What is the best train pass to buy for seeing Europe?

Question

I have elderly relatives visiting and they wish to see Europe on the train - stopping where and when they please.

Travel would start in Manchester, England and go down to Europe (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland...)

Any advice? Thanks.

Answer 1

It depends on where they are from. If you're relatives have been residents of Europe for the last 6 months, then they could get an interrail pass. http://www.interrail.net/ Covering as many countries as they are considering, it sounds like a global pass would be the right option.

If they are from outside the EU, then the Eurail pass is the option for them. http://www.eurail.com/ Eurail also has a Global Pass, but there are some countries like Poland and the Czech Republic that aren't included.

You need to know that even with the passes, there are reservations fees and/or supplements to pay on the high speed trains (e.g., Eurostar, Intercity, TGV, ...) and the night trains. Generally, the slower regional trains don't require a supplement. the information is all on the website, but you need to find and read it.

It would be a good idea to have some rough outline of the trip at least so you can do some calculations and determine whether a pass is worth it or not. Many times, it's cheaper to get point-to-point tickets, but it sounds like this could be one of the cases where the passes pay off. You can find the national train websites to check specific schedules and prices. One of the best places for schedules throughout Europe is the German train website: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml, but it will usually be necessary to go to other websites to price the train trips if they are in other countries.

Other train sites include:

swiss: http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

italian: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

spanish: http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html

belgian: http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/

netherlands: http://www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/ns2007/en/...

french: http://www.sncf.com/en_EN/flash/

austrian: http://www.oebb.at/en/

Answer 2

get the euro pass right on the internet

Answer 3

Instead of using the trains, why not suggest using budget airlines like Ryanair. It's faster and cheaper. They'll be able to see more of Europe.