Meeting Your Trip in STRASBOURG

This page offers help (concrete or informational) on reaching your trip. Topics include...

1. Where you Join Your Trip (see immediately below)
2. Our “Access Packages,” designed to help you to do so.
3. Suggestions on how to time your trip to the trip, whether you are having us arrange your travel, or doing it yourself.
4. Service information regarding train travel to your trip start location.
5. Suggested pre-trip visits, especially when these are not geographically obvious, but are rendered economical and convenient by direct rail connections.
6. Hopefully helpful hints for those setting up their own travel to the trip.

If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.


1. WHERE and WHEN Do You Join Your Trip?

The trip assembles at the Strasbourg train station, any time between 11a and 3p on the trip start date (a Saturday). A nice warm-up ride is available on the first day, for those able to get in before 1p (arriving by 3p still allows an abbreviated version of this ride).

Those who prefer not to cycle on the arrival day, or who cannot reach Strasbourg by the 3p meeting time, can elect to take a regional train from Strasbourg on to Wissembourg, our first night's stop, and join the trip there. Wissembourg is just over an hour from Strasbourg, trains run every two hours, and the fare is 11 euros. We can send you this ticket in advance , if this is your plan (the cost of tickets bought through us is 7 euros). Or you can decide what to do locally, in Strasbourg, and buy your ticket there.

If you are arriving via Frankfurt, and select this option in advance, we can send you tickets direct from Frankfurt or Frankfurt Airport to Wissembourg via another, shorter route (not via Strasbourg) without additional cost . Just tell us that you want tickets from Frankfurt or Frankfurt Airport direct to Wissembourg, not via Strasbourg.

We will send you details of meeting time and place with your final itinerary.

If you wish to make your own way to the trip (in other words, not to set up your travel arrangements through us), a couple of hints on getting there are offered at the bottom of this page.


2. Our ACCESS PACKAGES
as of January 1, 2007

Our “Access Package” consists of train tickets to Strasbourg from any of Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris or Luxembourg. Tickets from Brussels, Munich or Geneva are available, instead, for a modest additional cost.

Paris is the closest city in terms of travel time (under 2'30" via TGV). Trains directly from the airport are infrequent, however (see service information, below). Frankfurt and Zurich are geographically closer, and trains run directly from airport rail stations, thus saving the trip into town (one connection is required). Luxembourg is almost equally close, but you have to catch your train in the city center.

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 49 €.
If you are a North American traveller, the $ price (US or Canadian) on your price chart applies until 35 days prior to trip departure. Otherwise euro prices are transcribed to your invoice in its currency, converted at the exchange rate of the day on which the package is requested (rounded to the nearest whole dollar or pound). Current “mid-market” rates can be consulted from the site we use for conversion. We use the mid-market rate on the day of conversion, and add 2% to cover currency broker exchange commissions (our conversion rates are thus as good as, or better than, any you could obtain, including via your credit card, unless you are a professional currency trader).

Availability is normally guaranteed until 35 days prior to trip start (payment received by us). Within 35 days, availability must be confirmed, and costs may be slightly higher (especially the costs of shipping rail tickets). Some extra-cost options have higher prices if ordered w/in 35 days.

Included:

• A train ticket to Strasbourg from any of Zurich, Zurich Airport, Frankfurt downtown, Frankfurt Airport, Paris, Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, or Luxembourg. Tickets from Paris or Charles de Gaulle are train-specific, not refundable or exchangeable once ordered.
• If coming from Paris, a seat reservation.
• A printed schedule / itinerary, highlighting any connections.
• Our “Route Sheet to the Trip,” helping you through your journey.
  

Options Offered at an Extra Cost (subject to availability)
Prices are in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price. For a general discussion of train upgrades, see here. Topics include the relative comfort of first versus second class, and different types of accommodation available on overnight trains.

