Hello Everyone
I have been looking into making some portions of my round the world trip by train especially in Europe
I went to have a look at the EURAIL website but i didn't understand much i must admit
Could someone please tell me how does it work? what sort of ticket should i buy for single trips from country to country and how safe and reliable is it?
Please share your experience and feel free to suggest itineraries
Reply to this I havent had one for years, and things have changed.
Personally, I think they seem quite expensive these days. The real positive I see with having one, is the convenience of not having to spend time buying a lot of individual tickets. To make buying individual tickets inexpensive involves some bargain hunting.
The negatives I hear from people about the Eurail tickets are that there very often seem to be surcharges to be payed on top of the ticket price. I think the surcharges are for things like booking a bed in the sleeper cars, reserving a seat and taking fast trains instead of the slower ones.
Mel
Reply to this It really depends on where you're going. The various Eurail options (global pass, flexible pass) are there to suit trips of different itineraries.
To get your $475 worth with the global pass, you would have to be doing a lot of border crossing, and a lot of travelling in countries like France, Germany and the UK where buying individual tickets is very expensive. However, in some of these countries, there are a lot of extra charges for using certain trains like Mell says - for instance, the TGV in France and the ICE trains in Germany all require seat reservation and you need to pay a supplement for them. Most intercity services in these countries are done on those trains, so bear that in mind. The supplement usually isn't very much, I think it was only 3 euros per journey for the TGV when I was in France 3 years ago, but those trains fill up very easily so make sure you plan each move a few days in advance.
In Central and Eastern Europe, the story couldn't be much different. Countries like Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania etc. have very cheap and simple rail services and buying individual tickets is the done, cheap thing - the only time when tickets really get expensive is if they cross several borders in one journey (e.g. Prague to Budapest). So definitely you would not get $475 worth if you were mostly in Eastern Europe. Compulsory seat reservation is basically unheard of here, the only things you'd have to pay supplements for are things like couchette cars or sleeper berths if you were taking night trains, which is the same anywhere.
Reply to this I used a EURAIL pass to travel in Europe in 2008 and did save money with it. Important things:
a.) It is much cheaper if you are under 26 years old.
b.) You will usually still have to pay something for your tickets - 5 Euros was the norm most places to "reserve" a place, which was mandatory. That wasn't the case for really short hops and it wasn't mandatory in all countries but usually I found it to be an added expense. Of course, sleeper cars will be a bigger surcharge. I think I paid an extra 30 Euros for a sleeper from Barcelona to Seville, Spain.
c.) If you know which countries you are going to be in, just get a pas for those countries. I ended up with a pass for only five countries instead of the "global" pass and when I was in other places I just bought individual tickets. A negative to this is that some routes cross other countries and you will have to pay a surcharge for that. Always ask about the route in detail.
d.) If you lose your pass you won't be refunded, as far as I know. Be careful with it! In this way, individual tickets are less risky.
e.) Evaluate which countries you are going to be in. In Germany, France, Switzerland, etc. trains seem to be the best way to travel and quite expensive. In Spain, the train is not very efficient and you can take buses for much less money and reach your destination much more quickly. Same goes for Ireland in general. The UK is another beast entirely because you'll need a separate pass. If you have a "global" pass, you are going to want to use it for every country when really that won't be worth your while in some cases.
I think that's it for now. Good luck with your decision and travels!
Reply to this I am close to biting the bullet and spending almost $900 to get two"5-day" Select Saver pass for myself and a companion. This allows me travel from Czech R. to Austria, Switzerland, Italy. I was not able to find a good website where I could get the individual ticket prices. Rail Europe website showed prices that cumulatively came out to be >$450 per person so I thought this was a better bargain. Honestly, spending so much based on such little insight is quite discomforting but I guess that's where the adventure lies...let's see what the gurus on the forum have to say...
Reply to this A few things to know for the rail passes:
1) All of the Eurail passes (Eurail Global, which covers 17 countries, or the Eurail Select pass where you choose three or more countries) come in first class only. The one exception to this is the Youth pass for anyone under 26 years of age, which comes only as a second class pass. The two-country and single-country passes usually offer a choice of first or second class.
2) If traveling with two or more people, you can save money with a saver pass. The saver pass means that two or more people share the same single rail pass, and you save money in the process. Everyone's name is printed on the same pass . The only downside is that if there are two (or more) of you and you wish to split up to do some touring separately, only one person can use the rail pass.
3) Switzerland is an interesting issue when it comes to having a rail pass. Many private railroads and gondolas give you a discount with a Eurail pass, but if you have the Swiss Pass (one-country pass for Switzerland) then many private rail lines are free with the use of that pass. This includes the rail line from Interlocken to Lauterbrunen and even the gondola up to Murren, and the rail line into Zermatt. In addition, it gives a much bigger discount on sightseeing adventures like most excursion gondolas and cogwheel trains (including Mount Pilatus, the Schilthorn, and the Jungfraujoch). If traveling to Switzerland, make sure to price out the different options to see which one is best for you.
4) Reservations are required on many routes, which cost an additional amount on top of your rail pass. Instead of thinking of these as just a "reservation" fee, they should often be considered as an upgrade fee. This includes all night trains and most high-speed trains (the German ICE is an exception). For a pretty complete list on which trains require reservations (and how much they are) take a look
here on RickSteves.com.
Reply to this I bought a 10 day Italy and Spain pass and only used 8 days. It was a total waste of money because many of my trips were short ones and therefore not worth using the eurail pass. I think eurail is good value for long train rides, but not if you're going to be doing lots of short hops. If you're planning a trip which sort of goes with the flow like I did, you may find it better to just buy tickets as you go. Or at the very least don't buy the most days on a eurail, shear a couple off the ticket and if you need more you can always buy the tickets individually.
Reply to this To build on what Stacey has said, I frequently hear the comment that rail passes are of no value in Italy due to how inexpensive point-to-point tickets cost, and due to the high cost of reservation fees required for the Eurostar Italia and Alta Velocita high-speed trains (although the point-to-point tickets look expensive at first, the reservation fee takes up most of that cost, giving the pass little value).
I have priced it out using the
Italian Rail Website and it seems that almost no train trip in Italy justifies the cost of a rail pass.
That being said, if you will be travelling through multiple European countries, then I would certainly encourage you to take a look at a Eurail Global Pass as I have found the rail passes to be excellent value in most countries.
Reply to this Try this site ................... tgv-europe.com - train schedules and reservations
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