Eurail Passes are famous as a way to save money while exploring Europe, but they are also confusing and often misunderstood. They are still an amazing money-saving tool for certain types of travelers, and not a wise idea for most others. Before Europe introduced dynamic rail pricing (like airfares, where the price varies depending on when you buy it), a Eurail Pass was an easy way to save money since all tickets had fixed prices that were generally fairly expensive. These days most travelers can save far more money just by buying their train tickets at least a few weeks in advance.
That said, Eurail Passes are still great for longer trips and especially for people who like to make plans as they go. Dynamic rail pricing made advanced tickets much cheaper, but it also made last-minute tickets MUCH more expensive. Below we will discuss Eurail Passes and whether they are a good idea for your trip or not.
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Note: This article was written in 2012 and has been continuously updated since then, so all information is current as of April, 2024.
Eurail 2024 changes: New countries and a mobile version
This actually changed in 2019 and 2020, but it’s still a big deal and not many people were shopping for Eurail passes in the last couple of years. Eurail Passes now include England, Scotland, Wales, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Macedonia.
Aside from that it’s just the normal fact that they have updated the timetables as of December 2023 and have a few promotions going on, but those usually don’t happen over the busy summer season.
Eurail passes are now available in a mobile version
Until very recently, Eurail Passes were only available in paper form and they were quite confusing at first. You’d get a pass with a series of empty boxes on it and you’d need to enter your trip before you’d use your pass each day and then have the first conductor verify it. If you lost your ticket (and this was not uncommon), it was a whole ordeal to attempt to get a replacement.
Again in 2024 Eurail offers a fully mobile version that is delivered instantly to your mobile device with no delivery fee. And if you somehow lose your phone, you can resume using your Pass on your replacement with no extra headache. This is MUCH more convenient in every way and as long as you can keep track of your phone you’ll always have your train pass handy.
If your trip will be 2 weeks or less, a Eurail Pass probably won't be worth it
About half of the questions I get in the lengthy comment thread of this article are from people planning a trip of 3 or 4 stops in two weeks or less. The good news for those travelers is that they can get fairly cheap train tickets in advance online if they have their dates planned, and a Eurail Pass won’t help at all.
Eurail Passes are ideal for travelers on longer trips, and especially those who don’t want to plan all of their destinations and dates far in advance. If you have your itinerary pretty much planned out and you don’t require much flexibility, you’ll be far better off just locking in your dates and buying your train tickets as early as you can. Again, they can be surprisingly cheap if you buy 2 to 4 months out.
If you are age 27 or younger, a Eurail Pass is probably worth it
Those 28 years old or over must buy the 1st Class version of any Eurail Pass, which is 50% more expensive, and the added comfort isn’t a big deal to most people. But travelers age 12 to 27 can buy the 2nd Class versions at the lowest prices, and the seats are comfortable enough for virtually everyone.
With this in mind, if you are lucky enough to still be 27 or younger, you should seriously think about getting a Eurail Global Pass Youth, partly because the sense of freedom instantly gets more expensive at age 28. The age cutoff was 25 until recently, so this change is a great deal for anyone who will be 26 or 27 at the start of their trip.
You aren’t guaranteed to save money by buying a Youth Eurail Pass, but chances are good that you WILL save money and you’ll definitely save a lot of hassle as well. Especially now that Eurail Passes come in a mobile form, it’s even that much more convenient to just hop aboard any train that is about to leave the station and not worry about buying or even having a ticket. Especially for young people, it can be really fun and exhilarating to literally just walk into a train station with your backpack and look at the departure board and then decide where to go at that moment.
If you are age 60 or over, a Eurail Pass could also be great value
Another fairly recent change is that anyone who is 60 years or older at the start of the use of a Eurail Pass now gets 10% off the normal adult fare. That new discount is going to make this a great value for many travelers who might have been on the fence about buying a full-price pass before.
>>>Check prices on Eurail Passes
If you are planning on traveling in 1st Class anyway, a Eurail Pass is probably worth it
Most 2nd Class trains provide similar comfort and legroom to Business Class airline seats, or at least close enough, so for most people it’s not worth the added expense for 1st Class. However, if you are rich or elderly or fear contact with strangers, a 1st Class Eurail Pass is probably worth it no matter what.
Not only do you get much more comfort and legroom in 1st Class, with only 3 seats across instead of 4, but there is another advantage to 1st Class on European trains. Since it’s mostly business travelers and wealthy people traveling in 1st Class, the carriages are almost always mostly empty except in the mornings and late afternoons between large cities. In 2nd Class the only available seats might be two seats in an 8-seat cabin with all the other seats taken up by a loud family or a group of rowdy friends. In 1st Class you are all but guaranteed a peaceful ride, and usually plenty of empty seats from which to choose.
A hidden Eurail Pass benefit: Making extra stops on travel days for free
A one-way ticket between Paris and Amsterdam in 2nd Class on the high-speed Thalys service takes 3 hours 19 minutes, and costs €47 if you buy way in advance up to €188 if you buy at the last minute. A Eurail Pass can be helpful on this route for almost anyone because you often have to book two months in advance to get a fare under €90 or so. Even better though is the fact that the train stops in Brussels and Antwerp along the way, and both of those are really interesting cities that are perfect for a stop of 2 to 4 hours.
Brussels in particular is one I recommend a short stop in because the small historic center around what they called the Grand Place is amazing and gorgeous, while the rest of the city is rather boring by European standards. With a Eurail Pass you can jump off the train in Brussels and explore the city center for a few hours (luggage storage is cheap and easy) and maybe have lunch, and then hop on a later train to complete your journey to Amsterdam. There are opportunities like this on many if not most trips between larger cities, and if you buy the point-to-point tickets you have to stay on the train you booked.
Another example is the high-speed train between Barcelona and Madrid, which takes about 2.5 to 3 hours in each direction. There are some interesting cities in between, but in this case you could take a morning train from Barcelona to Madrid and then check into your accommodation, and then hop on another train from Madrid to Toledo, which takes about 30 minutes and costs €14 each way. Toledo is a historic and fascinating town, but it’s also pretty small and you can explore the main sights in an afternoon. With a Flexi Eurail Pass where you buy a certain number of travel days, you can save more money by adding on these sorts of nearby stops on travel days.
