Will275

I will be traveling to Europe, with my girlfriend, for 35 days starting in the middle of September. I spent 12 days in Italy a few years ago, other than that I have no experience in Europe. I have a lot of questions, but I want to start with Train tickets.
I am trying to find out if it’s cheaper just to buy individual tickets when I'm there, or to buy the Euro Global Pass for $1000 for 1 Month.
http://www.raileurope.com/rail-ticke...d-pricing.html
Here is my "rough" travel route, still researching where I want to go so it might change:

Munich 4 days - to - Vienna 2 days - to - Budapest 1 day - to - Prague 6 days - to - Berlin 3 days - to - Amsterdam 2 days - to - Normandy France area 5 days - to Bern or Zurich 2 days - to - Munich
Leaves me with 9 days to use on the fly.

I only like a rough schedule, I really don't like sticking to an hour by hour or day by day schedule when I travel, so I think the Global pass would be best so I can stay longer if I like. However, $1000 is a lot of money, so if it’s cheaper to get each ticket separately, then I might do that. Any info would help me out a lot.
Thanks,
Will

isabel

Well go to raileurope.com and price out point to point tickets. Buying from the train company itself will often be cheaper than using raileurope but that site will give you an idea of price and schedule (there are usually more frequent trains also, than those that are listed). It will also tell you how long the train rides are. For example, Munich to Vienna is 4-5 hours, Vienna to Budapest is around three, Budapest to Prague is 7-8 hours,Prague to Berlin is 5-6. I enjoy trains but I wouldn't do very many rides over 3-4 hours, certainly not the number you plan to do.

Gotta say though, that's a lot of places for just over a month. Is part of your plan to 'enjoy' the train rides. Even people who love trains can get bored with too much. Also you might want to reconsider the one and two day stays. Even if they are 'on the way' to the next destination, you still have to find and check in/out of hotels and you loose a lot of time. I realize you have 9 extra days to add but still.

I see that you only like a rough schedule and I do see the value in that. But September is still high season and I take it your plan does not involve booking any hotels ahead of time. Just realize that means the best value places will be booked and you may spend a good deal of time looking for lodging. If money is not an issue you are probably ok, but if you are on a budget you'll find that booking after you arrive in a city means you will be in crappy places/out of the way places/ and/or over priced places.

So a suggestion - figure out the length of train rides, the cost, etc. and map it out a little more carefully. You may find you want to drop a few of those places. There are ways to have a flexible vacation even if it is 'planned'. Just my two cents.

longhorn55

Good advice from Isabel. My college-aged kids just returned from a 3-week tour of Europe (Germany, Greece, Italy) and booked their hostels for June two months in advance. Even so, they discovered that some of the hostels they most wanted to stay in were booked out for some nights.
If you want to save money in Europe, you really have to plan ahead.
(P.S. They also discovered some great deals on the trains in Germany. The two of them could travel on a regional train within any state (e.g. Bavaria) for a total of 29 euros.)

mamcalice

Since you will be in Normandy, add Paris to use some of your 9 days.

Will275

Well as I expected, work has changed my schedule around a bit. I still have 35 days, but I won't be leaving until early Oct, so I will be missing Oktoberfest all together. Disappointing, but it should make this a much cheaper trip. I will try and fit in a tour of the Jagermeister production facility instead. Is the tourist season mostly over Oct-Nov?

Thanks for the advice Longhorn, but unfortunately, because work likes to change my schedule frequently, I won’t be able to book anything until I am a month out. I hope that will leave me with enough time.

Thanks for the advice Isabel, I may rethink going the extra distance to places like Budapest and Zurich, maybe just spend a few more days at the other locations. I now have a train schedule with the average travel times to figure out how much time I want to be on a train.

As for the train tickets, I think the global Europass will be best. Individual pricing out A to B to C... would more expensive, and also put me into a defined schedule. I will just have to pay attention to the trips that I will need to book a few days ahead of time.

I plan on staying in a mix of hostels and hotels. The longer train rides I will try and do at night, and just pay the extra money for a sleeper. I have some travel books on the way, as well as a wall map of Europe to help plan this all out.
Mamcalice, my girlfriend wouldn’t let me skip Paris for any reason, I will definitely be there for at least a day or two.