We will be traveling to Europe. Beginning in rome and ending in paris.

Trying to figure best cost for transportation. If i buy a eurail pass, will that cover most trains, including the one that runs throught 5 terre? I know i may incur extra costs for reserving seats etx. How much and how often will i have to do that?
Traveling in july/august and beginging to look at which way to go with tickets.

I don't know what your plans are but Eurail passes don't actually pay off all that often, compared to buying individual tickets (especially if you buy them direct from the country's rail system).

In all likelihood it will be a lot cheaper to buy point-to-point tickets. Trains in Italy don't cost a lot. You can price out both and do a comparison.

Without knowing your entire itinerary, it would be difficult to judge if a rail pass would be best for you. In Italy, only the slowest trains, designated R, would not require extra fees for reservations (and standing in line to place the reservations).

You can try pricing your itinerary at Railsaver.com, adding all your destinations. Choose the Preference "If less expensive" to see the most economical deal. You can switch between the different preferences to see the rail pass options without have to re-input your destinations.

I just tried Rome to Pisa to Paris. For the "If most convenient" preference, it suggested a railpass for a total cost of $318. For the "If less expensive" option, it suggested city-to-city tickets for each leg, for a total cost of $190.

Thanks. We are still working on the intinerary so i will definitley do a comparison. But as I was looking through information I realized i really didnt know which trains the passes covered.

You may find this article helpful:

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/howrailworks.htm

As a general rule, all the trains run by a COUNTRY's NATIONAL rail system will be covered by passes. The notable exceptions are trains run by private rail companies such as those in parts of Switzerland and in France. For your purposes and based on the info you have already given us, a pass would probably work for you BUT

passes do not always cover the cost of any necessary seat reservations and seat reservations aren't always necessary..depends on the train and the timing.

passes are more economical the MORE you use them which is why you'll want to compare the costs of point-to-point tickets in your case.

Rail passes also don;t cover overnight sleeper trains (many of which have only sleepers and not seats). For those you need to pay the cost of the berths you use - price depending on how many people you are/want to share a compartment with.

I believe that rail passes are good if you plan to do a lot of travelling between and within countries in a short period of time. If you plan to visit only a few cities it would be better to buy point-to-point tickets.

Many times it's cheaper/faster to fly on one of the budget airlines.
www.whichbudget.com

Being as you are a train newbie in Europe http://tinyurl.com/eym5b will help you.

For specific information on tickets and passes go to
http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/. Call them up. Byron or Linda can help you.

You would not in any case, if just traveling in France and Italy consider the classic Eurailpass but a 2-country France and Italy railpass. But it depends on how many times you will take the train and where.

I don't know what your plans are but Eurail passes don't actually pay off all that often, compared to buying individual tickets (especially if you buy them direct from the country's rail system).>

this defies my 100 plus railpass trips where my pass has always paid off handsomely - if you are taking several train trips in more than one country the pass almost always will pay off

Plus folks often compare the online discounted tickets with a pass - a pass offers fully flexible tickets to hop any train anytime (in most but not all countries so it depends on where you go) and full fare tickets can be ridiculously expensive - like $130 in 2nd class just between Frankurt and Berlin i recall looking up recently.

And a pass if over 25 is also first class - so making the statement I don't know what your plans are but Eurail passes don't actually pay off all that often, compared to buying individual tickets (especially if you buy them direct from the country's rail system).

So to say a first-class pass vs first-class tickets rarely pays off is just misinformation IMO - a few full-fare first-class tickets can make a pass payoff.

The Fodor's mantra - railpasses are always a waste of money - say something that is not backed up by facts enough and folks will believe it .... and repeat it.

I can tell you that when I have priced out a pass vs tickets it has maybe once been worthwhile to get the pass. Now perhaps it is more accurate to say "if you want to go first class, and if it's important to you to have flexibility in when you go, and if you will be traveling on multiple days in a short period of time, then there's a good chance a pass will make sense for you" but frankly those things are rarely true for me, and I don't assume they are true for the OP.

I don't see how you can even have this discussion until a person knows exactly how many times they will be using the train, and where they will be going. Once that's nailed down it's simple math, which is better... right?

You also have to factor why some get/recommend passes. Some folks think riding trains is one of the major purposes of European travel - the journey is almost as important as the destination.

Others think taking the best/cheapest mode for each leg makes more sense - being someplace is more important than how one gets there.

For a lot of itineraries, a combo of some trains, some planes and maybe some buses makes more sense time and money-wise. That is another reason passes aren't always the best option.

It's very unlikely a pass will be economical for Italy. The cheapest France/Italy pass is $270 for 4 days or $67.50 per day. The trains on the Cinque Terre are 1.40€ (no reservations allowed on these trains). You would have to make 39 trips in one day on those trains to equal $67. A 1 1/2 hour flight on Easy Jet from Pisa (or Venice)to Paris is 35-50€ for random dates in July. A train would take 10+ hours and a pass would not include seats or sleeping accommodations.

>>suze on May 28, 10 at 11:05pm
I don't see how you can even have this discussion until a person knows exactly how many times they will be using the train, and where they will be going. Once that's nailed down it's simple math, which is better... right?<<<

The OP has posted a rough itinerary on another thread. It's not just simple math as the OP is traveling with children and will qualify for famiglia discount in Italy and passes can't pass along those savings. In Italy, most trains (all, but the slow R trains) require seat reservations in addition to the cost of the pass
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

Rick Steves has a pretty good list for trains that require a supplement with a pass and prices.
http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/pdfs/reservations.pdf

The trains on the Cinque Terre are 1.40€ (no reservations allowed on these trains). You would have to make 39 trips in one day on those trains to equal $67>

DUH of course you would not use one of your flexipass days on a few euro train ride - the pass gives a certain number of unlimited travel days over a 2-month period - you would not use one for such dirt-cheap trains so that comment is really irrelevant if not misleading.

Same as you would not use it on some lines of the Paris metro that honor passes, etc.

You have to look at your longish train rides - such as overnight trains to and from Paris, etc.

thanks kybourbon, didn't realize this had been an ongoing discussion!

me either

<It's very unlikely a pass will be economical for Italy.>

What about a first-class train trip like so:

Rome
Florence
Venice
Milan
Nice
Avignon
Paris

A 3-week trip overall - are you saying that a first-class France-Italy railpass would be economical for that trip - if so i'd love to see the price comparisons and will do that later - you could be right but i suspect a first-class France-Italy railpass to be very economical over that not usual itinerary in France and Italy.

We'll see if the Fodor's mantra a railpass is always a waste of money is true in this case as kybourbon just said above.