If you'll be touring major cities within ONE country, a single-country pass might be perfect, and Second Class passes are available for all ages
Until 2019 you could buy a Eurail “Select” or “Regional” Pass, which would allow you to buy a cheaper pass that only covered between two and five specific countries. As of April 2024, those have been eliminated and also lowered the prices of the Global Passes by around 20%.
Single-country passes are still available and they MIGHT be good value for you, but it depends on which country and how much traveling you’ll be doing. If you plan on going all over a larger country such as Germany, France, or Spain, and especially if you like to make plans as you go, a Single-country pass for one of those might be your best deal. On the other hand, smaller countries (such as the Netherlands) or countries where train tickets are already fairly cheap (such as Italy) might be harder to get value out of. Long story short, for single-country passes you really need to check fares of the places you plan on going and see how they add up compared to the pass.
>>>Check prices for Single Country Passes
Eurostar (between London and Paris or Brussels or Amsterdam) tickets are now included for Eurail Pass holders for a €30 reservation fee
The European rail system is confusing at first, so it’s worth pointing out that the Eurostar trains between London and Paris or Brussels are a totally different system and the prices are more like air tickets. In other words, they start out cheap 6 months in advance and prices go up as the travel date approaches. Since you can now use your Eurail Pass within Great Britain, it’s now the best way to get around England and Scotland by train.
Our recent tests show that Eurostar fares one-way from London to Paris can be as low as €49 if you book about 3 months out, or as expensive as €214 for the same seat if you wait until the day of travel to buy. Round-trip/return tickets can be even cheaper if there is a promotion running.
>>>Check Eurostar prices
If you are on a really low budget, a Eurail Pass isn't a good idea
Here’s the thing. As we’ll discuss below, there are many potential benefits to Eurail Passes, and they will often save you money, but they do cost a lot and they only really save you money when traveling in the more expensive countries.
So let’s say you have a flight to Rome and then US$2,000 to last you a month after you arrive. Buying a Eurail Pass before you go would help you see a lot in that month, but you’d practically need to sleep in parks for your funds to last the whole time. You’d be better off moving slowly in the southern countries, or just in Italy itself, as a way to have the best holiday on your budget. You might also be tempted to use a Eurail Pass mostly on night trains so you can save the cost of a hotel or hostel, but those aren’t ideal for most of us.
The cheapest way to get around Europe by rail is to buy all train tickets online at least a couple months in advance. The fares are low, but they are non-refundable and non-changeable. See how far in advance you should buy train tickets to get those attractive fares.
If more than a little of your travel will be in eastern Europe, a Eurail Pass isn't a good idea
While eastern Europe (Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia etc), is where you’ll find almost all of the continent’s best travel bargains, its rail infrastructure continues to lag way behind. A few years ago many of the countries in that area were added to the Eurail Zone (except for Bulgaria for some reason), but even then the trains are still very slow. Worse still, in some areas the trains are much slower than buses, so you really have to research each leg individually.
The good news is that the trains operating in this region, and the buses that operate alongside and/or where trains aren’t running, are quite cheap. So if any significant part of your trip will be into this region, a rail pass doesn’t make sense.
Basic types of Eurail Passes
Long gone are the days of the simple options, replaced by specialized passes that are meant to appeal to different styles. It should be pretty easy to figure out which is best for you, and then keep going down the page to decide if it’s worth it at all.
Eurail Global Pass – 4,5, or 7 days within 1 month or 10 days within 2 months
Until recently the minimum number of travel days with 10 days within 2 months, but now you can buy as few as 4 days within 1 month for about €200 to €250 (for first class). This can actually be an interesting strategy if you are planning many shorter and cheaper trips (like within Italy or Eastern Europe), and also 4 or 5 longer trips such as Berlin to Amsterdam. This way you can buy only 4 or 5 travel days and only use them for your most expensive travel days, and just pay as you go or buy cheap advance tickets for your other journeys.
Eurail Global Pass – 15 to 90 consecutive days
This variation allows for unlimited travel on the system for between 15 and 90 total days. They are really only a good idea for people who are certain they are going to travel very often, with much of it being in the north of Europe. The problem with them is that if you really try to get your money’s worth, you will probably ruin your trip by spending too much time on trains in general. On the other hand, if you will be in Europe for 2 or 3 months and plan on traveling around a lot, you can get a LOT of use out of a longer pass. The 3-month pass is around €900 so it’s literally about €10 per day. Imagine going back and forth between Berlin and Munich or Barcelona and Madrid for €10 per day!
One Country Pass
Obviously these are for travel within one country only. Again, they can be great deals if you plan on extensively moving around one particular country.
Where to buy your Eurail Pass
Eurail Passes are cheapest and easiest to buy online, primarily from two main sources which offer all the same products at the exact same prices:
This is a reliable company based in the Netherlands but with fulfillment offices in the US and Ireland. Price of Travel is a partner with this company, and if you use the links of this site we earn a small commission to help keep this site online. Eurail.com is usually cheaper than RailEurope (discussed below) by the way.
They were founded in the 1930s and are based in New York, but owned primarily by the French and Swiss rail companies. They offer free shipping (2 to 3 business days) on all orders of US$399 or more, although now that a mobile version is available, this is meaningless. Price of Travel is a partner with this company, and if you use the links of this site we earn a small commission to help keep this site online.
Reservations on European trains for rail pass holders
For most of the fastest trains between major cities you’ll need to reserve a seat even with a rail pass. It can usually be done just before you leave and the cost is usually around €5. Here’s a full list of which European trains require reservations and which don’t.
Reservations are required on all intercity (longer distance) trains in or involving France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy. For most trains in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, and most of eastern Europe, you can usually find trains that don’t require seat reservations. Often, if you don’t leave until after 9:30am or so, you can ride on any train with no seat reservation, but you have to research each leg to be sure.
How to determine which trains require seat reservations, and also get schedules
You can click on the link just above this section for a list of countries and their seat-reservation policies, but in some cases it’s actually a bit more complicated than that. For example, you can generally ride without a seat reservation on fast ICE (Inter City Express) trains in Germany if you depart after 09:30 in the morning. They do this to free up seats for business travelers who pay full fare, and they don’t mind filling up seats with rail pass holders on trains leaving a bit later.
