Is Eurailpass Saver worth it ?
 

Hi,

Me and my wife are planning a 5 week trip through Europe (our first one), and cant seem to figure out whether we should buy the 1 month Eurailpass Saver (around US$800 per person - total US$1600). Would point-point passes combined with regional passes be cheaper ?

Here is our tentative itinerary, visiting Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

*Fly into Vienna(3nights) - day trips to *Melk, Krems, Graz, etc
*Salzburg(3nights) - day trips to Hallstatt, Werfen, etc
*Innsbruck(2nights) - Scenic train to Bludenz

*Lucerne(2nights)
*Interlaken\Gimmelwald(4nights) - day trips to Montreux,Jungfrau,etc
*Zermatt(2nights) - day trip to Matterhorn

*Venice(2nights)
*Florence(2nights) - day trip to Pisa
*Sorrento(3nights) - day trip to Capri,etc
*Rome(3nights) - trip to Vatican city

*Fly into Greece, then back to the US

Whereever I say "etc" above, it means we havent quite nailed down the places we'd be visiting.

What would make the most sense (money and time wise) for this trip ? Also if anyone has any comments on the itinerary, we'd love to hear them (+ve or -ve) !

Thanks all.

Go to

www.railsaver.com

and enter your itinerary.

Then click on something called "Only if it saves me money" or something similar.

P.S. At the moment you have so many day trips listed that you are not giving yourselves any time to stay in the cities themselves, which are well worth your attention.

The Vatican City is in the middle of Rome; it hardly counts as a "day trip," although you might well be spending a day there if you visit St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel.

Eloise - I cant seem to get to the website you pointed in your post. I'll try again later to see if I have better luck.

I also agree that we may have a lot of day trips planned - we may cut out some of these from our final itinerary. I'll have to do some more research\asking around to determine which ones to include and which ones to cut out.

One of the reasons to include the day trips in my post was so that knowledgeable folks can point to some day trip which may *not* be covered by the Eurailpass, and may in fact be covered by a local\regional\national pass.

Thats the crux of my question - is it wise to spend US$800 per person on buying the Eurailpass. What say ?

www.railsaver.com OR www.railpass.com..both of these will work for comparing the economy of point-to-poit tickets vs. passes.

As a general rule the more you use passes the more economical they become.

Be aware also that in some cases the pass is also good on local city transport networks BUT that will depend on the type of pass. For example, the SwissPass allows use of certain city transport networks in Switzerland whereas a Eurail Pass, even though it covers Switzerland, may not.

You can also get a pass that covers up to five bordering countries such as Austria, Switzerland, and Italy..in your case that would be the Eurail SelectPass Saver

Hi C,

>is it wise to spend US$800 per person on buying the Eurailpass. What say ?

"Asked and Answered"

>*Venice(2nights)
*Florence(2nights) - day trip to Pisa
*Sorrento(3nights) - day trip to Capri,etc
*Rome(3nights) - trip to Vatican city

I suggest that you:

Add one night to Venice
Add one night to Florence - day trip to Siena, skip Pisa unless you absolutely must see the tower
Add a day to Sorrento so that you can visit Pompeii and the Archaeological Museum in Naples
Add a day to Rome.

((I))

I would NOT buy a pass that also covers Greece since you don;t seem to be doing much within that country and the rail network there isn't neary as extensive/comprehensive as it is in the other three countries mentioned.

How are you planning to get to Italy or the other countries from Greece? ferry from Patras (to Italy) or cheap budget flight?

As others have said you do need to check on the website "only if it will save me money", but I can tell you it is definitely a waste of money to buy a general Eurail Saver pass for what you are talking about. Since you will only be using it in three adjoining countries, as Intrepid says, you would want a Select Saver Pass. The pass will be of very little benefit of any in Greece.

Carlposter05: I just tried

www.railsaver.com

and it came up beautifully for me.

And I agree with Patrick that including Greece will do you very little or no good at all.

We will be flying into Greece from Rome, and then flying out of Athens back home. We will be going to Santorini and Athens in Greece, and it will all be covered by flights (Rome-Santorini-Athens-Boston).

So we will be using the Eurail pass only for Austria, Switzerland and Italy. The reason I picked the Eurailpass Saver over the Eurail Select Saver is that with the Select Saver, it only allows for 15 travel days. My original gut feel was that we will be traveling for more than 15 days (including inter-city travel, day trips and intra-city travel).

