A2B

Will the Eurail Global Pass the only pass I need to travel in Europe. I will be going to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

This is my route:

Munich airport to Munchen Hbf
Munchen Hbf to Zurich
Zurich to Bern
Bern to Zermatt
Zermatt to Como
Como to Milan
Milan to Venice
Venice to Florence
Florence to Rome

When I'm in the cities I have tours booked and we will just walk around. None of the route is night trains. I will travel in the evenings to some cities.

Thanks!

michelhuebeli

Hard to say without further info. How long will you be there in total?

How firmly can you commit to certain travel days and travel times? If you can commit and book discounted fares online in advance, you can save on the full-fare point-to-point tickets and come out ahead of the pricey pass.

In Italy a pass rarely makes sense anyway since fares there are cheaper than north of the Alps, even full fare.

You can use www.railsaver.com and the ready-reckoner on www.ricksteves.com/rail/comparetickets.htm to get a rough idea of the overall cost and then compare to the cost of the pass.

If you want a more precise idea, simply input the trip legs at www.bahn.de for Germany, www.sbb.ch for Switzerland, and www.trenitalia.com for Italy. Note the fares, add them all up and you'll know.

fmpden

First, there is no such thing as a Euro train. All train are national. Using a pass seldom makes economy sense these days with the supplemental charges for using high speed trains and the discounts available for advance purchase. All Italian trains except Regionale require a paid, seat reservation. Your cannot not just get on a train with a pass unless it is a Regionale.

michelhuebeli

"...there is no such thing as a Euro train..."

Good point.

To clarify: Eurail (as in "Eurailpass") is not a train company, it is a consortium of the individual European train companies. Most major trains are run by state-owned or partly state-owned entities, like Deutsche Bahn for Germany, Schweizerische Bundesbahn (Swiss Federal Railways) for Switzerland, etc.

Then there are a few semi-private and super-national ones, like Thalys and others.

Locally you get lots of small companies running just one train up one mountain or just on a restricted local network.

The coordination and cooperation between all these is fabulous, you don't have to get off a train when it enters another country just because they have their own trains there - since the open-border Schengen agreement you don't even know that you have just crossed into another country until you look out and see different building styles and signage in a different language from moments ago.

Cheshire47

Hi A2B!! With your Eurail pass you can hop on and off most regional trains but some trains do require a reservation at an additional cost. This meaning high-speed trains, international trains and night trains so you’ll have to buy a full-fare ticket (If the quota of Rail Pass holders is reached). To avoid this you have to book these trains far in advance so you can ensure yourself a seat. The reservations can be made up to 3 months in advance of your travel date.

When not possible you have to use those trains that don't need reservations like Regional Trains, this means that you may need to change trains more frequently or take slower connections.

To check if your connections need a Reservation visit http://www.eurail.com/plan-your-trip/timetables.

And if you need to make a Reservation http://www.eurail.com/plan-your-trip...t-reservations

For transport IN the cities you mention that's another deal, there r day passes and so on but as you say if you plan to walk and book tours then with this you should be covered.

Good Luck and Have fun!!

rineurope

Not sure if you need the rail pass to also cover Italy.... that's because 3 of the 4 routes you've selected are primarily done by most visitors on high-speed trains, which in Italy, would require separate seat reservations. Those routes are:

Milan to Venice
Venice to Florence
Florence to Rome

Not sure when you are going, but if you want to give up a little flexibility, you can pre-purchase tickets - roughly 120 days in advance - at up to 60% off through Trenitalia or Italo for train routes in Italy. That quickly offsets the daily price of a rail pass ... and the added reservation fee. (When you book a high speed train through Trenitalia or Italo, the reservation fees are already included.

So it may be cheaper to purchase a 1 or 2 country rail pass and then do your Italy tickets separately as seat reservation fees can add up (per person) and you can get some incredible savings buying "fixed-train" options in advance. For example, I just booked 19€ tickets from Florence to Rome.

As Cheshire47 mentions, if you're going to stick to Regionale trains when traveling in Italy, there are no seat reservation fees (because there are NO reserved seats - first come, first sit!)... but if you plan to connect without "stops" in-between, most folks are on the high-speed trains... and those DO require the seat reservation fee when using a Rail Pass.

