greggarious

I am starting a job with a generous vacation policy. One thing I've always disliked when travelling to Europe was I felt like I really had to plan to make sure to get good deals on the longer trains. Being able to just say "Hm, I'm done with Brussels - off to Paris!" would be great.

How much would a 2 week pass cost approx? Is it worth it?

sactoflyer

You need to decide what countries you want to be able visit. The best deals are one "regional passes."

EmailKid

While Budget Travel forum may seem like a good place to ask this question, we have a dedicated European Rail forum, so I am moving the thread there.

As a note, I have received some excellent advice in abovementioned forum from some very knowledgeable posters ^

~moderator

Reindeerflame

Rail passes tend to be expensive. They tend not to be good values except in certain situations. Typically, a pass needs to get used intensively in order to be a good value.

In recent years, many European railroads have switched from fixed fares to the airline-style bucket system, with discounts for booking ahead of time and penalties for changing booked trains. Thus, in many cases, a leisure traveler who plans a trip several months ahead will be in a good position to take advantage of cheaper fares.

A rail pass does have the advantage of allowing on-the-fly changes in itinerary, with one caveat: many trains, especially the high-quality express trains, require advance reservations, which is an extra expense on top of the pass, and some countries, notably France, limit the number of seats that are made available to pass holders.

A pass works extremely well in countries like Germany where most trains do not mandate seat reservations. You can board a fast ICE train with impunity and cover hundreds of miles to a distant city without giving a thought to the cost, and even return to your hotel in the first city by evening.

EmailKid

Some folks, inluding myself a long time ago, used overnight trains to save the cost of a hotel room. These days, I don't do it anymore, but it's still an option on some routes. In one way it's nice that they don't have to wake you for passport control.

jnamiyo

take a look at loco2.com and plan out your trip using their website. I found some great prices in Spain at WAY below the eurail pass price. More than $100 less and that was with a couple of 1st class trips.

I have a post on this forum to see if loco2.com is reliable. Stay tuned

The consensus seems to be that prebooking your fare will save you a lot of money. Buying the day of your trip will probably be expensive.

greggarious

Whoops, sorry!

How large are these regions? Like, would Schengen area be an area?

I've been thinking of Istanbul - Bucharest -> Budapest -> Vienna.

EmailKid

No worries, that's one of the reasons for your friendly neighborhood Moderator

Turkey isn't in the zone, and IIRC no train service ex IST. Need LCC or bus to Greece @:-)

LupineChemist

IIRC it is usually by number of country (and counts Benelux as one country).

In E. Europe is almost guaranteed to be cheaper to just buy the tickets.

t0t1t2

I agree.

For instance: last summer I took the train from Bucharest to Cluj-Napoca and it costed approximately 25€. If you add another 20€ for Cluj-Budapest you have already covered Bucharest- Budapest.


The rates for Istanbul-Bucharest seem to be a bit higher(depending on type of sleeper) but I don't think the total sum will be higher than the 540$ for a Eurail 4 country pass.

Dianne47

The Eurailpass used to be a great deal - unlimited travel for a month for example. The pass is no longer what it once was. It's really easy to check point-to-point fares online now, and buy e-tickets for rail travel.

To make the high cost of the railpass "worth it" you would have to be taking super long trips on each day you use the pass. If you're going to travel from one end of Europe to the other, the current pass fare structure might make sense.

I will soon be traveling Krakow - Warsaw - Berlin - Paris - Agen (France) - Brussels - Amsterdam, stopping for 4-8 nights in each city. Point-to-point fares are definitely cheaper than a railpass for this itinerary.

The only way to know if a railpass makes sense for you is to construct your itinerary, check the point-to-point fares, and compare to the cost of the pass.

WomBatt

http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-E...ide.htm#Should
Do you see the bold print?

greggarious

Thanks a ton!

KQ321

At least in theory, there are trains from Istanbul to Sofia and Bucharest. However, unfortunately in practice it seems that due to engineering works, trains are likely to be replaced by buses at various points. See www.Seat61.com/turkey.htm for details.

JDiver

Years ago, SNCF decided to modernize and go computerized, etc. They contracted with American Airlines - Sabre (at the time, now Sabre Holdings) to develop the Resarail system, complete with yield management.

That means in most Europe rail systems, which have adopted yield management, your cheapest tickets will be released on opening day 90 days out, often) and as the lower fares (with conditions) are taken up, only more expensive fare buckets are available.

So, whilst it seems carefree and easy to decide to travel, buy and ride when the whim strikes, doing so will cost the traveller more money (whilst your seat mate may have paid much less by purchasing in advance).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europ...urchasing.html