For a backpacker with a month or more and no fixed itinerary, it s a great feeling to buy as you go.

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Train travel on the European continent is incredibly efficient, but it s also quite mysterious to those who haven t been brought up within the system. It s also worth noting up front that long distance train journeys (as well as Eurail Passes) have been declining in popularity due to increased competition with low-cost airlines, so things have actually become even more confusing lately.
In addition the fact that you can often soak in a lot of scenery and culture on a European train journey, a strong point has been the fact that you can just turn up, buy a ticket, and hop on board moments later. However, there are actually times where you have to book in advance, and other times where it s probably a good idea. We ll discuss when you should and shouldn how to become a licensed travel agent t book in advance below.
With only a few exceptions (covered below), train tickets in Europe have a fixed price that is the same 60 days beforehand as it is as the train is actually pulling out of the station. In other words, you won t save any money by buying in advance, and you ll almost always how to become a licensed travel agent have to pay a service charge as well, so you lose a bit of money at the same time you lose flexibility.
So if you are a free-spirited how to become a licensed travel agent traveler with more time than money, you ll only book in advance on a couple of the exceptions mentioned below. Otherwise, just show up a bit early, and you ll usually come out ahead.
In theory, how to become a licensed travel agent you could be in central London one morning, and decide you want to have lunch in Paris , so a few minutes later you are on the 3-hour journey under the English how to become a licensed travel agent Channel. But it s not quite that simple. In fact, Eurostar train tickets work exactly like airline tickets in that they are cheapest when you buy way in advance, and they get more expensive as the date nears.
The good news is that there are sometimes promotional fares that bring a Eurostar round-trip between London and Paris down to £69 or sometimes even lower. The normal fares start at a jaw-dropping £140 each way if you buy at the last minute. In other words, buy as early as possible.
Compared to continental Europe, the UK has an amazingly complicated system how to become a licensed travel agent that is as frustrating as it is expensive in most cases. After privatization of the rails years ago, there are now many train companies from which to choose, including some that operate how to become a licensed travel agent on the same routes.
how to become a licensed travel agent So for longer train journeys in the UK, the train tickets work like airlines in that you can get some amazing promotional fares on certain routes, even sometimes at the last minute. how to become a licensed travel agent But at the same time, the walk-up how to become a licensed travel agent fares are generally very high, and best avoided.
If you are going to be taking a longer train journey, like London to Edinburgh for example, how to become a licensed travel agent you should research in advance and probably buy in advance as well. Otherwise, not only won t you know which London terminal you ll be leaving from, but you might pay a fortune as well.
Dimming a bit in popularity lately, the Eurail Pass or the more concentrated multi-country passes cannot be purchased from within Europe at all, so you have no choice but to buy in advance. We ll discuss how to become a licensed travel agent whether these passes are good value for different kinds of travelers elsewhere, but for now it s worth noting that you have to buy from while outside Europe.
Many travelers, especially younger ones with a lot of free time, have a permanent carefree attitude to where if the train is full today they ll just get the one tomorrow or the day after. how to become a licensed travel agent I think we d all like to have that attitude, but most of us feel much better about things if we have a ticket in hand.
If you book online from home and have the ticket mailed to you, you ll be paying about 10% more, and probably at least a small delivery fee as well. But for many people it s easily worth it because buying a train ticket in a foreign city can be stressful and time consuming, in addition to giving you an uncertain feeling until you are actually aboard.
For a backpacker with a month or more and no fixed itinerary, how to become a licensed travel agent it s a great feeling to buy as you go. But if you have, say, 2 weeks and you are flying into Paris before taking trains to Brussels , Amsterdam , and Hamburg on your way back to Paris, you might be best off buying how to become a licensed travel agent those intercity tickets in advance.
how to become a licensed travel agent Usually how to become a licensed travel agent with international train tickets you have to find the special how to become a licensed travel agent international how to become a licensed travel agent windows or separate international room, and then you take a number and wait. It might be 5 minutes but it might be an hour before you are called, and in some countries you ll be served by clerks who speak little or no English as well.
From late May through Early September, most of Europe is packed with tourists, and those who wait to find hotels at the last minute are often stuck in the worst or most expensive places. During the busy season it makes sense to book hotels in advance, and as long as you are doing this you might as well pay a small premium to book train tickets as well.
It s true that most European trains have empty seats on them at any given time, but it s also true that sometimes Second Class is so full that some people are standing. On the higher-speed lines (Inter City Express etc) lines you have to have a reserved seat, so they can sell out as well. It s common for European business people to fill up morning and late afternoon trains between business cities, especially during trade fairs and special events.
So if you already know you are leaving Berlin on a particular how to become a licensed travel agent day and you ll be sleeping how to become a licensed travel agent in Prague that night, you might as well pay a bit more to reserve a seat on the most convenient train between the two. If you wait you ll probably still get there, but it s not worth the potential headaches to save US$5 in doing so.