I will be in Maastrich, the Netherlands on business Apr 8th - 13th and will take a two vacation afterwards. I will have a EuroRail Pass and want to go through France and Spain. I thought I had a plan until reading everyones postings. Does anyone have suggestions? I will definately go through Paris and Barcelona. I want this to be fairly relaxing, not a whole lot of museums. Mostly beaches, architecture, parks, nightlife.

I am guessing that you mean a "Eurail Selectpass" for $230 to $334 for 5, 6, 8 or 10 days). I think that it's a lot of money to spend. Where is your entry into europe? Will you use one of your train days to get to Maastricht? A lot depends on where your departure city is too. <BR> <BR>Brussels-Maastricht by train is only about $20 USD, Brussels to Barcelona about $82 on www.virgin-express.com - - from there you have any number of possibilities. Not sure if it is really important to you to make it back to Paris (no beaches, nightlife is undoubtedly superior - - but maybe you can find a lot of the same in the south of France). <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

I have round trip airfare DC-Amsterdam-Maastrich (Apr 7 -27). That's already purchased by my work so I have to work around that. Apr. 14-27 I'm on my own. I am definately visiting Paris and Barcelona. At least a few days a piece. Orignally, I was going to Madrid, but I am leaning towards spending time in Seville. That depends on my timeframe and also why I was going to buy unlimited 15 day Eurorail pass. I was also thinking about spending time in hostels and cheaper hotels (Under USD 40) and as I stated before I'm primarily interested in architecture, parks, nightlife, and beaches. I appreciate any and all suggestions. Nothing is in stone.

You mean a "true" Eurailpass? the fifteen CONSECUTIVE day $554 thing? Why? Is your company buying it? Do you realize how much you would have to ride trains to get your money's worth on that? Point-to-point fares will never add up to that much. A $554 pass is a "break-even" if you travel an average of three hours or more EVERY day! and adding a "long(er) haul" flight can mean the "recovery" of 10-12 hours you might spend on a train - - since you need to get back north when you're done. <BR> <BR>Oh, and for what it's worth, there are very cheap flights between Sevilla and Barcelona too. <BR> <BR>Or maybe you WANT to spend a ton of time on the train! <BR> <BR>

I'm looking for the cheapest, easiest way to get around. From Maastricht to Paris to Barcelona and back, with some beach days thrown in. Seville would be an add on. The orignal trip I had planned went from Maastricht-Brussels-Paris-Barcelona-Madrid-Paris-Brussels-Maastricht and when I added those routes it came to more than $554. The reason Brussels was thrown in because there is no direct train from Maastricht to Paris. And spending days in a train is NOT my idea of a vacation.

If you don't want to be spending too much time on trains, then Barcelona is a long way, Madrid is too far, and Seville is way way too far. <BR>The key to where you go is to think about where you want to stopover en route. For example from Paris to Barcelona there is a really excellent night train, but you will have to pay a surcharge on top of your Eurail pass, but still less than a hotel. That way you have done the journey effortlessly, whilst you were sleeping, but you have'nt seen anything. <BR>Alternatively you may want to meander from Paris through Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpelier to Barcelona, or through the Swiss Alps and the French Riviera. <BR>Your call. <BR>The Eurail Flexipass (Selectpass) sounds like a better deal for you, than the full Eurail pass, if you plan on beaches, sightseeing, and nightlife etc. rather than train rides. <BR>Don't let Rex talk you out of a railpass, for some reason he hates them, much preferring the hassles of airports, discount airlines, and missed connections etc which are usually par for the course.

I will take (mild) exception to the phrase "he hates rail passes". I prefer non-stop flights of under 2.5 hours that are cheaper than corresponding train trips of 8-16 hours. Actually Brussels to Barcelona is 14.5 to 15.5 hours; onward to Madrid adds another 7-8 hours. flying from Brussels to Madrid on www.virgin-express.com is 2 hrs 25 minutes and costs $103 USD. <BR> <BR>I really do not like the implication that my answers are colored by some unreasonable prejudices. I admit that I do not like sleeping in a bed that disappears when it "gets to the end of the line". I want to get up when I want to get up. And I think that creative thinking can result in better use of nick's travel budget. There are a number of cities on your wish list, nick where $40 USD will only buy you very barebones lodging (if any). You're talkin about spending $40 a day on this rail pass. I think you can achieve your intra-Europe travel objectives more cheaply. <BR> <BR>I am not sure about advising you further until I know if Paris is more important to you - - or traveling to these other destinations in Spain (i.e., Madrid, Sevilla, etc - - like Paris, they are both not at all close to any beach!) <BR> <BR>In any event, keep that SelectPass in mind - - you don't need the use of a longer haul train more than a few days at best, I think - - and the SelectPass allows you to treat BeNeLux as a single country for the purpose of choosing your three countries. <BR> <BR>I'll be glad to add more to this thread, if you ask. <BR>