The best way to be sure about this is to download the RailEurope smartphone app (iPhone and Android). It’s a free app and you can download it and use it even if you buy from Eurail.com or don’t buy a rail pass at all. Amazingly enough, it has the entire European rail schedule built into it so you don’t even need to be online to use it. You just enter a departure city and destination city and it will show you all of the trains and connections going between the two. When you click on a specific train or combination of trains it will show you whether a seat reservation is needed for that particular departure. I’ve used this app literally hundreds or perhaps thousands of times to do my own research and help people find answers, and I’ve noticed that it’s accurate at least 99% of the time. Once in a blue moon you’ll enter two cities and it will show, say, a 20-hour journey when you are pretty sure it should be under 10 hours. Usually it’s actually correct, but I’ve seen a couple times where it missed something.
Night trains in Europe are making a comeback
I’ve been traveling around Europe since the 1980s and I’ve been updating this article since 2012 and one thing that was certain was the night trains (or sleeper trains) were going out of fashion. The main reasons were that high-speed trains grew in coverage so routes that used to take 10 or 12 hours could now be done in 4 or 5 hours, at least in countries like Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. As a result, almost everyone preferred to even depart at 6 PM if they could get to their destination city at 10 PM instead of the next morning.
Fast forward to 2024 and night trains are not only expanding service, but they are very trendy. Some of it is nostalgia for the older way of getting around, but most of it is for environmental purposes combined with European hatred for the “low cost airline” experience with RyanAir and Easy Jet etc.
Personally I’m still not a fan of night trains because I find it difficult to sleep on them since they often get decoupled at interim stations in the middle of the night and then coupled onto other trains coming from other places, and I can’t sleep through any of that. But still, they are worth looking into and they are fun to try at least once.
A bit of warning that they tend not to be cheap and even if you have a Eurail Pass you’ll almost certainly want to book a sleeping cabin with a bunk or couchette, and that will come at an extra fee. On the other hand, if you are the sort of person who can sleep sitting upright in a normal seat, then that won’t cost any extra on most overnight trains.
Factors to consider when thinking about any Eurail Pass
Assuming you know which Eurail Saver Pass option is the best one for your type of trip by now, we’ll go over the main factors that should help you decide whether it’s the best idea for you.
Eurail Passes are best for standard ‘medium length’ journeys
In almost all of Europe, the major cities tend to be between 4 and 8 hours apart by train, and these journeys are perfect for Eurail Passes. For example, from Vienna to Munich it takes about 5 hours on the train, and it’s scenic and relaxing. Flying between those cities would take about the same amount of time once you factor in airport transportation and security lines, and it’s far less pleasant.
However, if you are determined to travel between Rome and Paris, it’s about a 14-hour journey that will almost certainly be overnight. In this case, a cheap plane ticket is probably better, although taking shorter hops on the train is even better, so spend a day or two in Milan or Lyon on the way instead.
And of course, if you prefer to stop in various small towns between the big ones, then a Eurail Pass won’t pay off, except for the traditional kind for unlimited travel in a given period.
Eurail Passes are better value in northern Europe, France, and Spain, and poor value in Italy
Once you do a bit of research you’ll quickly learn that train tickets (and almost everything else) are much more expensive in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland than they are in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. With this in mind, the regional passes can make sense if you are spending time in the south, but the Global Passes almost certainly won’t. Train tickets in Spain used to be fairly cheap, but in recent years they’ve added new high-speed trains between the major cities, and these are quite expensive.
Unlike most other countries, Italy really subsidizes its train tickets so they are quite reasonable even on travel day, and very cheap if you buy a month or more in advance. For example, you can go between Rome and Florence for around €49 if you buy on travel day, and as little as €19 if you buy well in advance. In most other countries, fares are double or triple that much for similar rides.
So consider your planned itinerary. If more than half of it is in the Mediterranean countries then look into a Regional Pass or just buy tickets as you go, because they tend to be pretty cheap. But if you are planning on spending at least half your time in Paris and places to the north of it, then a Eurail Pass is probably a money saver because those tickets are expensive.
Trains are almost always better than planes
Flying sucks, even in Europe
Until you’ve experienced the joy of traveling around Europe by train you might be tempted to “maximize” your time by flying low-cost airlines between each city. This would be a mistake. In order to get truly cheap airfares you have to purchase long in advance, buying non-refundable tickets. You might also have to commit to flights in the very early morning or in the late evening, because cheap tickets on convenient flights sell out quickly.
And again, most European airports are around an hour outside of the city. They are often on the main train lines, which helps, but still you have to deal with the madness of security and also try to get there at least two hours early. From one city center to any other city center it’s about 5 hours minimum, even if they are close, and those are pretty miserable hours.
Train travel is a positive experience
While it’s true that you do have to reserve a seat on many long-distance trains these days, you can usually do it just before it leaves, or the night before to be safe. And with many trains you can literally just hop on board as it’s pulling out of the station.
Not only are all the seats comfortable on trains, but you also have an interesting view most of the time. Better still, trains deposit you in the heart of every city, which is usually the neighborhood with the cheapest hotels and food. It’s a wonderful feeling to step off a relaxing train ride, buy a hot dog or sandwich at a local shop, and then be in your hotel room only about 10 minutes later.
Eurail Passes are better than train tickets alone
As someone who enjoys the process of crunching numbers and looking for value, I have to also mention that I’d buy a Eurail Pass even if it seemed like it would cost a bit more than the individual tickets. With a pass you get an extra element of freedom that is worth a lot more than you might expect until you’ve used one.
If you fly, you absolutely have to lock in your exact schedule weeks or months in advance, and if you buy train tickets individually you will be spending hours in queues and then waiting around. You can buy European train tickets in advance, though the convenience comes along with an extra fee. But with a Eurail Pass, on most routes you can just hop on any train you feel like.
Let’s say you are heading from Amsterdam to Hamburg tomorrow morning. The 09:00 train you planned for might seem a bit ambitious after a long night out, so you can instead opt for the 10:00 or 11:00 train. As long as you walk into Centraal Station 10 or so minutes before departure, you are on. If you are flying you can’t change your ticket, and if you are buying train tickets as you go you have to be in line at the international desk at the train station at least 30 minutes early, and even then you might miss it if they are busy.
Freedom and getting to feel like a big shot
Bill Gates doesn’t worry about the cost of plane tickets or train tickets. He just goes where he wants, when he wants. When you have a Eurail Pass, you get a taste of this yourself, and even if you don’t end up doing any new spontaneous legs within your trip, it’s a great feeling.