The 15 day Select Saver pass is $702, while the 1 month Eurail Saver pass is $804. Am I missing something here ??

Also, to Intrepid1's point - how do I determine if local (intra-city) transport is covered in the Eurail pass ?

Yes, I think you are missing something. LOL.

If I'm reading you right, not counting Greece you are spending 26 days in those other three countries. If you are traveling by train more than 10 or those days, in my opinion something is wrong. You need to stay put some days and see what you went all that distance to see.

You can get a Select Saver Pass which is good for 10 days of travel over a 2 month period in your three countries and the cost is $480 each. That should serve you well. If there are a couple days when you want to still hop on a train and take a short ride -- well, you could do a lot of those and still come out way ahead from those other prices you are quoting! Some days you will not use your pass or any trains at all -- I HOPE!

Its a lot of work, but the best way to approach this is to get the point-to-point fares for each of your potential trips, evaluate the chances that you will actually take all of those trips, and compare the results to the cost of the pass. If its close, I would go with the pass, as it gives you flexibility and can save some time if you can just get on a train without stopping to buy tickets, but you may have to stop anyway if you want reservations.

That said, I like to travel by train, and when I calculate the costs, the passes rarely turn out to be as good a deal as their ads say.

In doing your point-to-point calculations, you might want to consider also the regional passes, a complex subject. One that I find attractive is the Swiss half fare card. It is good throughout Switzerland for thirty days, costs 99 CHF, and gives you a 50% discount on fares. It also includes a good discount on the pricey mountain trains, such as Jungfrau, which I am pretty certain you don't get with the eurailpass.

Enjoy your trip.

Patrick - I think see what you're saying (and what I am missing!), but maybe I am in denial ;-).

Given that I am visiting 10 cities, that itself adds up to 9 days of travel. Add a few more days for day trips (Hallstatt, Graz, Bludenz, Matterhorn, Pisa, Capri, et) - it seems to add up to a lot of days of train travel.

Maybe the hidden answer to this is that I cut down on the day trips, as has been suggested earlier. At a minimum, I have 9 days of train travel between 10 cities.

So much to do\see, so little time. :-(

Some of those day trips won't count as rail trips anyway (Capri for example), and others you can buy for a few euro each way.
But don't make the mistake of staying in one town for three nights and never really exploring the town, but leaving every single day to go somewhere else. What's the point of that?

Note that if you have the pass I mentioned it is $48 per day of travel. If you're doing a day trip that is less than $48, then obviously you're better not to use the pass for that day. There may be some of your main trips that are even less than $48.

See where you are more. Travel around less.

Best wishes,

Rex

To answer the question, which may have become academic at this point, about the passes which cover the city transport options.

<b> Generally speaking </b> you can use a rail pass to travel around city networks <b> if </b> those networks are run by the state-controlled railway. The example of the S-Bahns in Germany come to mind as does the S-Bahn in Zurich. Using a pass to cover city networks happens in Switzerland with a SwissPass..not with a Eurail Pass.

The agency who sells you a pass, if you buy one, will be able to tell you, in advance, if your pass includes this &quot;benefit.&quot;

carl,

Patrick has the right idea.

Don't try to use a Pass for daytrips (especially in Italy and Greece). Just figure out how many intercity trips you're going to make that are longer than three hours (~$50). It's unlikely that you'll have more than ten of those, so get the 10-day Flexipass with Austria and pay out of pocket for the rest.

Its all starting to make sense now ! I did manage to look at the www.railsaver.com site and it just confirmed what you all have been saying (not that I doubted it one bit) !!

So the Eurailpass is definitely out. I will probably get a 5-10day select pass and do the rest as point-point. I am also thinking of driving from Vienna-Innsbruck (also covering Salzburg, Graz, Hallstatt, etc) and then start train travel from Innsbruck.

For point-point travel, what is a good site to find out the costs\schedule etc ? Railsaver did give me a lot of good information, but some of it didnt seem accurate (and the site itself mentioned that the suggested routes might not be the most direct, etc).

Is there a good place where I can list my point-point sites and determine the rough cost ?

For point to point in Italy use the Italian train website - www.trenitalia.com.

For Swiss trains - www.sbb.ch

If you're that conscious about saving money, make a point of purchasing second-class tickets on the short trips.

We would get in the 2nd-class cars even with passes, and rarely noticed it -- especially in Switzerland.