Can I buy rail passes for France on the station together with train tickets?

Question

We are two adults and two youth who are traveling i France and Italy for two week in July/August.

Is it cheaper to buy tickets with a rail pass and how does it work?

Thank you for your answer :)

Answer 1

What country are you from?  If outside Europe you can only buy a rail pass (Eurail Pass) in your home country.  Europeans can buy an Interrail pass at the train station.

Rail passes work well if you're doing some really long-distance travel.  Otherwise point-to-point tickets are better value.

Effectively a rail pass is your ticket, and you can travel on as many trains as you like on a given number of days eg you might buy a pass with 4 days travel in a 2 month period.  There will be additional costs for reserving seats (mandatory on some intercountry or fast trains), couchettes, sleepers etc.

Before buying any pass compare the cost of the pass with the cost of point to point fares.  For France check out http://www.voyages-sncf.com  Use the timetable on the left hand side of page, do not click the union jack for English as this takes you through to the TGV page.  Booking ahead on SNCF means you can take advantage of great specials, however these are usually non-refundable or changeable, so you need to be certain of when you're travelling.  

For Italy check the English pages of Trenitalia: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/ferrovi...

Depending on age, be aware that youth passes are often 2nd class and adult (over 26) passes are 1st class.

NB I would steer clear of Rick Steve's and get information directly from the relevant national railway websites (listed above) as Rick Steve's information is often out of date and point-to-point prices inflated in order that you buy tickets and passes through him.

Answer 2

The Rail pass is your ticket.

Check out this site

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/rail_menu...

The best way is to see what is better to do...

Point to point tickets

Railpass

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/compareti...