This is a one-stop independent guide to
choosing, buying & using a European railpass, either a Eurail pass for
overseas visitors or an InterRail pass if you live in Europe. It
aims to answer all your questions, such as which railpass to buy, railpasses
versus point-to-point tickets, how railpasses work, when you need to pay
supplements, and how to make reservations with a railpass.
Whether you use a railpass or
point-to-point tickets, trains are easily the best way to travel
around Europe. A Eurail or InterRail pass gives you unrivalled flexibility, or if you're prepared to pre-book,
a cheap point-to-point fare can be just the ticket. Here's why:
Speed & practicality...
European trains link almost every city & town at up to 198 mph, often faster than flying
as there's no trek to the airport,
no 2-hour check-in, no airport security
strip-search. A '1 hour
flight' actually means 4-5 hours. Paris-Amsterdam
now takes 3h09 by train, Paris-Geneva 3h05...
Comfort & low-stress, a chance to
chill out...
...unlike air travel, train
travel is low-stress & low-hassle, and unlike bus travel
it's high comfort. Aren't you supposed
to be on holiday? On trains, you get space to move around,
lots of legroom and often a café, bar
or even restaurant.
Overnight sleeper trains cover huge distances such as
Amsterdam to Prague or Paris to Barcelona, effectively faster than flying and it saves hotel bill, too.
The train journeys become a welcome chance to chill out between
cities...
Scenery & the experience...
...and there's often superb scenery. Unlike flights or long distance buses
your train journeys are an integral part of the European experience,
something to enjoy for their own sake, giving you a ground-level
feel for the countries you're visiting...
Above: Scenery from a Milan-Paris TGV, with
my feet up & a glass of wine to hand...
Trains versus buses, planes &
automobiles...
Planes:
In Europe, a 1 hour
flight means 4 or 5 hours of taking a bus, train or taxi to an airport
way outside the city, a
lengthy check-in with stressful security checks, and a flight
that may be delayed. European
flights typically achieve only 63%-69% on time, high-speed trains
typically achieve
90%+. After the flight there's more airport hassle followed by
another bus, train or taxi ride into town. You miss out on the relaxing scenic overland
train journey which allows you to chill out.
To get affordable air tickets you must
arrange all your flights in advance on a no-refunds,
limited-changes basis, compared to the freedom &
flexibility of a go-as-you-please railpass.
And you must factor in the extra cost of airport transfers, baggage fees,
check-in fees & credit card fees. Finally,
trains are the environmentally-responsible choice, as short-haul
flights cause disproportionate
environmental damage.
Car hire: In Europe, cars and city centres don't mix.
Hiring a car is a great way to
explore a rural area off the main routes such as
Tuscany or the Dordogne, so combining inter-city train
travel with a few days' car hire to explore the
countryside is a wonderful idea. But to see great cities such as Paris, Rome,
Barcelona or Florence, definitely don't hire a car.
In the USA or Australia, driving
300 miles is no big deal. In overcrowded Europe,
even 100 miles on ugly motorways can be stressful, tiring
& depressing.
Traffic in cities can be a nightmare and parking in
European city centres is either expensive or
non-existent. Some car hire companies won't let
their cars
cross borders even within the EU, others charge
prohibitive drop-off charges for doing so.
Long-distance bus: Long distance buses use
ugly motorways which spoil the scenery they pass
through. At 60 mph, a journey that's only 3
hours by train could be 8 hours by
bus. You're
stuck in a bus seat for hours, no
restaurant or bar to go to, and at night
you sleep in a seat, a horrible
experience. Buses generally only serve the largest cities, often just once
a day, making them very inflexible.
You're not allowed to bring your own food & drink,
let alone alcohol such as a nice beer or glass of wine!
Buses are really an option for very, very
low-budget travellers... Avoid them if you can.
Trains: Trains run on a vast rail network
covering almost every town & city in Europe, with a
range of departures every day. Trains run at
up to 198 mph (300 km/h), and are now faster than flying for many
key journeys such as London
to Paris (2h15), Paris
to Amsterdam (3h09), Paris to Geneva (3h05), Barcelona
to Madrid (2h38) or Florence to Venice (2h40). Overnight sleeper trains have beds
to sleep in and are an experience in themselves. They cover
huge distance while you sleep, such as Paris-Barcelona,
Paris-Florence, Amsterdam-Prague or Prague-Krakow, city centre to city
centre, saving a hotel bill and saving time over the 4-5
daytime hours that flying would use up. Trains
run city centre to city centre, low-hassle, zero stress.
