My wife and I are planning to visit Europe this December. We have never been there and have just discovered there is a vast network of trains between each country. We will be there for about 2 weeks and saw the "Euro Global Pass" offered by RailEurope.com This seems to be perfect since they have a 15 consecutive day ticket for 21 countries. The price is $629 USD per person. I did see there is a lot of negativity towards RailEurope, mostly bad customer service and add on fees.
My question is, is this a good deal? Is this pass offered in Milan or Germany, or anywhere else in Europe for less? Since we are only there about 2 weeks, is there a better way to go about this? Germany, France, Italy and Spain are high on our list.
Looking at the possible ways to travel has become very confusing. Any advice, suggestions would be appreciated.
Eurail passes can not be purchased in Europe, so buy them here. If you are considering only 4 countries, check the prices for a 4-country pass, and also check the prices at Eurail.com. Remember that Raileurope charges hefty delivery fees (listed at the end of the purchasing procedure but before finally committing yourself to buying the pass). You have already noticed that 2 people traveling together pay less per pass than a single person.
thank you for the reply. It looks like all the places that sell the Eurail passes charge the same price, so I'm assuming the only reason to shop around is to see who charges less in s/h.
Does anyone know if I travel on trains overnight, are there places I can find that I can shower? We plan on doing as much overnight train travel to take advantage of the pass.
go to ricksteves.com
you can read all about train travel and you can purchase the railpass you need from the website. they are honest and do not add fees.
in general the add on fees are:
1. special fast trains such as TGV in france that require a seat reservation. that can be done locally.
2. night trains that have only beds/couchettes
Are you sure you want to do so much in 2 weeks? you are going to spend lots of time on the trains.
If you want a private room for 2 it is expensive. Otherwise you need to share a room with another 1, 2 or even 4 people. You and your wife may be separated into a men/women cabins.
You can always take a shower at a train station. The larger train stations have showers. Not sure about the cost but plan on spending around 10 US$ per person per shower.
thank you for the reply. It looks like all the places that sell the Eurail passes charge the same price, so I'm assuming the only reason to shop around is to see who charges less in s/h.
Does anyone know if I travel on trains overnight, are there places I can find that I can shower? We plan on doing as much overnight train travel to take advantage of the pass.
Some overnight trains have showers, but it's hard to tell which ones do. The most modern sleepers have showers, but some "very modern" ones don't. Frankfurt-Milan, for instance, had a shower, but Berlin-Zurich didn't. I'd take a chance, and depend on a sower in the train station upon arrival, as a previous poster suggested. Some overnight trains offer only private accommodations, for 1 or 2 people (even in second class), and others offer the 3-bed, 2nd-class cabins separated by sex that the previous poster noted.
These latter accommodations tend to be on eastern European (and intra-Italian and intra-Spanish?) connections. You can find out more if you try to book a sleeper on the internet.
I was looking at the map and came up with this as a possible Itinerary.
fly from Chicago into Amsterdam then the rest of way use the 15 day Eurail Global pass in this order:
Berlin
Prague
Vienna
Venice
Florence
Rome
Barcelona
Paris stay overnight
Back To Amsterdam stay overnight then fly back to Chicago
Is this doable? We will do as many night trains as possible. Are there night trains that are just regular seats which do not require supplement fees? Any advice in regards to skipping, adding spots, how many days each will take, etc will be appreciated.
I was looking at the map and came up with this as a possible Itinerary.
fly from Chicago into Amsterdam then the rest of way use the 15 day Eurail Global pass in this order:
Berlin
Prague
Vienna
Venice
Florence
Rome
Barcelona
Paris stay overnight
Back To Amsterdam stay overnight then fly back to Chicago
Is this doable? We will do as many night trains as possible. Are there night trains that are just regular seats which do not require supplement fees? Any advice in regards to skipping, adding spots, how many days each will take, etc will be appreciated.
With that itinerary it looks as if the 15-day global pass is the best buy ($629 per person if at least two people are traveling together). Fortunately the Czech Republic recently joined the Eurailpass group.
Between Amsterdam and Berlin there are no overnight trains, but the daytime trains take only 6 1/2 hours (change in Amersfoort). Ditto with Berlin to Prague (5 1/2 hours). There is an overnight Prague-Vienna train (6 hours, starting in Berlin, but some daytime trains take only 4 hours). Vienna-Venice: overnight train, 12 hours, with sleepers, couchettes and seats cars. Venice-Florence and Florence-Rome 3 or 2 hours on daytime trains. A Venice-Rome overnight train also runs (10 hours, with sleepers, couchettes and seats). Rome to Barcelona is a bit of a problem. The Rome-Nice overnight train no longer runs, so the best connection is via Milan (5 1/2 hours in a premium-price train 6 1/2 hours in a cheaper train) and then the overnight sleeper train to Barcelona (runs three time a week, requiring a special supplement, rumors have it that the train may be discontinued soon. It's a wonderful train and takes 14 hours Milan-Barcelona and it has sleepers and reclining-seats cars, plus diner.). Other connections take about 24 hours, generally requiring an overnight stay in Avignon or Ventimiglia. There's also a 24-hour connection using the Rome-Geneva sleeper (only sleeper and couchette cars, but the couchettes are cheap, and you can sleep) and then changing again in Montpellier. On the days that the Milan-Barcelona train doesn't run, I'd probably choose this connection. Barcelona-Paris:there's an overnight train with sleepers, reclining seat and diner, but it requires a special supplement; it takes 12 hours. There's also an 11-hour daytime connection via Montpellier using standard trains and a 12-hour overnight connection, changing to couchettes or reclining seats at the French border. Paris-Amsterdam: many Thalys trains taking 4 hours.
