Homeostatsis
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 8 years ago
Hey more experienced travellers
I will be journeying in Europe for the first time in December and wanted to ask your opinion on whether or not an EuRail pass would be worth the price for my route.
The cities that I am planning to visit over a 3 week period are Milan-Venice-Salzburg-Bratislava-Vienna-Budapest-Krakow-Prague-Berlin-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Madrid and then Barcelona. So it is really a gigantic circle. I'm just wondering whether an EuRail is the best way to go on most of these or if individually it would be easier. I was considering night trains for some of the longer legs of the journey such as Budapest to Krakow. I've also heard that some of the trains in Western Europe aren't worth getting an Eurail particularly routes like Amsterdam-Paris.
I've also struggled to figure out how things would work with a railpass while looking on sites. Sometimes I can't seem to find a rail pass option on the websites and it seems like the best way to catch some of these trains is just to arrive at the station at the day which while making it more flexible makes it seem difficult to plan.
Any help that you could provide would be helpful.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi!
There is no definitive answer whether you are better off with Eurail or single tickets - I would say it depends. On many routes, single tickets will be cheaper when bought in advance but can get rather expensive when bought on the spot. Also, do you want to travel first or second class - the 1st class Eurail pass doesnt cost much more than the 2nd class version: [u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail-global-pass[/u]
If you would decide to go with Eurail, you would need to buy extra reservations for the following routes:
Milan - Venice: 10€
Venice - Salzburg: ~10€, depending on connection
Budapest - Krakow: 3€ when travelling during the day or night train: [u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail-night-train/budapest-krakow-en-476/137[/u]
Krakow - Prague: 3€ when travelling during the day or night train: [u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail-night-train/krakow-prague-en-402/149[/u]
Brussels - Paris: 20€ on the direct Thalys service; 9/18€ when using a connecting service with TGV train Lille - Paris
Paris - Madrid: Depends on connection, at least ~20€
Madrid - Barcelona: 10€
All other trains can be used free of extra charges. This would leave you with about 60€ additional costs, depending on which actual connections you are going to take. Most of these reservations can only be made locally at a station so it does not make sense to look at railway companies websites for rail pass fares.
You would now have to compare this to the prices of regular tickets to see whether or not a Eurail pass would make sense to buy.
Milan - Venice: trenitalia.com
Venice - Salzburg, Salzburg - Vienna/Bratislava, Vienna - Budapest: [u]https://rail.shop/oebb[/u]
You could also think about going to Bratislava as a day trip from Vienna, using a special fare ticket for 16€ (return); to travel from Salzburg to Vienna you can also have a look at private railway Westbahn at westbahn.at
Budapest - Krakow: [ux]https://rail.shop/mav[/ux]
Krakow - Prague: [ux]https://rail.shop/cd[/ux] but I am not sure if the ticket is available online
Prague - Berlin: [ux]https://rail.shop/cd[/ux] or [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]
Berlin - Amsterdam: [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] or [ux]https://rail.shop/nsinternational[/ux]
Amsterdam - Brussels and Brussels - Paris: [ux]https://rail.shop/nsinternational[/ux] [ux]https://rail.shop/beurope[/ux] or [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf[/ux]
Paris - Madrid: [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf[/ux] and [ux]https://rail.shop/omio[/ux]
Madrid - Barcelona: [ux]https://rail.shop/omio/[/ux]
We are official partners of several companies selling Eurail - to support the free information and the forum on railcc, please be fair and buy your official Eurail pass via our railcc partner link: [ux]https://rail.shop/eurail[/ux]
Thank you! :)
Flo 8)
ntrain
Traveller
123 comments
IF its mainly cheap-cheap you weant, then also consider BUS (coach), as the long-distance network in Europe is nearly exploding this year. Is always cheaper as train. In winter there are also many, many cheap low-budget flites (Ryan air, WIZZair, easyjet).
Also you did not mention AGE: EUrail is a lot chepaer for youth<26, older people can only get the 1st cl. pass.
To me in 3 weeks-15 cities thats utter nonsense to travel that much and in such a quirky way. Note that the weeks around Xmas/+1/1 are often extremely busy with normal travellers and ON those dates many trains do not run. Also: as the general timetablechange date is 12/12, bookings will only be released much later as usual. YOur routing does not really allow for overnighttrains-the few that stille xist, bar 1 or 2.