Let’s say you are staying at a hostel in Brussels, and two groups of new friends suggest that you go along with them to their next stops. One group is going to Bruges, which is a short and cheap journey, so you can join them by buying individual tickets (unless you have the unlimited pass, making it free). Then you restart your trip from Bruges, on to your next destination. The other group is headed to Berlin on a night train, which is long and expensive, but with a Eurail Pass you don’t even have to think about the cost. On you go, just like a rich person.
Buying a Eurail Pass is great for those who might run out of money
We all know people who keep meticulous track of every penny they spend, and who are always putting money away for a rainy day. And we all know people who can take a US$100 “entertainment fund” and burn through almost all of it in just a few hours. For the first type of person, a Eurail Pass can help you keep track of expenses, but it’s really the second type of person these are best for.
It’s sad to hear about people who have big plans to see their dream destinations, but they run out of money for transportation halfway into the trip, so they have to just stay put until they fly home. It happens. Locking in your major transportation costs before you leave home, and probably saving money in the process, is a wise move for anyone who isn’t as disciplined as they’d like with their money.
>>>Check prices on Eurail Passes
Bottom line: If you want to keep travel costs down, your choices will usually be a Eurail Pass or buying tickets at least a month or more early
In the last few years, almost every long-distance train ride in Europe has switched to a pricing system similar to low-cost airlines. In other words, tickets go on sale 2 to 6 months ahead of time at very low prices, and they keep getting more expensive as the train fills up and the date approaches. For most trips where a rail pass is possible, this is how things stack up:
Cheapest possible way: Buy advanced (non-refundable, non-changeable) train tickets at least 30 days in advance
Next cheapest way: Buy a Eurail Pass and make seat reservations as you go, usually only a day or less in advance.
Most expensive way: Buy train tickets as you go, or less than a week in advance.
Thinking about it this way should make the choice a bit easier. If you are the type who likes to plan each day and travel segment long before you even leave home, then buy tickets online for the best prices. This can be the best strategy for most shorter trips (10 days or less) because you simply don’t have enough time to change many things as you go anyway.
Buying a Eurail Pass won’t be quite as cheap, but you are buying a LOT of flexibility with the extra money. If you dream of making up your plans as you go, or even making up your plans just a few days in advance, this is almost always your best bet.
But if you wait too long, and just show up looking to buy train tickets as you go, they are going to cost a fortune. As recently as only a few years ago all seats would be the same price on many rail systems, so you could always just wing it. When each country computerized its rail systems so they can sell advanced tickets cheaper, they also had to keep track of seat reservations, so the whole pricing structure had changed to favor advanced ticket buyers and rail pass holders over those who’d prefer to just hop on any train as it is leaving the station.
Have a rail pass or itinerary question of your own?
It wasn’t planned but scores of people began asking me rail pass and itinerary questions at the bottom of this article and a few others. I’m happy to keep answering them and now I’m trying to organize them better as well so they are easier for other people to find.
If you have a question about specific types of European rail passes, please ask it in the comments below.
But if you have a question more about a European itinerary or other non-rail-pass questions, please click over to the European itineraries Q & A article and ask in the comments of that one.
Hi Roger – I hope you dont mind another question! My partner and I will be going to Germany and Austria, flying into Frankfurt 27th April. We were supposed to be doing a tour which was cancelled – for the best in the end, we are more excited to do it by ourselves – but it didnt leave much planning time. We will staying in Frankfurt 3 nights, Berlin 3 nights, Munich 4 nights and Vienna 2 nights. I can’t figure out which pass would be the best option, or if i should just do point to point tickets.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Amanda
Amanda,
I don’t mind the questions, and it’s nice that you are keeping a positive attitude about the tour. And I agree that it’ll actually be better on your own.
If you aren’t locked into it, you might want to minimize time spent in Frankfurt because it’s not really much of a tourist city. There are some really good options not far away, a few of which I cover on this where to go in Germany article.
You won’t be doing enough different stops to make a rail pass worthwhile. Even the shortest ones are for 5 trips. So you are best off buying those train tickets online in advance. Go to bahn.de, and the sooner you buy them, the cheaper they will be (or at least you’ll have the greatest selection of departure times). Let me know if you have more questions. -Roger
Thanks Roger, I really appreciate your quick response. I will reconsider Frankfurt and look at bahn.de today! Thanks again.
Roger,
Thanks for all your help and I’ve read through every post and learned a little bit from each. Hopefully this question will help others as well.
My friend and I (Youth + adult) have a 6 week planned trip. I’ve done some research for the Eurail pass and possible combinations and can’t make a decision. We thought about getting both the Global Pass 30 days as our passes really start from Paris to Madrid.
Itinerary:
London – Bath – Stonehenge (Days 1-7) – Eurostar to Paris
Paris (Days 7-10) – Eurail to Munich
Munich (Days 11-18) – Eurail to Venice
Venice (Days 19-20) – Eurail to Rome
Rome (Days 21-24) – Eurail to Tuscany/Sienna
Tuscany/Florence/Sienna (Days 25-27) – Bus/Eurail to CinqueTerre
CinqueTerre (Days 28-30) – Eurail to Nice
Nice/Provence (Days 31-34) – Eurail to Barcelona
Barcelona (35-37) – Eurail to Pamplona
Pamplona (38-39) – Eurail to Madrid
Madrid (39-42) – FLY home.
We would ideally spend most of our time in Italy and Spain and only spend parts of northern Europe as we’re planning to come back (a preview of future trips), can you provide some guidance to transportation? I know we are going to buy a Eurostar ticket, but since Austria isn’t part of the select countries, we can’t do the 4 regions. If we were going to go that route, we would purchase a Train ticket form Munich to Verona to bypass the Austria restriction.
Thanks! -Sam
Sam,
I’m confused about your mention of Austria because there’s nothing unusual about it for rail passes. Until April (tomorrow), France didn’t participate in the 3, 4, or 5-country Select Passes, but starting tomorrow it’s back in, and they’ve eliminated the 3-country and 5-country versions. So are you saying that Austria would be the 5th country if you went for a 4-country Select Pass? If so, that’s understandable, but in the Global Pass and all the others, Austria is included.
