirement will cost ya extra charge.
