Italiarail.com

Chicago
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Italiarail.com
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Has anyone in the US used this site to book their rail tickets for Italy? Is it reliable? The prices look comparable taking in exchange rates and fees applied to EUR transactions. Thanks in advance!

Housotn
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Best website to use with the best prices is the actual / official Italian Rail website (select English):

http://www.trenitalia.com/

In the past the website rarely accepted US credit cards, however, more recently people have been having success since they switched their payment processing system.

My post on the subject here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187791-i22-k4148508-Trenitalia_com_now_accepts_US_credit_cards-Rome_Lazio.html

Sydney, Australia
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Italiarail.com has been around for some years, and there have been no complaints about it. However, train tickets very rarely sell out and it is easy to buy them in Italy.

Sydney, Australia
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A_Brit_In_Ischia has pointed out that the ItaliaRail site has recently been changed so that it offers Trenitalia's discounted Mini fares. Provided you have firm plans, it could be worth buying these tickets. Note that ItaliaRail does not allow any changes, and a maximum refund of 50%. Read the conditions carefully.

Chicago
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Thanks for your help. I went ahead and purchased tickets mini fares on Italiarail.com. When compared to the trenitalia site, they were A LOT cheaper, and since the prices were in USD, I avoided paying FX fees.

Norwich, United...
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>>> they were A LOT cheaper

Maybe, however the Trenitalia site requires you to go to a further screen before you get to see any of the "Mini" fares... where they then display just the best-priced one that's still on sale....

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/131959355/original

The ItaliaRail system on the other hand appears to show all the possibles, and blanks out any that have already been sold, or aren't available on a given train... such as has happened with the cheapest 1st Class here - though they still had some at $65...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/131959315

If you see what I mean?

Peter

Chicago
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Ahh, that is good to know, thanks. I did just double check the rates on the tickets I just bought, and the mini fares are still very similiar to what I paid on italiarail.com when taking into account the exchange rate and extra fees my credit card charges for foreign exchange transactions. This will probably help others when they are researching. I can't wait to travel!!

Boston...
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Hi - I am the owner of ItaliaRail.com - thank you for booking with us - I hope you have a great time in Italy.

We work directly with the International Sales department of Trenitalia and strive to make booking train travel in Italy as easy as possible.

We connect directly with Trenitalia's reservation system so are able to offer all the special fares that Trenitalia offers including the Mini Fares which depending on the train can be as much as 60% off.

We will shortly be supporting payment in GBP, EUR, AUD and CAD - currently those paying with a US credit card avoid costly foreign bank fees.

All our Italian tickets are either eTickets or TOD (ticket on departure) so there is no shipping fee - we do charge a $5 booking fee to help offset the cost of developing the connection to Trenitalia.

If members of the Trip Advisor Community who book between now and April 30th email me at tripadvisor[at]italiarail.com with their order ID (begins with TRE) I will credit back the booking fee to them.

I hope you find italiarail.com useful and easy to use - I will be tracking this thread and welcome any feedback on how we can improve.

Edited: 7 years ago
Boston...
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Hi - I am the owner of ItaliaRail. Thank you for booking with us - I hope you have a great time in Italy.

We work directly with the International Sales department of Trenitalia and strive to make booking train travel in Italy as easy as possible.

We connect directly with Trenitalia's reservation system so are able to offer all the special fares that Trenitalia offers including the Mini Fares which depending on the train can be as much as 60% off.

We will shortly be supporting payment in GBP, EUR, AUD and CAD - currently those paying with a US credit card avoid costly foreign bank fees.

All our Italian tickets are either eTickets or TOD (ticket on departure) so there is no shipping fee - we do charge a $5 booking fee to help offset the cost of developing the connection to Trenitalia.

If members of the Trip Advisor Community who book between now and April 30th email me at tripadvisor[at]italiarail.com with their order ID (begins with TRE) I will credit back the booking fee to them.

I hope you find italiarail.com useful and easy to use - I will be tracking this thread and welcome any feedback on how we can improve.

Norwich, United...
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Welcome indeed!

That's really good news - and what a pleasure it's going to be, not having to read all those "My CC won't work" laments... it must be Spring?

Peter

PS: Just sampled a couple of random journeys and found - that $5 aside - the prices (even for the slightly risky Mini tickets) were as close as could be to those shown on the Trenitalia site...

Toronto, Canada
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Thank you for the advice. What would be the cost to travel from Anacona to Florence? I am travelling with my two daughters, first time in Italy and little nervous about navigating through Europe by Train. I am on a budget not too strict. As well how often do trains travel from Anacona. I would be coming off a Ferry from Split and arriving at 6 am .

Thank you in advance.

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