So yes, you’ll want to do that Eurostar, and buy it as early as possible for the best fare. Once in Paris you have a mix of expensive train journeys and cheaper ones, so a Global Rail Pass probably isn’t actually your cheapest option. For example, those rides within Italy would be around €50 (in 2nd Class) if you bought them on travel day, and as little as around €20 if you bought them a couple months in advance.
On the other hand, you have a pretty leisurely pace planned here, so you should have enough time for at least a handful of side trips. A week in Munich is quite a long time, so with a continuous Global Pass, you could go to Salzburg for just a day or overnight, and the same is true with the nearby castles and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. You might hesitate to pay €60 for a round-trip on just a day trip, but if you have the continuous pass you can just go without worry. Many of those trains you’d take on side trips would be the regional ones where you don’t even need seat reservations.
So my best guess is that the cheapest way to do all of these train trips would be to buy them all online at least a month ahead of time, if not more. But of course that would mean that you’d have every last trip locked in before you even got there. A rail pass would cost at least a bit more than the individual tickets bought early, but it also allows you to change plans and just do as you please for the whole time. Assuming you can afford it, that freedom is worth a lot on a longer trip like this. -Roger
Hi Roger,
I chanced upon this very useful website. Thank you so much for your advice. My husband and I are travelling to Europe in may, and we are wondering if buying a global pass is necessary. Heres our itinerary.
Prague – 3 nights
Budapest – 2
Vienna – 2 (catch an overnight train to lucern on the 3rd)
Lucern -2
Interlaken -2
Zermatt – 1
Venice – 1
Florence – 2
Rome -3
Appreciate your insights!
Cheers,
Janice
Janice,
Thank you for the kind words. I don’t think any rail pass would be good value for this trip. The good news for you is that none of these train journeys would be very expensive on their own, with the exception of Vienna to Lucerne. And since you are doing that one by night train, and hopefully buying it well in advance, that should be fairly affordable as well.
Trains from Prague to Budapest to Vienna are pretty cheap by European standards, and as long as you buy at least a week or two in advance, you’ll pay much less than the daily cost of a rail pass that would cover them. Those rides within Switzerland are fairly short, so those won’t be bad either. From Zermatt to Venice might not be too cheap unless you buy well in advance, but Venice to Florence and to Rome would be like €49 each even if you bought them just before the train left, and more like €19 each if you buy a month or two in advance.
This new article on Europe train prices when bought in advance should help. There are links on there to the official rail companies of several countries, and that’s where you should buy the advance tickets. If you can lock in all of those train rides at least a few weeks in advance, you’ll pay much less than you would with any rail pass. Let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger
Hi Roger,
Firstly, I am so thankful for all your useful information and the time you take to answer everyone’s questions, and your price index guides are very helpful. I am having some difficulty trying to decide what kind of rail pass I should get for my trip starting April 14-July 8, flying into London and out of Amsterdam. I am under the age of 25 and travelling alone. I have set the first part of my trip and have a rough itinerary for the rest. I plan on paying for point to point tickets in Italy as long as I book ahead, and start using my rail pass when I leave Italy.
–Set- starting April 15:
Flying in to London (10 days)
Eurostar to Paris (9 days)
Train to Avignon (4 days)
Train to Nice (4 days)
Train (not yet booked) to La Spezia, stay in Cinque Terre (3 days)
–Rough- starting May 13:
La Spezia (stop over in Pisa) to Florence (4 days)
Siena (2 days)
Rome (5 days)
Venice (2 days), Leave Italy on May 26
–Flexible:
Austria (Vienna, Salzberg)
Switzerland (suggestions?)
Germany (Neuschwanstein, Munich, Rothenburg, Dresden, Berlin)
Maybe a bit of Scandinavia to see the midnight sun
Belgium
Netherlands (5 days in Amsterdam, fly home on July 8)
So the two options I was looking at was the 1 month continuous pass with extra 5 days if I buy before March 28, or the 15 travel days in 2 months, both cost about the same. So I would like your advice on what pass would be the most effective for my trip. Also how far in advance should I book my hostels when I’m winging it? Thanks for your time!
Ashley,
It’s my pleasure to help people with this stuff, and it actually helps me know what to research and write about when I see the real questions.
You’ve got a pretty amazing trip planned here. Not many people can pull off 10 days in London and 9 days in Paris, although I assume you’ll probably do a few side trips from both. At least you are allowing yourself enough time in each stop, which not everyone does.
I’m generally a big fan of the Flexi-passes because the continuous passes encourage people to rush around just to get the best value out of them. But in your case, if I’m understanding this right, you only want a pass for at most 38 days of your trip because you’d be arriving in Amsterdam on July 3. If that’s the case, and since they are about the same price, and because you can get those 5 extra days if you buy soon, I think the continuous Global Youth Pass
Global Youth Pass is the easy choice. The only small sacrifice would be the final trip to Amsterdam, and you should be able to plan it so you aren’t too far away when the pass expires. Like, if you were in Bruges or Brussels, you could buy that train ticket to Amsterdam at least a few weeks in advance and it would be relatively cheap.
The obvious benefit of the continuous pass is that you’d be able to go anywhere at any time, and the most you’d worry about is a seat reservation cost, which is around €5. If you are doing day trips from a city you’ll often go on a suburban train rather than an intercity train, and those suburban trains usually don’t require seat reservations at all. You have many good day trip possibilities from the cities you’ll be visiting, so to be able to just jump on any train for no cost will be wonderful.
In Switzerland your main choices are the big and expensive (and generic) cities like Zurich, Geneva, and Basel, or the two towns in the Alps foothills with all the great views and hiking and outdoor activities. So unless you really enjoy cities, go to either Lucerne or Interlaken.
As for the midnight sun, you’d have to go to the northernmost cities in Sweden or Norway to actually experience it. But the novelty of it still being a bit light at 11pm is worth something, and you can enjoy that in Copenhagen or Stockholm (or Edinburgh). All are lovely, and with that rail pass they are certainly worth considering.