It sounds like a great trip. You have the times now, and you have to decide how much time you want to spend in each city. It sounds as if it is feasible - of you want to spend one day in each city.
Will this be your one and only trip to Europe?
You will be spending 1-2 nights per city.
With a few hours between cities it means waking up, having breakfast, going to the train station and by the time you arrive at the other end to the hotel, it is the end of the day.
How about arriving in AMS and leaving from Rome?
Go AMS to paris then berlin, prague, vienna, venice, florence and fly out of Rome?
If you read some of the postings here, most people that have very agressive itineraries, end up missing a lot and not really seeing much.
You won't see very much of these cities during your travel, so recommend to cut your down the number of visited cities.
If you want to keep all the mentioned cities, I recommend to change the order of cities. At the moment you have minimized the travel distance. If you want to travel with night trains, I would recommend to change it along so that you can stay during the night, for the beginnig
Amsterdam --> Paris (during the day, quite close)
Paris --> Berlin (night train)
Berlin --> Prague (While short, at least a late departure and very early arrival in the morning is possible)
Prague --> Zurich, afterwards Cisalpino to florence
So you get at least some sleep during you travel (but don't expect to much)
cheers
757DUD
Thank you every1 for your replies! By everyone's reaction to my first Itinerary I will most likely cut a few cities. I will consider 9757DUD's suggested path, THANKS!- but can anyone else recommend an "aggressive" yet realistic 2 week Itinerary for us? We are both 29 so we do have some energy in the tank. I looked at fares and it looks like I will be flying either into London, Amsterdam or Zurich.
Ideally I would like to fly into one country and fly out of the other, but its 200-300 more per person doing it this way. So I think I would have to end my journey where it started.
I did check out all these referred sites, but I did not find the answer to a question I have. For Overnight trains that we wanted to reserve in another city, can these be reserved at any train station? Would it be too much of a risk to show up a couple of hours beforehand and book an overnight? If someone can explain how that whole process works.
Secondly, if we wanted to book last minute flights on the whim, will it cost an arm and a leg? & can someone supply the standard air companies where I can look up fares?
You can make all your train reservations (both trains that need a seat reservation and the couchette/beds) all in your first city. I find that the train station in Amsterdam Centraal is very friendly and everybody speaks English. You can pay all the costs right there and then and not have to worry about it. On the flip side, you cannot make any changes or you will have a penalty or even loose what you paid so that takes away all flexibility.
I would not show up 2 hours before the trip and expect to find a bed or even a seat. Summer is probably the busiest time for train travel but December is up there.
I stand my my trip which is AMS-Paris-Berline-Prague-Vienna-Venice-Florence and end in Rome. Find a flight from Rome to AMS or worse comes to worse do the 24 hour trip by train back to AMS.
Barcelona is way out and you may want to leave it for another trip.
Getting a flight at the last moment will cost a lot, just like in the US. There are many small airlines that do some point to point flights. If you buy a ticket 3-4 months in advance you may get a great deal but I would stick with the big names. By the way, try buying a roundtrip even if you throw away the return, it may be a lot cheaper. I would even try Air France, KLM or Alitalia. Sometimes they have great deals on round trips.
You should spend some time looking at rick steve's website. I know I keep saying that (and no, I get no commission) but it is great information for train travel in Europe especially if this is your first time.
Raileurope has free shipping if the purchase is over $449.
When you buy a "global" ep, you are possibly purchasing countries you will not visit. The multi country passes are considerably cheaper if you can limit your itinerary. Sleeper trains are in general NOT covered by any pass.
There was a time when many long distance routes had first class coaches on night trains, and many times you could stretch out in a 6 seat compartment all to yourselves--saving on hotels. Very few trains now have overnight coaches.
There is a supplement for travel on many high speed trains (TGV, Thalys etc.)
The big advantage of passes is flexibility, you go from city center to city center, saving time and you can change your routing (except on reservation only trains) at anytime.
Sleeper trains are in general NOT covered by any pass.
There was a time when many long distance routes had first class coaches on night trains, and many times you could stretch out in a 6 seat compartment all to yourselves--saving on hotels. Very few trains now have overnight coaches.
Actually most overnight trains in Europe today have seats coaches, but almost none has first-class coaches. The 6-seat compartments have often been replaced with reclining-seat coaches.
As you point out, in general the passes don't cover sleeper trains, but on some the basic transportation is covered, and only the sleeper supplement costs extra. On City Night Line trains, for instance, one can book a sleeping compartment on the internet, using the "supplement only" button, which accounts for Eurailpasses, etc. There are so many variations now, however, since the railroads stopped their joint ticketing on most overnight trains, that one can only say, check every option and buy the cheapest one.
Location: nyc us silver (ouch my butt) co silver redicard prefered and just being me :)
Posts: 2,936
Quote:
Originally Posted by fyung
I was looking at the map and came up with this as a possible Itinerary.
fly from Chicago into Amsterdam then the rest of way use the 15 day Eurail Global pass in this order:
Berlin
Prague
Vienna
Venice
Florence
Rome
Barcelona
Paris stay overnight
Back To Amsterdam stay overnight then fly back to Chicago
Is this doable? We will do as many night trains as possible. Are there night trains that are just regular seats which do not require supplement fees? Any advice in regards to skipping, adding spots, how many days each will take, etc will be appreciated.
I would cut that down imho.I wouldn't do this myself but if you must try to cram everything in and have to fly in/out of AMS here is my whirlwind tour of Europe!
Amsterdam--Berlin (Day or Overnight)
Berlin-Prague
Prague--Vienna
Vienna-Venice or Florence(overnight)
Venice or Florence--Rome
Rome-Paris(Overnight)
Paris-Amsterdam
Cheers
Howie
__________________
United we fly together we stand
