RailEurope vs. Eurail?

Question

Which one is better for traveling around, say, Spain, France, and Italy

Can someone explain the differences?

Do they go out of different stations? Help, please!

http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm

http://www.eurail.com/

Answer 1

They are very similar, and I have used both to buy Eurailpasses.  I remember one year eurail.com had a special and gave me an extra day for the same price. Check both and compare.  Raileurope website gives you high estimates of one way tickets from one city to another, so you can add your trips up and see if a pass would pay off. Individual countries' websites have saver fares that are much cheaper if u plan ahead.  

Answer 2

Both sell the same rail pass and tickets, neither of them really run the trains. So they will be the same, the same stations and the same trains.

There are many different companies in Europe, each country has at least one rail company and some countries have many, like Switzerland.

All those rail companies work together to transport people across the borders and the rail passes are one way.

I think the pass is called Eurail but the rail Europe site is selling that pass.

But before you spend money on it, compare it to buying separate tickets.

You need to be on the train a lot to be cheaper with this pass.

If you take a month pass you will need to be on the train about every other day for most of the day, if you take a flexi pass you will need to be on the train all day for most of the days you use your pass.

If you just want to get from a to b you might be much cheaper if you book in advance.

It is a little difficult to get to real ticket prices, as there is not one site that sells all tickets at a good price, so there is not one site I have found that shows all the prices.

You can use the French, Spanish and Italian train planners:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/leisure/fr/l... (France in French, the English version is mainly for high speed tickets and might well cost extra.)

http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html (Spain)

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html (Italy)

Or you can use this site: http://www.seat61.com/

This has the info but shows it in a different way.

Timetables and prices, but not the cheaper tickets for early bookings nor the last minute deals, can also be found here:

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_...

Compare the prices from this site too, as they are so eager to sell you a rail pass, they might inflate some of the prices.