My husband (> 26 years old) and I (25 years old) are travelling to Europe from March 20 to April 5. The following is our itineraries:
1. Paris (4 nights)
2. Luzern (4 nights)
3. Venice (3 nights)
4. Rome (5 nights)

Will it be worth it to buy the Eurail Saver Pass for travelling across countries? If so, should I buy it while we are in Europe or buy it in advance from a website? Will we need reservations?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Have you checked your itinerary at Railsaver.com? be sure to click "Only if it saves me money."

I doubt you'll save any money buying a Eurail Pass but check the following site which I consider the definitive source for rail information:

http://seat61.com/

Hi dr,

Have you looked at the train schedules at www.bahn.de?

It would depend IMO if you do day trips from your bases - like from Lucerne hopping the boats (free with railpasses) around fjord-like Lake Lucerne - a great thing to do IMO

Or from Paris going to Bayeux or some other day trips.

Remember the pass is first class and you are comparing that to 2nd class tickets on railsaver.com i may think.

Hi Pal,

Railsaver lets you choose 1 or 2 cl.

Thank you all for the input! I will check out the websites.

You've waited too long to get the best advance online discount fares.

Paris-Luzern via Basel = €106 (2nd class)

For Luzern-Venezia Santa Lucia you can travel during the day or overnight. Which one for you?

Venezia Santa Lucia-Roma Termini on EuroStar Italia trains is €56.10 (standard, 2nd class) or €44.90 (Amica, 2nd class). If any of the allotted seats are still available, you can get Amica fares (fast trains only) up until midnight of the day before departure.

If you want a railpass, it's best to buy it in advance from home. You can only buy them in a very few select cities in Europe--and they cost substantially more.

TimS, I wish I did my research earlier. Could you tell me where I can find the online discount fares for future reference? Also, we will travel during the day for all of the train rides.

Will it be worth it to buy railpass if we are planning to do day trips as follows?
- To Versailles from Paris
- To Bern or Interlaken or Mt Titlis from Lucerne (2 day trips)
- Boat ride in Lake Lucerne
- To Naples (possibly to Capri Island or Pompeii) from Rome

ellenem, thank you for the link. I found out that they don't recommend the railpass for my itineraries.

Sarastro, I really appreciate the link, it help me to understand the transport system better.

Palenque, thank you for your input. Since you mentioned about the boat ride, I tried to research further and came across another thread about the swisspass.

So the plan is getting 3 days Swiss Flexi Pass, 48 hours Transport pass for Venice, and buy point-to-point ticket the rest. Does that sound reasonable? Will it be possible (or cheaper?) to buy the swiss pass and venice transport pass once we get there?

Any suggestions are welcomed.

You might want to check out the France and Italy pass (it is called a single country pass but covers both). There is a youth version for under 26s but there's also a saver version for two people travelling together, with 4 days travel it costs around $250 each second class. Well, that's through a ticket seller it might be cheaper direct.

If contemplating a railpass and or want to learn lots about European trains i always refer three great sites: www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - sites with lots of objective info as well as the usual pass prices - the latter's European Planning & Rail Guide is now free online - a nice primer to learning the nuances of trains and railpasses.

The best way to get discount fares is to book on a country's national rail site: www.voyages-sncf.com or www.tgv-europe.com for France and www.bahn.de for Germany. Are you from Canada or the US? The Trenitalia site usually rejects North Amereican credit cards. However, you can buy tickets with those cards at stations in Italy.

If you book NOW on the Swiss Rail site, you should be able to get a "Special Offer" discount fare of 87.00 CHF (€53.04) for Luzern-Venezia Santa Lucia.

Also, see the Swiss Rail site for information on passes and half-fare cards just for Switzerland which cover boats as well as trains.

Train travel in Italy is relatively inexpensive. Regional trains are very cheap. Amica fares (20% discount) are sold for fast trains. If any of the allotted seats are still available, you can get an Amica fare up to midnight of the day before departure.

I forgot to comment on getting to Versailles. The fare from central Paris to Versailles on the Metro and RER is €2.90 each way. Don't waste a day of a railpass for that trip.

One more thing. A railpass would only be good on the RER C to Versailles because it is run by SNCF, French national rail. It will not be good on any Metro line that you might need to take to get to a RER C station.

Yes for Versailles by the Forfait/Leisure ticket at any metro station - includes return travel via RER C to a station a few blocks from the Palace and admission as well - no waiting in long ticket lines is the key as well as perhaps a small discount.

Palenque- There is <u>no</u> Forfiat Loisirs tickets anymore.
http://www.transilien.com/web/site/a...ailles/lang/en

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...versailles.cfm

yk - thanks for that vital info - when i posted that i thought to say not sure they were sold anymore. Tante pis! (sp?)

TimS, yk, and Palenque, thanks for the tips! This is my first post on Fodor's forum and I'm really glad I did it! All of you are very helpful.

I'm excited, two more weeks!

Bon Voyage drevon and you will LOVE European trains