There's loads of legroom, you can get up and wander to
the bar or restaurant car if you like. Feel free
to bring your own picnic and your own bottle of
wine or beer if you want, no problem, it's allowed on
trains!
So
whether you use a Eurail or InterRail pass or buy cheap
point-to-point tickets, the train is
definitely the way to see a lot of Europe in a remarkably short
time, in comfort. There's simply no contest. But more
than that, train travel is part of the European way of life, the way
we Europeans travel, and an experience in itself. You might
even meet some of us Europeans!
Here is a quick (OK, fairly
quick) guide to European railpasses, assuming you know
virtually nothing about them to start with, and talking you
through pretty much all the key points about buying
& using a railpass. If you need more detail, the other
sections on this page will help.
What is a railpass?
Let's start with the
basics. A railpass is a special ticket which gives you
unlimited train travel on the national rail network of
one or more
countries, so you can travel around freely and explore.
'Unlimited' means
without limit. You can take one train or fifty trains,
travel 10 miles or 800 miles a day, for the same fixed railpass price.
A 'railpass' is different
from an ordinary point-to-point ticket. A point to point
ticket allows you to make just one specific journey from A to B.
Point to point tickets vary in price, long journeys cost more than
short journeys, booking in advance is often cheaper than buying
on the day, and fares in (say) Switzerland are more expensive
than fares in (say) Bulgaria.
So if all you want to
do is make one simple journey from A to B, a point to point ticket
is probably what you need. But if you want to travel round extensively
making multiple journeys and travelling flexibly, a railpass may
be what you need.
What is a
Eurail
pass? (often incorrectly called Eurorail)
Eurail is the
major railpass range offered to overseas visitors, in other
words to people who do not live in Europe.
Eurail is not a
company, nor does it involve special 'Eurail' trains. It's simply
the brand name used for the railpass range marketed jointly by
all the various European national rail operators. Eurail
passes allow you to
travel on the European national train operators' normal scheduled trains.
More about Eurail.
If you live in
Europe, the railpass range available to Europeans is called
InterRail. It's not a company or special trains,
like Eurail it's just a brand name used to market a railpass range offered
jointly by all the various national train operators.
More about InterRail passes
here.
Is a railpass cheaper
than buying point-to-point tickets?
There's no easy answer
to this, because it depends on what journeys you want to do.
So let's take some baby steps. Here are the 'rules of
thumb':
Are you just making
a few short trips? If all you want to do is make a few
short 10 euro train trips, then don't buy a $700 Eurail pass.
There, that wasn't too difficult was it? For example, Florence to Pisa costs 5.70 euros, so why buy a railpass costing around
€40-€50 per day
just to make a €5.70 journey?
Even Brussels to Amsterdam on the hourly
InterCity trains costs only €39, full-price, even on the day
of travel. For help finding out what point-to-point fares
would cost,
see here.
Are you travelling
around Italy? Italy deserves a
special mention, as it's such a popular destination yet rail
passes seldom make financial sense. Rome to
Florence costs 44 euros full fare by 'Eurostar Italia' high-speed
train, Florence to Venice 42 euros, even bought on the day.
Rome-Venice costs 73 euros. With passes typically working
out at 40-50 euros per day plus a 10 euro passholder surcharge
required for every journey on a Eurostar Italia train, railpasses for
Italy only make sense if you plan to do the equivalent of
Rome-Venice every time you step onto a train. They do not
make financial sense if you're only going Rome-Florence day 1,
Florence-Venice day 2, Venice-Verona day 3, etc. And as you
have to make a reservation to travel on any fast train even with
a railpass, railpasses have lost their 'hop on and flash your
pass' convenience factor in Italy. You can check
Italian train fares online at
www.trenitalia.com. There are similar issues with
railpasses versus normal tickets in Spain and in eastern Europe,
see here.
Do you have a
pre-planned, fixed itinerary that could all be pre-booked?
Western European train operators now offer budget-airline-style
cheap fares if you book in advance on a 'no refunds, no changes
to travel plans' basis. So Paris to Nice can be just 20
euros if you book a month or two in advance, but a flexible
ticket bought at the station on the day might cost 100 euros.