The hostels in Europe don’t start getting packed until early June, so until then you’ll have a pretty easy time of it. Here’s how the hostels typically work these days: Let’s say there are 10 hostels in a given town. The best 2 or 3 (location, service, facilities) will sell out a few days early, or maybe a week or two early in high season (starting in June). The 4 or 5 next best hostels will usually fill up on check-in day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the evening. The 2 or 3 worst hostels (remote location, poor reviews, bad service) might not fill up at all, except on the busiest days. One odd thing about this is that price and quality don’t necessarily go together. Those 10 hostels might range from €15 to €25 per night, and the ones with the best location and best reviews might only be €18 per night. The crappy ones sometimes charge more because they’ll fill up once the good ones are gone anyway. You’ll see when you get there that those really good hostels can be so fun that you don’t want to leave, while the rotten ones can be so bad that you want to move to a different place the first morning you wake up.
So what I like to do, and I recommend for others on a “winging it” trip, is to book a place to stay right after you are sure you are going there. So if I’m in Munich on Tuesday and decide I’m going to Salzburg on Friday, I’ll go make a seat reservation at the train station, and then book a place to stay. You’ll see that it’s really nice to know exactly where you are going once you get off a train, especially when you are faced with a bunch of hotel or hostel touts on the platform trying to get you to their place by saying yours has burned down or whatever. It’s actually easier to trust hostel reviews than hotel reviews, so there are usually a few great hostels in each city. I have recommended hostels on most of my Europe City pages, all with the best combination of price and location I could find. Those should be a good place to start your search, but after a couple weeks on the road you’ll get the hang of it.
Bon voyage, and let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger
Dear Roger
I am 22 years old and will be travelling through europe for just shy of two months. I have been studying in Switzerland and have various friends/places that I would like to visit but have no confirmed dates or plans. My main areas of interest are Germany and Poland.
Which pass do you think would be best for me? And do you think that it is safe for a girl to travel on the trains alone?
Thanks!
Natasha
Natasha,
First off, you should have no trouble traveling alone on trains in those countries. Germany in particular is famous for its law and order, and about the worst that might happen is you’d be riding in a carriage along with some drunk youths (and they all know English anyway). Poland is a bit edgier, but as long as you are on the intercity trains rather than commuter trains late at night, you’ll be fine.
It’s impossible for me to recommend a rail pass until I have a better idea of where you want to go. However, it’s worth noting that the one-country German Rail Pass is currently 10% to 20% off if you buy before April 29 and travel by the end of May (see the links to this deal near the top of the article above). If you are going in summer, I don’t think there will be any discounts.
If you are starting in Switzerland and are going to Munich then Berlin then Hamburg then Cologne and then back to Basel, you’d be going pretty long distances and a rail pass is probably a good deal. But if you’d mostly just stay in the south, then you can probably do it cheaper by buying individual tickets. They can be quite cheap if you buy a month or more in advance, and quite expensive if you buy the day before you leave. So a rail pass allows you to lock in a lower price, and also allows you to go as you please. The only thing you’d have to do is buy a seat reservation on the longer trains, at around €5 each, but you can usually do that just before the train leaves.
The individual train tickets within Poland are pretty cheap no matter what, so a rail pass might not be good value.
So if you’d like more detailed help, please tell us at least some of the cities you might visit, and I’ll help you even more specifically. -Roger
Roger,
You are the best! Thank you!
Hi Roger,
I feel lucky to have found this site and your article is so helpful. I will be visiting 5 countries in Europe with two friends in May. All of us are close to 50 years of age. We will fly to Paris (4days) – Cologne (1day) – Munich (1day) – Vienna (2day) – Zurich (1day) – Geneva (1day) – Venice (1day) – Pisa (1day) – Florence (2days) – Rome (2days) – Pompeii (1day) – Nice or Marseille (1day) – back to Paris. A total of 22 days.
Should we purchase the Eurail Global Pass. My friend said we will have to make reservations each time we use Eurail Global Pass. Is it true? Thank you so much.
Linda,
Your friend is mostly correct in that you’d need to make seat reservations on most of those trains if you used a rail pass, but they are typical quite cheap (around €5 each) and easy to get on the travel day or the day before. Your other option would be to buy all of those train rides at least a month or so in advance, or you’d pay a fortune if you bought them as you went. So a Eurail pass really does give you the most flexibility at a good price.
But before you confirm that decision, I’m going to urge you to rethink the number of stops you are planning in only 22 days. Four days in Paris is perfect, but after that it’s like you are on the “Amazing Race.” For example, let’s say you leave Paris by train at 11am, after checking out of your hotel at 10am. You’d arrive in Cologne at about 2:30pm, and check into a new hotel by about 3:30pm. You’d have just enough time to walk to the cathedral and then stroll around a bit before dinner, and then back to your hotel to check out early the next morning to hop on the 4.5-hour ride to Munich. Once in Munich, you’d have just enough time to see one thing before dinner, and then back to your hotel before heading to Vienna.
In other words, you’d be spending the majority of your time on trains or in train stations, and you’d only have a few hours in each city for sightseeing. The views from train windows are a pleasant part of the travel experience, but going this fast is a pretty inefficient way of seeing Europe.
Anyway, some people do enjoy a breakneck pace like this, and if you think you will, then (as described above) the cheapest choice would be to lock in every train ride at least a few weeks early by booking online with the official rail sites of each country. But if you want to keep flexibility, you could get the Eurail Global Pass and that would allow you keep travel expenses reasonable and all you have to do is make a seat reservation a day or two before you want to leave (or even on the same day in most cases). Part of the equation is that you’d be going 1st Class (being older than 25), but with 3 people going together you get 15% off each pass, and that brings the cost of 1st Class travel down to an appealing price.
And not only is 1st Class much more comfortable, it’s also less crowded (of course) and you can usually make seat reservations at the last minute because those carriages rarely sell out.
If you are open to it, I’ll help you trim your itinerary down to a level that will probably be more enjoyable. From Paris I’d recommend either going north or east, or going south (to Nice then to Italy). Trying to do all of that in 3 weeks is extremely ambitious.
Also, for what it’s worth, Zurich and Geneva are both large and pleasant cities that are extremely expensive and honestly quite generic. If you really want to “see Switzerland” you might instead think about going to Lucerne or Interlaken, which are the big two tourist spots with Alpine views and all the outdoor activities right there. However you do it, best of luck, and let me know if you have more questions. -Roger
Hi Roger,
It was so kind of you and thank you for your prompt reply. We take your advice and take out some of the stops. We choose France, Germany, Italy, and Austria is because we all have been to England and Spain. These 4 countries are the ones none of us has been too before. Would you mind letting me know if the following stops are better:
Arrival Paris (May 15-20, 5 nights) to
Nice (May 20-21, 1 night) to
Italy (May 21-29, 8 nights, Rome-Florence-Pisa-Venice) to
Vienna (May 29-31, 2 nights) to
Munich (May 31-June 2, 2 nights) to
Cologne (June 2-4, 2 nights) to
Paris (June 4)
Return to US June 5
I appreciate very much your advice. Thank you so very much again.
