I'm leaving on sunday for 5 bordering countries, starting in Spain. I cannot understand the passes. are they only for travel the day you go to the countries, or can I use them for day trips and city hopping?? Very confused? Please help, thanks!!

Have you already purchased the pass? I hate to say it, if you have, it is often less expensive to purchase individual tickets than the pass. However, if you already have it, depending on what you got, there will be a page that shows you what systems and countries you can travel on/through.

dave

Typically there is a local transit system within each city - buses and equivalent of subways. Then there are longer-distance trains. Typically train passes cover only long-distance trains between cities. The may require seat reservation fees and if you want to travel overnight in a compartment that is usually extra - a lot.

Not sure where you are planning on going - but unless you are using the train between cities a lot buying individual tickets is often less expensive. Check out seat61.com for info on the best options for you.

check out these IMO fab sites for answers to all those questions - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com - these are sites that are European rail oriented and also talk a lot about the zillions of various passes to chose from.

and yes the passes are with a few exceptions valid on all trains in a country your pass is valid in - whether day tripping or long-distance trains. I often do a base city and use my railpass to do day trips to nearby places of interest.

Thank you all for the good info. I'm leaving on Sunday. Going to play it be ear and purchase each one as I go... I might look one more time but I'm getting that information back from several people. Thanks again!

<i>
ChristinaWilkes on Nov 15, 11 at 7:13pm
I'm leaving on sunday for 5 bordering countries, starting in Spain. I cannot understand the passes.</i>

Here is an illustrated introduction to the trains of Europe, http://tinyurl.com/eym5b.

It's too late to buy a pass, unless you want to pay for overnight FedEx delivery. Call the folks at www.budgeteuropetravel.com and see what they can do. Otherwise you'll have to buy individual tickets for each trip.

eurocheapo.com great tips seat61.com pass info

pass on the pass figure pass cost per day you must

train EVERY day for hours just to break even lots of

surcharges just hop regional train like a local

Always cheapest for me...

pass on the pass figure pass cost per day you must

train EVERY day for hours just to break even lots of>

total misinformation - this poster have obviously never heard or or cannot comprehend what a 'flexipass' is - good for days of your choosing to be used at will over a large time frame -typically a month or in case of Eurailpasses two months.

Yet this poster posts this complete misinformation time and time again - why????????????????????? Why continually give out wrong info based on a wrong idea.

I don't think anybody reads quovadis' posts. They're too hard to decipher. So happily no one is getting his bad information.

Agree with Mimar. Nobody in their right mind reads what that poster writes. It's unintelligible. Just scroll on by.

Think I qwo Jedi Master he is...yup,yup

I'm not sure what you mean about city hopping, but sure,you can use the passes on day trips if they are on the national railroad.

Nearly every train in every country accepts railpasses for 100% covered travel - though some require a seat reservation fee and a very few a supplement - but nearly all the commuter railways too accept railpasses - very very few exceptions in my decades of incessant railpassing around Europe.

Hopefully Christina will report back on what she chose and how it worked!