I guess that's why most folks, traveling on high-speed trains in Italy, tend to do P2P tickets ... Good Luck!

neckervd

What do you want to do at Como?
If you just want to stay along a beautiful North Italian Lake, stop over at Stresa (Lago Maggiore) on your route from Zermatt to Milan (much easier to reach than Como):
http://www.maggiore.ch/?lang=en
http://www.illagomaggiore.com/?set_language=en&cl=en
http://www.lagomaggioreturismo.it/ing_home.html
http://www.lagomaggiore.net/uk/
http://www.lagomaggioreonline.com/?newlingua=UK&
http://www.ascona-locarno.com/
http://distrettolaghi.eu/en/
http://www.vareselandoftourism.it/
http://www.borromeoturismo.it/scripts/home.php?lang=en
http://www.cannero.it/uk/index.asp?a=0&b=0
http://www.museo-ogliari.it/
http://www.provincia.va.it/santacaterina/
http://www.villataranto.it/
http://www.gignese.it/museo/
http://www.giardinoalpinia.it/
http://www.mottarone.it/
http://www.comune.ortasangiulio.no.it/

Some Fares:
Munich - Zurich:
Fernbus fares start at 15 EUR
DB train and bus fares start at 39 EUR
DB standard fare 77 EUR

Zurich - Zermatt:
standard train fare 97 EUR
discounted fare (Sparbillet): 49 EUR

Milan - Venice:
standard fare: 38 EUR
super economy fare: 9 EUR

bvlenci

In Italy, regional trains are getting rarer and rarer. On the Florence to Venice route, the only way to take regional trains is to make short trips, and it would take nearly all day. There are still a few regional trains between Rome and Florence. For the high-speed trains, the mandatory seat reservation costs €10 for rail pass holders; on some routes, you can get the advanced purchase tickets *including* the seat reservation, for €9.

On some routes, there are only regional trains, either because they're short routes or low-frequency routes, or because the tracks aren't adequate for high-speed trains. For example, the trains from Florence to Pisa are all regional trains, whose tickets are very cheap, because it's a short route.

You shouldn't buy unreserved regional tickets online, because there's no advantage to buying them in advance, and the online regional tickets are more restricted than those you can buy in the station.

By the way, Trenitalia has its own US site, www.italia-rail.com that sells reserved discount tickets at pretty much the same price as those bought on the Italian site. A lot of people find the US site easier to use than www.trenitalia.com , which requires that you use the Italian names for the cities.

A2B

neckervd we wanted to visit lake como because we have heard how beautiful the view is. I know its winter but thought we need to at least visit. I will look into your recommendation. There is a day tour from Milan to Como.


Thanks for all the advice. I looked on a site that was recommended above to price the ticket out based on my stops. Seems like the rail pass isn't recommended.

How do I find the list of stations in the countries names. Like I'm finding out Munich is Munchen in Germany. And I believe there are several stations within most cities. Do I need a point of interest address to find the station I need to get to?

Thanks for all your help!

adrienne

<< Like I'm finding out Munich is Munchen in Germany >>

You need to be aware of the actual name of places in Europe. Reading guide books is very helpful so you can learn about Europe before you go there.

You don't need to specify a particular train station when doing searches, just the town name. When traveling you do need to be aware of what station to get on and off the train.

Southam

bvlenci's link (and thanks for providing this alternative) is http://www.italiarail.com/

kybourbon

>>>By the way, Trenitalia has its own US site, www.italia-rail.com that sells reserved discount tickets at pretty much the same price as those bought on the Italian site. A lot of people find the US site easier to use than www.trenitalia.com , which requires that you use the Italian names for the cities.<<<

No. Italia Rail is a US company owned by International Rail (a US company) which has several other rail companies (Rail Agent, Rail Pass, Rail Saver). Also Interrail (not to be confused with the European Interrail Pass - an entirely different company that is partnered with Trenitalia and linked on Trenitalia). Interrail and Interrail Pass are not connected except for similar names and similar web addresses International Rail copied it by naming their company the same and making their web address the same except theirs is .com and the European company is .eu. Italiarail charges a fee to book with them and imparts their own terms and conditions on tickets. (change/cancel fees) that are not the same as Trenitalia.

neckervd

The 4 big North Italian lakes (Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Garda) and the 2 smaller one's (Lake Orta, Lake Iseo) are all equally beautiful from March until October. Each one has it's lovers and any objective ranking is impossible.

Weather in winter is completely unpredictable, there may be fog, wind, rain or bright sun, nobody knows in advance. But temperatures don't usually go much below 0 degrees centigrade/30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The few car ferries who run during this season are all heated.

If you go by train form Zermatt to Como, you will go along Lake Maggiore anyway. Don't miss to have a look at the 3 Islands of Isola Madre, Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Bella (with it's castle) from your train window (after having passed the railway station of Baveno), they are really beautiful!

Timetable Zermatt - Lake Como:
Zermatt dp 13.39 - Brig 15.01/15.44 - Stresa (Lake Maggiore)16.38 - Milano Centrale 17.35/19.20 - Varenna (Lake Como) ar 20.23
Other departures from Zermatt at 6.13, 7.39, 12.39

PalenQ

You could also use a Eurail Select Saverpass 3-country one for 5 days out of a 2/mo validity period - use it for your longest 5 trips and buy cheap local tickets like from Como to Milan.