Linda
Linda,
I’m always happy to help, and I do think this version is much, much better. It’s still moving quickly, but there is a huge difference in staying two nights in each place compared to only one night. You more or less have 30 hours for sightseeing and whatever you like, compared to more like 6 hours if you only stay one night.
More specifically, you might want to stretch Nice to 2 nights. The train from Paris takes 5 hours and 40 minutes, and the train into Italy will be a longer one as well. Not only is Nice quite a nice place, but it’s also a short train ride from Cannes (west) and Monaco (east), and both make really nice day trips.
In Italy I’d recommend at least 3 nights in Rome because it’s huge and loaded with top attractions. Most people prefer to do Pisa as a day trip from Florence because it’s a short train ride between them, and Pisa’s famous attractions really only take 2 or 3 hours to see. And as I’ve said many times before, Venice is small enough (and so crowded) that one day is a good visit. The trick is to pay a bit more so you can stay on the main island rather than on the mainland. In the evenings and mornings, Venice is mostly empty so they are the best times to see as much as possible. By around 10am, the buses bring massive day-trip crowds, and they pack every sidewalk until 6pm or so.
So with this itinerary it would be cheapest if you bought your train tickets today, but if you go with the Eurail Pass you can decide as you go and just get your seat reservations the day before you leave or even on the day (since you’d be going in 1st Class). -Roger
Roger,
It is so helpful. We can’t thank you enough. We will stay two days in Nice and purchase the train tickets today. I have two more questions:
If we do Pisa as a day trip between Florence and Venice, should I purchase the train tickets from Florence to Venice or should I purchase from Florence to Pisa then to Venice? We three are notoriously bad with too many luggages. We forced each other to have no more than two. Even so, if we do the day trip to Pisa, what should we do with the luggages? Can we leave them in the train station?
My friend asked me (she is sitting next to me bossing me around) to ask you for suggestions about possibilities of taking a ferry. Is it a silly idea? Anything else we should change or know about the stops?
Thank you so very much again.
Linda
Linda,
By day-trip I actually meant just stay an extra night in Florence so you don’t have to keep packing and moving, and spend part of a day in Pisa. That train takes only 50 to 70 minutes each way, and it’s a cheap regional train leaving every 15 minutes or so. You can’t buy tickets until 7 days out, by the way. If you leave Florence at 11am you can be in Pisa around noon, and then back in Florence only a few hours later after seeing the tower and cathedral.
If you prefer to do it in between Florence and Venice, there will be a Left Luggage counter at the Pisa train station, and luggage lockers as well. Pisa is popular for quick visits like this, so it’s pretty easy to do either way.
Your bossy friend is right that there are ferries operating in that area, but I don’t know of any that would help you on your route. Most of them go to Sardinia or Corsica, and then tend to be pretty slow as well. They are fairly popular for going from Italy to Greece. If she knows of something that could work on your trip (which is possible), then let us know and I’ll look into it. I haven’t really studied the ferries around there much. -Roger
Hi Roger,
First of all i would like to thank you for maintaining all these helpful information on this website.
We are seeking to travel for around 2 weeks starting from Bratislava from 22 June 14 onwards. We aren’t very sure if we should buy the Eurail Global Pass. And countries that we are interested in would be Italy( Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice), France (Nice, Paris) and then maybe end in London or Paris. (maybe we could end in Spain?)
Any advice would be appreciated! We stay in Singapore, so we are not very certain with the routes. Hope you could give us some guidance on how we could travel around the above mention cities.
Thank you very much!
Lim
Lim,
I’m happy to try to help, and I’m a big fan of Singapore as well so I envy you (curry laksa might be my favorite meal).
First we need to discuss the number of cities you are hoping to visit, and then I can help you figure out the cheapest and best way to get between them. If you are really planning for a 14-day trip within Europe, I think 5 total cities is about the most you could visit and enjoy any of it. You can visit Venice in one day, so maybe you could do 6 cities if one is Venice and they are close together. Even when taking trains in Europe, most cities are 3 to 5 hours apart, and from the time you leave one hotel until the time you are checked into a hotel in the next city, most of your sightseeing day is already over. So travel days aren’t really sightseeing days, and if you changed cities every other day, it means half your trip spent in transit, and the other half actually seeing the things you’ve come all that way to see.
From Bratislava you can take a local bus to Vienna, so you might want to spend a day there as well since it’s an impressive city and so close by.
So I encourage you to narrow down your list, or expand the number of days in the whole visit. Consider that cities like Rome, Paris, and London really require 3 days to even see the most famous things, and you can’t do much sightseeing on travel days. Unless you can stretch it to more like 3 weeks, you should probably also try to focus your trip on one region. From Bratislava you can get to Italy pretty easily, and then maybe over to Nice, and a couple days in Paris if you are racing. Again, I’m happy to help you figure this out once you have narrowed down your top choices a bit more. -Roger
hello Roger thanks for replying so quickly. Glad that you are a fan of Singapore, a lot of people that visited enjoyed our different cuisine very much. Even I love the food here myself!
So according to your suggestions we have tried to narrow down to a list of cities.
1) Venice (1night)
2) Florence (2night)
3) Rome (2night)
4) Milan (2night)
5) Nice (1 night)
6) Paris(3night)
Could you assist us to see if the route is convenient for those cities mentioned above? And as of now we are totally clueless as to how we are going to travel through these cities. Either by bus or by train. Any help would be appreciated. And i am really thankful for your reply/help!
(if it’s not a hassle could i have your reply sent to my email please? [email protected] )
Thanks again!