So even if a pass saves money over the full flexible price, if
you know when you're going these cheap book-ahead tickets often
blow passes out of the water, if you buy online direct from the
relevant European train operator websites, available up to 3 months in advance. For example,
it's not difficult to find a 29 euro Paris-Geneva ticket at the
French railways website
www.tgv-europe.com and print out your own ticket or collect
it at the station in Paris. The 29 euro fare includes the
'Lyria TGV' reservation, with no credit card fee, no booking
fee & no postage. Is this
€29 deal cheaper than a
€40-€50 per day railpass, plus travel agency fee & postage,
plus the €10 passholder surcharge for the Lyria TGV (I'll
explain about
surcharges in a minute)? You bet! So don't buy
a pass for pre-planned trips before checking what cheap point-to-point
fares were available,
see the advice in this section.
...Or do you want to
stay flexible? That cheap 29 euro
Paris-Geneva ticket might be the cheapest option if you can
pre-plan, but it means 'no
refunds, no changes to travel plans'. You must book a
month or two in advance, and maybe the €29 price will be
available when you want it or maybe it won't. The normal
flexible 'on the day' price for Paris-Geneva is
around €80. Does a €40-€50 railpass make sense now,
even with €10 Lyria TGV surcharge? Yes, the railpass now
saves you money! The pass gives you the flexibility to change your mind
and your plans as you go.
To sum up, don't assume you need a railpass. Short distance and
many medium distance trips are best made with an ordinary
point-to-point ticket bought at the station on the day. For
a long-distance pre-planned fixed-itinerary trip around Europe,
the cheapest option is usually to buy a series of
cheap advance-purchase point-to-point tickets from the various
European train operator websites booking a month or two in advance, if the cheap deals are available
when you want them (and many will be) and if you don't mind a 'no refunds, no changes to travel plans' ticket.
However, if flexibility is important to you, a railpass is a fixed price for
go-as-you-please freedom. Although even with a pass, a few seat reservations
may be required and there's the odd surcharge to pay, more about
that in a minute.
The only way to know for sure whether a railpass
or point-to-point would be cheaper is to work out the point to
point prices for most of the trips you're planning using the
various European train operator websites (not overseas ticketing
agency websites which often charge more or ignore the cheap deals,
I mean buying direct from the French railways website, the German
railways website, and so on, at European prices with all the
European special deals). If you're on a
tight budget, taking the time and effort to do this can save you a
lot of money, so
see this section.
Don't be afraid to
mix & match a railpass with one or more point to point tickets.
For example, for 11 days of train travel in Europe, it's cheaper
to buy a 10-day Eurail Global pass plus one point-to-point ticket
for the shortest/cheapest of all your train rides, than to buy the
next pass size up, which is the 15-day Eurail Global pass.
If the start of your trip is known and fixed, the rest flexible,
you could buy a cheap ticket for the first one or two journeys,
then start using a railpass.
What trains does a
railpass cover?
Railpasses cover all
the trains run by the main national train operator in each country
covered by the pass, be they local trains, suburban trains,
regional trains, inter-city trains & international trains.
Occasionally (notably in Switzerland) they also cover a few
private train operators as well.
Railpasses do not
cover metro or Underground ('subway') trains (or for that matter,
buses or trams) within cities. Nor do they cover some small
private train operators, such as the Circumvesuviana Railway in Italy
(Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento), FEVE or Euskotren narrow gauge local
trains in northern Spain, or some private operators in Switzerland
such as the Jungfraubahn up the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn in
Switzerland which operates the line to Zermatt & half of the
Glacier Express route.
Railpasses also
don't cover Eurostar, the high-speed train through the Channel
Tunnel between London & Paris or London & Brussels. If
you're willing to pre-book, the best and cheapest option is
usually to forget your pass and buy a regular cheap Eurostar ticket
up to a maximum of 4 months in advance at
www.eurostar.com. These start from just £39 one way
or £69 return, no refunds and no changes to travel plans
allowed, so make sure you are 100% certain of your travel date
and time. OK, in theory Eurostar offers a 'special fare'
for Eurail passholders, £57 one way, £100
return, with changes to travel plans allowed, but as you can see,
this is actually more expensive than the
cheapest regular fare if you book a month or two in advance and
commit to a specific date and train. True, if you want to
buy a Eurostar ticket only a week or two before departure, the
£57 passholder fare (if it's still available) may by then be
cheaper than the cheapest-available regular fare, but be warned,
the number of passholder tickets is controlled by a quota.
People have turned up at the station on a Sunday expecting to
buy a Eurail passholder ticket for the next Eurostar departure,
only to be told there are no Eurail passholder places available
on any Eurostar until Wednesday, and if they wanted to travel
immediately they'd have to pay the full-price regular fare, a
whopping £170.
