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Hi, just wondered if anyone has used motorail to Italy or France and has any advice?

Micky

You have to drive into Paris now to catch the motorail on one of the four 'lines' in France!  To get to Italy you'd have to drive to t'Hertogenbosch in Holland!

This is taken from the Seat61 website:

The French Railways operate their own domestic car-carrying trains, called Auto-Train, some of which run all year round at least a few times a week.  Auto-Train is different from all the other motorail services in that cars & passengers travel separately:  You check your car in during day 1, the cars are transported overnight, and you pick your car up on day 2.  Passengers travel on any regular passenger train they like, either a daytime TGV or overnight train with couchettes.  You can find more information (in French) at www.voyages-sncf.com/services-train/auto-train.

Cost:  Paris-Nice costs around £220 each way for the car, Paris-Narbonne £205, Paris-Brive or Paris-Bordeaux £155.  However, there are some cheap deals if you book well in advance, from 49 euros one-way for the car.  Passengers pay normal rail fares, which start at 22 euros one-way, see www.raileurope.co.uk.

How it works:  You drive your car to Paris Bercy Station.  After a vehicle inspection, you hand over your keys and leave the rest to the very proficient SNCF staff.  You are now free to take any regular passenger train you like, either a daytime TGV or overnight Lunéa sleeper train. Next day you make your way to the motorail terminal at your destination, present your travel papers and collect the keys to your vehicle.

I would have thought if you need to get there quickly it will more than likely be cheaper to use a budget airline to fly to most destinations, and then hire a car - as the cost for the car to Nice and back will be £440 - and then you've the passenger fares on top - plus the ferry cost of getting your car across the channel in the first place.  Better to take longer and drive through the beautiful countryside, enjoying the drive as part of your holiday, as we do!

Quote: Originally posted by Berriow on 04/5/2011

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All the info is on www.seat61.com  - THE website for all to do with trains - just scroll down the list on the left hand side - but I love best the section on UK to India by rail ! But one problem with motorrail is that it no longer starts from Calais as it used to.

Post last edited on 04/05/2011 16:50:42

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Yeah. Thanks for that Berriow. Now DH is waffling on about going to Moscow by train.

I enquired about this sort of thing from an agent once and his words were, "You have to be fiercely attached to your car and have plenty of money in your wallet to take this option."!

I'd do it regularly if it weren't so expensive - better to get the train there and hire a car if you need it.