katzen

Last night I sat down and took a good look at my train travel. After doing this, I'm wondering if it may be cheaper to buy a pass of some sort instead of purchasing individual tickets??? Below is my itin on the trains (Germany/France):

~Freiburg, Germany to Strasbourg, France: 23 Euro
~Strasbourg, France to Avignon, France: 66 Euro (PREM)
~Avignon, France to Paris Gare de Lyon: 25 Euro (PREM)
~Paris Nord to Koln (Cologne), Germany: 81 Euro (PREM)
~Koln, Germany to Frankfurt Flughafen: 53 Euro (Wow ... for a 1 hour train ride)

The above train rides will ALL be taken in August so of course I'm not able to purchase tickets as it is too soon ... so I had to plug in furthest date (90 days out from today) in order to get the prices. Some of them seem really expensive to me, such as the Koln to Frankfurt Airport ... 53 Euros for a 1 hour train ride as well as Paris to Koln for 81 Euro. Even Strasbourg to Avignon seems a bit pricey for 66 Euro.

So after adding the above prices (with Euro being 1.26 to the almighty Dollar) it looks as though I am paying around $315 for 5 train rides within France/Germany. Many of these train rides are on ICE trains. I was doing some research on railpass.com and raileurope.com .... I can't remember which site it is but one of them has a (2) country border pass for Germany/France but can only be used on certain trains.

A couple of questions I have:

1. Is it worth getting a pass or should I just stick to the individual tickets?

2. Will prices go down at all for August travel? Or is it possible I didn't do something right when arriving at these prices?

3. If I choose to go with a rail pass for Germany/France travel is it hard to figure out what trains I am permitted to use with my pass vs. ones I am not?

Oh, and I want to add that all of this train travel/cost is for my last week of travel. The first part of my trip we will have a rental car.

Thanks everyone once again for answering my questions!

Betsy

What to do? Here's one idea: Type your itinerary into www.railsaver.com and highlight the "only if it saves money" option for a comparison between passes and point-to-point tickets.

There are many rail experts (excluding me) on this board who may chime in with further suggestions. It will be interesting to compare your $315 total with the total that comes up on Railsaver.

GeoffHamer

The Köln-Frankfurt journey is expensive because it's on a high speed line. The same journey on an Intercity train takes two hours and costs 35 euros, or on a regional train, it takes around three and a half hours and costs 28.80 euros.

Betsy

That didn't come out exactly right. I meant to imply that I'm not one of the rail experts on the board!

ira

Hi K,

Except for your train to Frankfurt airport, your prices are about right.

The 3-country select pass (2 or more people traveling together) for 5 days of travel is $325,

HOWEVER

you will have to pay extra for seat reservations on THALYS and TGV trains, so that buying PtP tickets is cheaper unless you decide to take trains for other daytrips.

Hope this helps.

katzen

I went to railsaver and it would cost me $302 USD for a 5 day Germany/France Eurorail Pass (2nd class). I would be the only one purchasing the ticket. My sister will be with me for 3 of the train trips, but not the last 2. I could definitely save $$$ by doing what Geoff suggests and taking the intercity train. My flight doesn't leave until 11:00 so I could probably afford the extra travel time.

ira

Hi K,

If you take the less expensive train to the airport, your PtP tickets will be cheaper than a pass, because you won't have to pay for reservations on the THALYS and the TGV.

katzen

Thanks Ira!!

adeben

Be careful! Your Germany/France 5 Day Eurail Pass does NOT cover the Belgian section of the trip from Paris Nord to Koln.

ira

You're welcome, K.

katzen

adeben .. thanks for the info. I think I'm going to do the PtP and just take the longer train from koln to Frankfurt Airport. It saves me a few dollars.