Hi,
I'm travelling to Italy, Spain and France in December with a couple of friends and we are questioning the value of the Eurail pass. If we do go ahead with the pass it will be a (10 day) Youth 3 country select pass. It is about US$375 which isn't bad value in itself but we are wondering whether the extra supplements on some trains will blow it out quite substantially? Our itinerary goes something like this.
Rome to Florence
Florence to Pisa
Pisa to Nice
Nice to Barcelona
Southern Spain
Madrid to Paris
We are also worried that it won't provide us with enough flexibility because if we decided to take a small hop say from Florence to Pisa, we would use an entire day of the pass.
Bearing in mind queues and everything else, could we please have your thoughts on the matter?
Thanks in advance!
Andy
Reply to this Rail passes are tricky business, but I typically advise people against getting them. In many European countries (Italy and Spain among them), point-to-point tickets are pretty cheap. Where the pass begins to pay for itself is on really long trips - especially those that cross borders. Check out some of the costs for your tip on
this website. Nice to Barcelona will run you US$160; Madrid to Paris at least $130.
What I'd suggest is doing some serious number-crunching. I suspect your best option will be one of the following: a) Figure out how many of those long, expensive trips you'll be taking. Get whichever pass will cover those trips, then buy point-to-point tickets for shorter trips as you go along. b) Skip the pass altogether. Go point-to-point for short distances, fly Ryanair or EasyJet for long ones. Cheap flights have become abundant in Europe - though they can sometimes be tricky to manage - and you might find it cheaper to fly, for example, Madrid to Paris.
Just a couple of suggestions. But I'd really sit down with a pencil and pad and figure out how much point-to-point tickets would cost before going any further. At the very least, I suspect 10 days would be a waste.
Chris
Travel better. Travel Gator.
www.TravelGator.com Reply to this I agree with Gator. Having gone on 2 trips to Italy last year, the trains are cheap... getting a pass doesn't always make sense. BUT, you did mention a youth pass, which is considerably cheaper. Rome to Florence 2nd class is only going to be 20-30 Euros tops from what I can remember. Extensive travel around other parts of Europe would make the pass well worth while, especially around France, Germany, Netherlands and such.
I actually lost my rail pass in Paris, and didn't buy the insurance. Go figure. I needed to get back to Bologna in Italy. I ended up flying out on Air Lingus right into Bologna (via Dublin) for 90 Euros rather than the 140 or so it was going to cost on the train.
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