I am looking for advice on trip planning. I grew up in Europe due to parents were in the military. After a few years of REALLY missing Europe I have decided to go visit. Does anyone know if it is better to buy eurorail pass here online or in the countries I plan to visit. I am surrently a college student who cant afford to forget to add a day or pay for a day I could lose...help.
Plan to visit- Italy, Switzerland, Czech (side trip), France, Germany. this will be a 21 day trip but can extend to 31 if I need to. Thank you for any help you can give me.
I plan to sleep some of my nights on the train if need to see more.

Hi... go to www.ricksteves.com and find his guide on using railpasses - it's a good start. Once you decide where you're going, how many travel days you'll need, and what kind of pass you want, you need to buy pass before going on your trip, ie. if you live in US. They aren't for sale once you get to Europe.

I agreew with the general Steves' rec but I think therer are websites where you can do the same sort of planning. The general rule is that a pass becomes more economical the more you use it..after a certain number of trips it becomes very economical. Unless you are traveling on trains that either require a seat reservation such as the Eurostars the pass allows convenience in terms of not having to buy tickets, etc.
Go to the www.euraide.com
OR
www.europrail.net
OR
www.railconnection.com

site and look there for further information.
One other note: agencies such as Euraide and Raileurope charge a premium for seat reservations which I think are best bought in Europe once there.
You also might consider spending about $32 or so and getting a copy of the lastest Thomas Cook European Timetable to take along with you...much more convenient way to plan trips, especially once you are already there if you decide to change routes, etc. and they are available through RailEurope's Forsyth Travel Library and some agencies will give you a copy free if you buy your pass from them.

After you've read Rick Steves' railpass guide and have a grasp of the wide variety of passes that are available, go to www.railsaver.com, plug in various itineraries, and let the program tell you what will save you the most money. A combination of using point-to-point tickets for short trips and saving your pass for longer trips just may work the best for you.

I agree with Tim...choose the pass very carefully. For example, if you are only making one side trip to the Czech republic, in and out of Prague for example, it may not be a good idea to buy a pass specifically for the Czech Republic. For Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland you might be able to get a pass that covers that covers only those four countries (the "select" pass) but BEWARE..if you're going to travel between Germany and Italy or between Switzerland and Germany check the routes carefully because some of them pass through Austria which would mean either 1) adding that as an additional country, or 2) routing yourself around Austria entirely, or 3) buying a point to point which covers the Austrain portion only.
DO NOT let yourself be intimidated by ANY of this...it is easy to figure out and even easier to do. Enjoy your trip(s).

I don't think the Czech Republic is included in any Eurail pass product, anyway. It's not a country in the Eurail marketing consortium.

Rail fares in the CR are extremely cheap, and if you are only doing a short side trip, you could easily just buy a single ticket for that route. There is a special Czech railpass product, however, that might be suitable for your trip -- some kind of a discounted youth fare pass that allows you one trip into the CR to Prague and then back out. The price doesn't really seem cheaper than regular rail fare to me, but might be on some trips.

It's called the "Prague Excursion Pass" and marketed by the various agencies such as Rail europe...compare it to buying a simple point to point RT if you are going only to Prague. The agencies will also sell you a Czech Flexipass...so in response to the immediately above, yes, there are passes for the Czech republic but for an in and out I am not convinced they are worth the money.

Thank you all for you information. I have started looking at the sites...tell you my plans when I get it all in a row