What in the non peak season to travel in Europe?

We are planning for our Europe trip. From the tips that we read, reservation for trains are required and strongly recommended if you are travelling via Eurorail during peak season. There's also this peak season surcharge that we want to avoid. So when exactly is the non peak season to travel Europe? We had London, Parie, Swiss, Italy and Germany in mind.|||The non-peak season here in Italy is pretty much from October through March. There are exceptions if you're going to the ski areas. You should be aware that there are reservations/supplements for the faster trains regardless of the season. Here in Italy, it's 5 euro per Intercity train, 15 euro for a Eurostar, and 20 euro for an Alta Velocita train. The night trains may be higher for a berth. You have to go to a ticket window in the train station to pay the fee before you get on the train. There's a substantial fine if you don't. It's often cheaper to get point-to-point tickets directly from the national train systems rather than having a pass. The Eurorail tickets are most likely to be an advantage if you're doing a lot of travel using the slower regional trains which may also require a lot of train changes for long distance travel. There are often discounts available on tickets if you buy the ticket at least one day in advance. For example, here in Italy, the Intercity, Eurostar, and Alta Velocita trains offer an "Amica" fair that's up to a 20% discount over the standard fare. On international trains to and from Italy, there are often "Smart" fares or other promotional discounts that offer significant savings. There are limited numbers of discounted tickets though.





You can find the national train sites by searching for "train" and the name of the country you're interested in. Note also that the Eurail pass does not cover the UK.





The German train website is particularly good for planning train schedules throughout although you鈥檒l have to go to the individual train websites to price trips outside Germany. http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en鈥?/a>





Italy: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.js鈥?/a>


Switzerland: http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm|||Winter