My daughter spent her junior year abroad. I tell everyone she spent that year majoring in the European train schedules. She did a lot of hopping around but generally got student deals on tickets rather than buying a Eurail/country/select pass. Of course, if you are going to "hop around" in a short period of time, a Eurail pass might financially be the best deal for you, but you should cost it out ahead of time and do what is best for you financally.

<Good news: More "National" passes - Croatia, Benelux, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, and more "Regional" passes - Austria/Hungary for one>

talk about old news - Benelux, Italy and Portugal passes have existed for years and years - they too have just been relabeled--- Eurail Italy for example instead of Italian Railpass. The Austria-Hungary pass is a bona fide new 2007 creation.

Croatia and Ireland are the only new country railpass created this year.

And it seems that after boosting Eurailpass prices up a few weeks back, after Jan 1 these raises have been rolled back a bit - i guess now RailEurope can trumpet Eurailpasses are cheaper in 2007 or some such ruse.