Lim
Lim,
This list looks good and you could do it exactly as you have, but I’m going to suggest you eliminate Milan to make it even better. Here’s the thing about Milan, it’s a big city that is famous for banking and fashion, but it’s a second-tier tourist city. You could see the Last Supper there if you reserve far enough in advance, and the cathedral is one of the best in Europe. Otherwise, Milan is kind of generic (it was part of Austria until about 100 years ago, so it’s not very “Italian”) and hotels there are extremely expensive if there is a trade fair going on, which there often is. So at the very least, check hotel prices for when you’d go, and they might be pretty cheap, or they might be really expensive. If they are expensive (€150 for a basic 3-star hotel) then I’d recommend staying one more night in Rome and one more night in Nice.
Whatever you decide on that, I think your best bet (starting in Bratislava) is to book a cheap flight from Vienna to Rome (about US$100 per person) and spend 2 or 3 nights there. After that you’ll be best off taking trains. So Rome to Florence by train, then Florence to Venice by train, and Venice to Milan or Nice by train. For the best fares, book as early as possible on http://www.trenitalia.com (Italy rail site).
From Nice you’ll take the train to Paris, which is cheapest if you book well in advance on http://www.sncf.com/en/passengers (France rail site). That will be a great trip full of highlights. Bon voyage. -Roger
Hi Roger,
I would like to travel for about a month (28 days) in two to three countries in July.(My focus countries are Germany and France with an option of London, England.)
Spend 3 weeks in France ( Paris, Grenoble, and South-of-France/Cannes area, possibly Nice and other surrounding cities.)And 1 week in Germany (Cologne, Berlin, Munich). – I may not be able to do all in the 1 week but they are my city options.-
I am debating the best economic option between flying into Germany and leaving out of France (or into France out of Germany). Or, possibly flying into London and taking a ferry to France then Germany. Considering routes and the Eurail pass (regional). What is your opinion on my best route options and things to consider.
Thank you so much for your help.
Ann,
Without knowing where you are starting from, it’s not easy to comment on getting to Europe. But in my own research I find that round-trips to Europe tend to be quite a bit cheaper than two one-way flights using different cities. Sometimes an offline travel agent can arrange a good price on an “open jaw” ticket like that, and sometimes you can get lucky and find two one-ways that are cheap enough that it’s the best option. One thing to consider in Europe is to buy a round-trip into, say, Paris, and then finding a cheap one-way flight on a low cost carrier to complete the circuit from your final destination. If you book early enough you can often find a flight from Berlin to Paris for maybe €50, rather than taking a train back to Paris for the flight home.
If you do want to go from London to France you’ll probably want to take the Eurostar“> rather than a ferry, unless you are planning on lingering in one of the coastal towns. The Eurostar takes only 3 hours from central London to central Paris, and if you buy that ticket early it can be fairly cheap. The ferry option is way slower and kind of a hassle as well.
One week in those three German cities would be at a very fast pace, but at least Cologne is pretty compact and two days there are enough.
And as you probably know, the train tickets within France and Germany are quite expensive if you buy them on short notice. The cheapest way to go is probably to buy all of your train tickets online at least a month in advance. If you want the ability to create and change plans as you go, which seems like it would be preferable on a trip like this, then the France and Germany Rail Pass would be ideal. Those get cheaper with the greater number of travel days that you choose and if you get either the 8 Days or 10 Days version it becomes quite a good deal. As you probably know, you’ll need a seat reservation for most or all of those train rides, and those can a pricey on certain trains in France, but those same trains are far more expensive if you book them as you go.
Of course, you’ll want to have a pretty good idea of just how many train trips you might take, and how long most of those are, in order to know the best option. From the looks of it, you are planning at least 6 or 7 longer rides. If you don’t think you’ll want to do most or all of those, then a rail pass probably isn’t worth it. But if you do want to do 6 or more of those, then it probably is, unless you are willing to book a month or more in advance. Once you have a better idea of where you want to go, the best route will probably become pretty obvious. If it’s not, I’ll be happy to try to help.
And by the way, I definitely recommend basing yourself in Nice if you want to explore the South of France. It’s more interesting and way more budget friendly than Cannes or Monaco, and you can reach either of those in 20 to 30 minutes by train on a day trip. -Roger
Thank you so much for answering.
So, possibly I could do just two cities in Germany.
In choosing how many days that I will be traveling – what’s the best method for figuring out the actual amount of days we would be traveling. I mean should I add an extra day in the equation just in case we decide to go somewhere else? Wouldn’t the Eurail work to go from Nice to Cannes?
Again, Thanks.
Ann,
I’m not sure what you mean when asking how you should figure out the amount of days you’ll be traveling. Many people make a schedule long before they arrive, and stick to it. Other people like to have a day or two or three to change plans along the way as they go.
If you buy a continuous Eurail Pass, as in, one that is valid for 14 or 21 straight days, then you could use it to go from Nice to Cannes. But on the passes that are Flexi Passes, like those that allow 10 travel days within 2 months, you wouldn’t want to use a travel day. From Nice to Cannes it’s maybe a 30-minute train ride, leaving very 20 or 30 minutes. It’s probably about €12 to get to Cannes and back to Nice, and about the same to go to Monaco on an even shorter train ride.
I’m happy to try to answer your question if you ask again. -Roger
Any comments on the overnight trains. I am traveling with a group of 6 and plan to go from rome to munich to paris using the overnight couchette sleeping compartments.
Sherrie,
I’m not sure what you are wondering about night trains, but I will give you my general comments and hope that’s what you wanted.
Night trains can be a useful tool on some trips, and I’ve taken several of them, but I’m not a big fan of them because I tend to be a light sleeper. The problem is that they typically stop at least once or twice in the middle of the night to switch carriages with other trains coming from different places. So at maybe 2am or 3am you’ll stop at a station and after a bit of stillness and silence, there will be loud clanking and bumping as the trains unhitch and re-hitch. Most of them also shake a bit just in normal travel, so light sleepers like me don’t usually get much sleep at all.
Then when they pull into the station at maybe 8am or 9am, you still have at least a few hours before you can check into your next hotel or hostel, so those who didn’t get much sleep on the train will get loopy and disoriented.
On the other hand, with 6 people you can get a whole compartment if you choose the 6-berth couchette option, and that’ll probably be a fun experience even if you don’t get much sleep. And they are pretty good value on longer routes like the ones you are planning.
And in case you are wondering, a night train only uses one travel day on a rail pass, as long as the train leaves after 7pm (which they all do) and arrives the following morning.
Any other questions I missed? Now that you mention it, I think I’ll write a proper article discussing the pros and cons. -Roger