Eurailpasses do not pass after Visp to Zermatt so that would not be covered and could cost $60 or so perhaps.

Not sure the Global Pass is your best deal - look at the Select Pass valid in Germany, Switzerland and Italy and then compare to regular fares.

In Germany and Switzerland you can just hop on just about any train anytime - in Italy you pay between 5 and 10 euros extra above the pass for mandated seat reservations - add that to your figures.

Pass may be a good deal if you desire flexibility to chose which trains to take once there - discounted tickets inevitably are non-refundable non-changeable and to be secured as they are sold in limited numbers booked weeks early often to get.

Check the following superb rail sites for more dope on European trains and passes - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com (good info on discounted tickets) and www.ricksteves.com.

neckervd

Bvlenci:
Through regional trains Bologna - Venezia (journey time 2 hrs):
Bologna Centrale dp 6.20, 7.20, 8.20, 9.20, 10.20, 12.20, 13.20, 14.22, 15.20, 16.20, 17.22, 18.20, 19.20, 21.20
Connecting regional trains from Florence:
Firenze SMN dp 4.35, - , 5.10, 7.10, - , 9.47, 10.20, - , 12.47, 13.47, 14.47, 15.47, 16.47, 18.38

A2B

Based on the calculation on the rail site on my travel it seems that 3 day swiss pass is all they recommend and doing a P2P tix for the rest. It comes out cheaper that the 21 day Euro pass that I calculated. Some days I won't need to buy a train pass since the tour already includes it.

Where can I find the train stations names? I have been to the Germany train site and sometimes it will recognize the address I'm trying to get to but sometimes not. A simple example is on the Italy train site. I will be in rome and need to get to airport in rome. I was able to figure it out on the railsaver site but when I go to the Italy train site I couldn't figure it out?

Christina

I usually recognize names in their native language, but you don't have a very long list of names, it would be easy to find out what it is in the actual country by a little googling. Just go to www.wikitravel.org and type in the city name and the page will tell you what it is locally. As for specific train stations within a city, I never know that exactly myself, except I know hbf is the main train station.

michelhuebeli

How do you find the names of localities in their local original language? Here's one way (but you need to know which is the original local language - see below):

You go to www.viamichelin.com, you input in the search field below the header "Find Your Map" the spelling you know, for example Munich, Germany, then up comes the map with the word München across it.

Note that places names can vary in other languages, too. For example, Munich in Italian is Monaco. Not the Monaco in the South of France - that is called Monaco-Monte Carlo to distinguish it from the Italianized name for Munich=München. This become important when you search train timetables for example.

The Swiss with their three active (and four legal) languages have it even more rich:

Geneva (engl.), Genève (fr.), Ginebra (it. + span.), Genf (German)

The lake named after the English spelling Geneva, Lake Geneva, in German Genfersee, is Lac Léman in the local French...

The lake named after Lucerne in English (Luzern in the local spelling) is not Lake Lucerne but Vierwaldstättersee

The lake named after the English spelling Constance (Konstanz in the local spelling) is not Lake Constance but Bodensee.

Zürich is Zurich in French and English but Zurigo in Italian

Bern in the local German is Berne in Engl. and French and Berna in Italian and Spanish

Basel in the local German is Basle in English, Bâle in French, Basilea in Italian

And so it goes: Wien - Vienna - Vienne, Nürnberg - Nuremberg, NIce - Nizza, Paris - Parigi, London - Londres - Londra, Milano - Milan - Mailand, Firenze - Florence - Florenz etc.

PalenQ

Based on the calculation on the rail site on my travel it seems that 3 day swiss pass is all they recommend and doing a P2P tix for the rest. It comes out cheaper that the 21 day Euro pass that I calculated.>

Yes since ther Eruailpass won't pass up to Zermatt and back and the Swiss Pass will and also give you other discounts like 50% on gondolas to mountain tops and also covers buses, boats and city trams and buses and gives free entry to 400+ Swiss museums - good info on Swiss trains and passes - http://www.swisstravelsystem.com;htt....com/id3.html; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

that is a 3-day Swiss Flexipass (Saver if more than one person using it together) - the Zurich to Bern day is very cheap so may not need it them or if you buy a discounted Munich to Zurich ticket from www.bahn.de/en it may be just as cheap all the way to Zurich as to the border or just about.

neckervd

Swis train fares:

Swiss/German border - Zurich:
costs more than a discounted bus ticket Munich - Zurich

Zurich - Zermatt:
standard train fare 97 EUR
discounted fare (Sparbillet): 49 EUR

Zermatt - Iselle (Italian border):
standard train fare: 39 EUR

If you plan to use many mountain railways around Zermatt, you may check the Swiss Half Fare Card.