Travelling round Europe?

Question

Has anyone done that thing where you travel round Europe using a rail card?

Where did you go?

Tell me a bit about it please, I'm planning on doing it and just wanna know what I'm in for, lol.

Answer 1

Before you get a Eurail (non EU residents) or Interrail pass (EU residents) pass, you should put together a tentative plan and evaluate the cost of the pass against just buying point to point tickets. The passes used to be a better deal than they are now. Now, the pass is often more expensive - you have to pay a supplement and/or seat reservations for the high speed trains and night trains. Here in Italy, it the extra charges run 5 to 20 euro per train. There's information on the Eurail site regarding supplements in the various countries. Generally, you don't have to pay an additional amount for the slower regional trains that make a lot of stops. There are often discounts available on individual tickets that you can take advantage of if you time your purchases right (e.g., buy the ticket 1 to 60 days in advance here).

I've done 10 to 12 calculations for people that had specific itineraries in mind in the past couple of months and only one or two were better off with the pass.

You can buy passes that cover one, two, ... or many countries and are valid for various lengths of time.

Answer 2

We did it in the early 1990s using the then popular EurRail pass. It was a lot of fun. We flew into Zurich, went to Geneva, then to Florence, Venice, and Rome, then up to Brussels. We had great fun and we went in September, after the hoards of summer tourist had already rummaged through Europe.

Saludos, BarcelonaMan(.com)