• Tickets from London. Add 59 euros if you are also purchasing tickets back to London, 99 euros if not, or if you prefer a changeable return (in 1st cl., add 90 euros or 135 euros; 1st class tickets include meal service). These are minimum prices. Actual prices depend on fares available at the time of purchase.
• Tickets from Brussels, Munich, Geneva or Geneva Airport: +15 euros.
• Seat reservation from any point except Paris (from whence it is included): +10 euros. Seat reservations are available on all routes. They may make some sense in 2nd class on trains from Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Brussels or Munich. They are totally surperfluous in first class (rarely crowded on a Saturday), and also on the lines from Zurich and Geneva, where service is very frequent and capacity is enormous.
• 1st class train tickets (in lieu of 2nd class): +15 euros from Frankfurt, Zurich, or Luxembourg. +25 euros from Paris, Brussels, Munich, or Geneva. Seat reservations can be made for an additional 10 € (they are required from Paris, but do not cost extra).
• Modifiable / refundable tickets from Paris or Charles de Gaulle Airport: +27 €. These tickets can be exchanged until one hour after train departure on a space-available basis. They can also be refunded, less 20%.
• Ticket from Strasbourg to Wissembourg, if you are deciding in advance to skip the first day's ride: +7 euros.
• Paris airport train tickets, from Charles de Gaulle or Orly to Paris center. Follow this link for details.
  

3. TIMING Your Trip

The ride on the first day is really pretty, very different from the rides that follow, and an excellent warm-up for the harder rides ahead. Get to Strasbourg in time to do it if you can.... If you are arriving the same day from North America, this means booking a flight that lands early in the morning, ideally in Paris, Zurich, Frankfurt, or Geneva, in rough order of preference.


4. Service Information
Schedules are approximate – exact timetables can be consulted at http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm.
Best trains are mentioned. Others are slower or have multiple connections.

• From Paris. Trains will run hourly from 7a (provisionally scheduled at 24” past each hour) with a 2.5’ trip time. There is no service in the 9a hour.
• From Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Trains at 7:45a and 12:45p. Note that the 12:45p service does not reach Strasbourg in time for the warm-up ride. If you are landing in Paris on Saturday, and wish to do the warm-up ride, it will be necessary to go in to downtown Paris, to catch the 12:24p train from the city center, at the latest.
• From Frankfurt or Frankfurt Airport. Hourly service, requiring a change of train. Trip time is 2.5 - 3 hours.
• From Zurich or Zurich Airport. Hourly service, requiring a change of train. Trip time is 2.5 - 3.5 hours.
• From Luxembourg. Fast trains at 10a and 3p make the run in 2'15", but there are no trains in between. A slower service runs at 8a: 3 hours with one connection.
• From Brussels. Trains at 7a and 12n, 5-hour trip.
• From Munich. Direct trains at 6:30a, 8:30a and 12:30p. Other services operate hourly with one connection. 4.5-hour trip.
• From Geneva or Geneva Airport. Hourly service, requiring a change of train. Trip time is 4.5 hours.
• From London. Via Paris or Lille. Add 4 hours for the “Eurostar” service to Paris, the station change in Paris, and the connection time. Services via Lille require about the same overall trip time, though they avoid the change of station.

5. Suggested PRE-TRIP VISITS

Zermatt (in the Swiss Alps): Glorious hiking and other mountain activities at the foot of the Matterhorn. We offer a Blue Marble package, including

• 2 hotel nights (Thursday and Friday nights)
• One dinner
• Two buffet breakfasts
• Zermatt “Access Package”
• Train from Zermatt to Strasbourg
• The services of a Blue Marble coordinator, present in Zermatt

299 euros based on shared occupancy, 369 euros single, “share” rate guaranteed to singles willing to share. Typically, quite a few Marbles will be in Zermatt for this stay.

6. Hints on TRAVELLING INDEPENDENTLY to the Trip
Guests subscribing to an “Access Package” need not read this section.

See also “Timing Your Trip” and “Service Information,” above, as either of these may additionally help.

We gladly provide travel consulting (schedule or routing information) concerning pre-trip individual travel. In particular, we have invested a great deal to become railway experts. Our service fees are reasonable: a 20 euro charge for all but the most complex projects – or the most simple (for instance, only a 10 euro charge applies if the service is limited to the preparation of a routine rail ticket). You will generally find them well-justified by the time they will save you in research, standing on line, overpaying for your tickets, or all three.

But, for some, this type of research is fun. So, here are some hints, intended to start off hardened “do-it-yourselfers.”

Trains. Schedules for all routes can be consulted on this web site:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

Strasbourg is at a rail crossroads, with main lines running east-west (from Vienna through Munich to Strasbourg, and on to Paris), and north-south (from Brussels / Amsterdam to Lyon and Switzerland). Overnight trains come from Spain and the Côte d'Azur. Lots of trains to everywhere.

Planes. Strasbourg has a small airport, served mostly from Paris (though the train is considerably faster if you are starting in the city center). The nearest intencontinental airports are in Frankfurt and Zurich in terms of cost, Paris in terms of travel time (but via TGV, which is expensive if you are buying a walk-up ticket).


If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.