locmad

Travelling around and will need the following rail links:
London to amsterdam
Amsterdam to Paris
Rome to Florence
Florence o Venice
Venus to Munich
Would you recommend a family pass or individual tickets? I will need 2 adult tickets along with tickets for an 11 and 9 year old children .

adeben

All of these, particularly in Italy, are probably best done with individual tickets. However, From Venus to Munich,you should probably book a spaceship!

Man_in_seat_61

1) London-Amsterdam:

By Eurostar+Thalys from £79, www.b-europe.com. By overnight train & ferry from £45 plus cost of cabin, all cabins with shower, toilet, free WiFi and satellite TV, www.seat61.com/Netherlands.htm

2) Amsterdam to Paris from €35 at www.thalys.com or www.b-europe.com (if you bought a pass, the reservation fee for passholders on Thalys is €39, yes, that's MORE than the cheapest €35 fare bought without a pass, and which of course INCLUDES a reservation!)

3) Paris to Florence or Rome by daily direct Thello sleeper train, from €35 with couchette or from €145 with bed in a 2-bed sleeper at www.thello.com. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfjiaO2lyOw

Or take day trains, first one of three daily direct TGVs Paris-Munich from €29 at www.voyages-sncf.com (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B09t_WJz_mM) then Milan-Florence/Rome from €29 at www.italo.it, see Ital;o video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30yWfXKZ1x0

4) Rome-Florence or any journey within Italy from €19 at www.trenitalia.com, see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4DZ-Z_6wjA

5) Venice-Munich from €39 at German Railways website www.bahn.de/en if you use the direct day train at 13:34 (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uucEm3op7uc) , from €59 with couchette or €104 with bed in a 2-bed sleeper if you take the direct sleeper train.

I think that pretty much covers it...

Booking for most trains opens 92 days ahead, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.

Man_in_seat_61

Sorry, in item 3, I meant take one of the three daily Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs, which leave Paris Gare de Lyon daily at 07:49, 10:41 and 14:41. Not Munich!

kybourbon

>>>Amsterdam to Paris
Rome to Florence<<<

Are you flying Easy Jet from Paris Orly to Rome?

You didn't say when you are traveling, but Trenitalia (Italy's train system) is running a special where kids (to age 15) travel free until mid-Sept. It can't be combined with other discounts.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...008916f90aRCRD

I don't think a pass covers the Eurostar from London. In Italy, seat reservations are mandatory on the faster trains (10€). Passes don't include them so you have to add that to the cost of a pass (check supplement costs in other countries). Tickets bought from Trenitalia will include your seats (except slow regional trains that don't have reserved seating).

You do have 3-4 weeks for this amount of travel?

PalenQ

You will probably be best off going the discounted ticket route that Man in Seat 61 outlines - but these prices are not always available and booking them can take hours for novices at times - especially many folks have had trouble booking on trenitalia.com - but if willing to put in hours booking all those then that would be the cheapest - for full flexibility to chose the trains as you go along (cheapest tickets also must be booked months in advance as they are sold in limited numbers and then often cannot be changed nor refunded) -but if you want to chose your trains as you go along then the pass - a Eurail Select Saverpass (kids each pay 50% because they are under 12) the a pass may pay off since such full fare tickets like the pass offers since these tickets can cost a ton of money.

Anyway for lots of great info on European trains check out these fine sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com (click on this site's commercial link to Rail Europe to get railpass prices) and www.ricksteves.com.

yodababe

Check out flights for your longer transits. They are surprisingly affordable and much faster. Any international connection allows 23 kg checked luggage weight--unless you fly with a discount airline like Ryan Air. Check out Lufthansa, KLM, Air Berlin instead.

PalenQ

There is also an overnight train between Venice and Munich - could save on a hotel and travel time as even flying takes about half a day regardless of length of flight.

PalenQ

Euro rail pass or individual tickets>

There is no Euro rail - there is a Eurailpass that has been around for a long time and lots of variants of it - all called Eurailpasses - like the Eurail Select Pass where you can chose 3-5 countries for the validity area and get a much cheaper price than the Global Eurailpass covering just about every country save the UK.