Dbacks

There are so many Eurail passes now it makes it very difficult to figure out what is needed. Regular ones, 3, 4, 5 etc. country ones - but the countries must connect, ones that are rail & drive - & you can buy extra days, some for partners or familys, some are good on this, but not on that, they are good for train travel but not sleepers or couchettes, on & on. There are passes, selectpasses, swiss passes, flexipasses etc. My head is spinning! I give up - I'm renting a car.

elberko

Here are 2 places to get some help:

www.railsaver.com to see what railpass may work for your itinerary, and,

www.ricksteves.com for a railpass booklet you can download with lots of good info.

Betsy

I understand your pain! I went 'round and 'round a couple of years ago when planning a multi-country trip. I found the Rick Steves site a good resource, but my local AAA travel office had a big, glossy brochure that explained all the options very clearly. Be sure to plug your itinerary into www.railsaver.com to see if you need a pass at all!

cherylforeurope

Thanks for the laugh. So glad I'm not
the only one trying to figure the whole
thing out. My trip will be Germany,
Austria, Budapest and Prague. I'm renting a car in Germany, trying to figure out if I should get a pass or do
point to point tickets for the remainder. If I get a pass
I need a special ticket for Prague. Do
I buy before I go or once we're there?
But do I want to spend time buying them
once there?
The questions are endless for those of
us new at this. Anyway, thanks for the
much needed laugh. Hope you have a good trip.

indytravel

I use www.railsaver.com too. Make sure you check the box that says to pick a rail pass "Only if railpasses save me money." With the "convenience" box checked it's recommended a pass for me even though the point-to-point tickers were as much as $50 cheaper.

I check for rail passes every time I travel in Europe, which has been once or twice a year for several years now. I've yet to have a rail pass be cheaper than point-to-point tickets. I will say that I don't take overnight rail trips and I rarely sit on a train more than 3 hours when I take one. I don't like to spend lots of time traveling in Europe. Maybe my shorter trips don't work as well with a rail pass.

Patrick

If you think we customers have problems, you'd be amazed at how some Europeans in the travel industry don't know what to do with them. We had Swiss Saver Pass (indentical to a Swiss Pass, except the second person gets his at half price). We tried to use it on a bus in Schaffhausen and the driver refused to let us ride. I showed him our folder which clearly stated that busses were free there, but he showed me that his book said "Swiss Pass ONLY", and since our passes said "Swiss Saver" he made us pay.

Then we tried to do a reservation for an Italian Eurostar train while in Rome using our Eurail Pass, and the clerk at the window insisted that we had to pay a supplement as well as a reservation fee, while our passes clearly stated "no supplement required for Eurostar trains".

Then there was the first day we used our German rail pass and the conductor stamped our passes with the wrong date -- for a week earlier. We didn't realize it until that afternoon when the next conductor stamped our passes in the second day's place. I told him it was our first day and that's when he showed me that the first day had been "a week earlier". This made no sense since we had just validated the passes that morning before boarding the train. Fortunately in Berlin we were able to get the passes reissued correcting the mistake and giving us back our additional day -- only by showing the guy at Eurail Aid our passports and plane boarding tickets showing our arrival in Germany just the day before the passes were validated, proving the first stamped date was wrong.