I'm looking for advice on the best combination of ticketing for high speed rail for an upcoming trip. Itinerary: Brussels to Amsterdam to Hamburg to Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Munich to Zurich - all within 3 weeks, travelling alone. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Mike

Have a look at bahn.de - it has train schedules for all of europe and indicates which are high speed and which more local. They sell tickets only for trains that start, end or go through Germany.

But I'm more concerned about trying to get to so many places in limited time. You have said 3 weeks - but how many nights on the ground do you actually have. And what time of year - which can make a big difference in terms of daylight hours and opening hours for sights.

I'm still working all that out. Travel starts late January. I'm ok with one or two days in each city.

1) Brussels-Amsterdam:

Choose between classic hourly InterCity, no reservation needed, ticket €42 can be bought on the day, 3h30, OR high-speed Thalys in 1h55, train every hour or two, dynamic pricing from €25 to €79 with reservation included. Check times and buy tickets for either at www.b-europe.com

2) Amsterdam-Hamburg from €39 www.bahn.de/en

3) Hamburg-Berlin from €29 www.bahn.de/en

4) Berlin to Prague from €29 either www.bahn.de/en OR www.cd.cz/eshop - check both, as one can be cheaper than the other.

5) Prague to Vienna from €19 www.cd/cz/eshop OR www.oebb.at

6) Vienna to Munich from €29 www.oebb.at

7) Munich to Zurich from €39 www.bahn.de/en (look for trains marked EC with 0 chnages, avoid anything marked 'bus'.

Wherever you see the word 'from' a price in the above, it means airline-style dynamic pricing, book early for the cheapest prices, if you turn up and buy on the day it will cost far more.

Booking usually opens 92 days ahead for most of these routes.

For lots of rail info check not only Man in Seat 61's commercial site www.seat61.com but also www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com.

If you want first-class travel and the ability to hop which trains you want when you want - no tedious advance booking - check on a Eurail Select Pass - and for a traveler with luggage there are significant benefits of first class - Man in Seat 61 himself posted on another thread a while ago that he was 'an aficionado of first class travel' himself - for the trip of a lifetime don't pinch pennies.

PalenQ's railpass suggestion: "...check on a Eurail Select Pass..." You have 7 trips, 6 countries: No Eurail Select Pass option will cover that since you only get 4 countries. So if you want a Eurail pass, you're left with the Global pass, 10-days of travel in 1st class (it's either 5 days or 10 days) at $766 (through Raileurope, anyway.)

By way of comparison... Man in Seat 61 gave you pre-purchase options with the lowest possible 2nd class fares, which total less than €190. If you want 1st class fares instead, you can pre-purchase them at DB too - check prices there. My informed hunch is that you can find such tickets very cheaply as well. Is it too tedious to pre-purchase 7 individual tickets instead one rail pass? That's your decision, one that probably depends on how much you save. I'm guessing that even with 1st class ticket you'd save at least $300 off the rail pass price.

If you are booking rooms in advance, then you know how many nights you'll have in each city, and the advantage of "hopping" on any train you want is greatly diminished.

It is also possible to use a GERMAN RAIL Flexi PASS for some routes and pre-purchased fares for others. A 2nd class GRP for 3 days is €189, €255 in 1st class. (These are normal rail pass prices, but there is a 20% off promotion on these fares at present for certain travel months.)

You might need to re-order your cities for this scheme.

Suggestion (same 2nd hand prices as above) -

Amsterdam-Hamburg from €39 (per Seat 61)

GRP day 1: Hamburg-Berlin
GRP day 2: Berlin-Munich
GRP day 3: Munich-Prague
TOTAL: €189

Prague-Vienna from €19 (per seat 61)

Vienna-Zurich from €29 (see Seat 61 - http://www.seat61.com/international-...na-Switzerland )

GRP info: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...ss-flexi.shtml

The Eurail Select Pass could include Benelux - considered to be one country for this, Germany, Austria and Switzerland- paying separately for the cheap travel from the German and Austrian borders to Prague and out.

I said a pass could be good IF you wanted to chose which trains to take once there and not pre-book discounted fares which are train-specific, can't normally be changed or refunded or have hefty refund fees so if you miss your designated train you have to then buy a full fare ticket. Plus those discounted tickets must be booked weeks/months in advance to guarantee as they are sold in limited numbers.

If OK with booking in stone far in advance then that route would be the best way for you to go - either in first or second class.

fussganger - the German railpass to my understanding is good to Prague but I think you have to buy a supplement with the pass for that - you before said a German Pass could be used to go to Verona, Italy too but I think you need to pay an extra supplement when you buy the pass and the pass itself is not valid for trains outside of Germany except to Salzburg, Austria, Basel, Switzerland and the German rail line that goes from Reutte thru Austria to Garmisch. I may be wrong and then you can correct me.

Sorry I did not mean to post without checking about the German Railpass being valid to other cities in nearby countries and when I went to check I found that my previous post had been posted - which was bad because upon checking I found that Fussganger, as usual, was right - a German Railpass can be used without addition add-on fares - a change from a few years ago - to Brussels on German trains, to Prague on the DB bus connection and to Verona, Italy on German trains as well as Salzburg and Basel. This makes the German Railpass a better deal for folks going to those cities.

Wow, thanks for all the great info!