So don't rely on being able to buy a £57 passholder fare on
the day of travel or even a day or two before, I'd strongly
suggest forgetting the passholder fare and simply pre-booking a
cheap £39 regular ticket well in advance and just building your
plans around these specific dates. For the record, if you
do find a Eurail passholder fare available, it can be used by
anyone who has bought an Eurail pass, as long as the overall
pass validity has started and not yet ended, if you have a
Eurail Flexi pass you don't need to use up one of your free
travel days.
You'll find a list of
what operators are covered by railpasses in the
country by country guide below.
How do railpasses work?
Seat reservations & surcharges...
Generally speaking, you
can simply hop on any train you like, find any empty seat to sit
in, and show your railpass when asked by the conductor.
However (and
it's a big 'however'), people who think buying a railpass means
there's nothing further to pay often get a shock. Many
premium daytime trains require railpass holders to pay a small
surcharge and/or make a seat reservation. Here are the
rough 'rules of thumb':
Local,
suburban & regional trains almost never require
seat reservations or surcharges in any country.
Just hop on and show your railpass when asked!
Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany,
Austria, Denmark: With a handful of
exceptions, internal & international
trains within and between these countries don't require
a seat reservation or surcharge, even on
premier high-speed inter-city trains like Germany's
superb ICE. You just hop on, find any empty
unreserved seat and show your railpass when asked. Railpasses retain their 'convenience factor'
in these countries, as you can hop on & off trains
spontaneously. However, even though it's optional,
making a seat reservation for a long journey can be a
smart move as it guarantees you a seat, well worth the
3-5 euro seat reservation fee. Key exceptions:
Thalys trains between Brussels & Amsterdam and
between Brussels
& Cologne have compulsory reservation & a special fare
for railpass holders. A few scenic tourist trains
in Switzerland require a seat reservation & small
supplement, such as the celebrated
Glacier Express &
Bernina
Express. International journeys from these
countries into France, Italy or Spain do require
reservations and supplements. For the record, although they don't
participate in the Eurail pass scheme, trains in
Britain & Ireland are also 'reservation
optional', never compulsory, and there are no passholder
surcharges.
France,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden:
This is the problem area. Virtually all
domestic & international trains to, from, between &
within these countries require compulsory seat
reservation & payment of a passholder surcharge of some
sort, varying from 3 to 20 euros per trip. I
suggest using 10 euros
per train ride as a rule of thumb for budgeting purposes. Railpasses have
lost their 'convenience factor' in these
countries as you can't just hop on, you need to make a
reservation, even though you make a reservation ten
minutes before the train leaves (in Italy, simply use
the excellent
self-service machines at every main station with an
English-language touch screen). Although you'll seldom find trains
fully-booked except at key holiday periods, be aware of
the possible quota
problem with reservation-compulsory trains in these
countries, especially France.
In
Eastern Europe it varies. Some
premier trains require a seat reservation (3-5 euros
fee), these will be shown in timetables and on departure
posters with an 'R'
symbol.
Sleeper
trains: You'll need to pay a supplement and
make a reservation for
sleepers or
couchette on overnight trains, in all countries.
Fr budgeting purposes, reckon on 20 euros supplement for
a couchette in a 6-bunk compartment or 50 euros per
person for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper. In eastern Europe
it's cheaper, reckon on 15 euros for a couchette or 26
euros for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper. Remember that
with an Eurail or
InterRail 'flexi' type pass, an overnight train
leaving after 19:00 counts as running on the following
day (as long as the overall validity period has started), so it only uses up one day of your rail pass.
You'll
find a detailed list of which trains require compulsory seat
reservations, and what surcharges cost, in the
country-by-country guide below.
You'll
find a more detailed guide to using a Eurail pass,
including validating a Eurail when you first start to use it,
in the How do
Eurail passes work section.
How to
make reservations with a railpass...
At
stations: You
can easily make seat or berth reservations and pay any
surcharges at the station as you travel
around, there are almost always places available on any
given train even in summer, though of course some trains
do get full at
peak times. Notably, the
Paris-Italy Thello sleeper trains do leave
fully-booked in summer, as do many high-speed trains in
Spain, so think about pre-booking those. Also be aware of the
annoying
passholder quota
problem, especially in France. European
reservation systems are linked, so you can usually (but
not always) make reservations for a journey starting at
stations other than the one you're at, even in different
countries.
In
advance, using train operator websites:
Unfortunately, train operator websites usually only sell
complete tickets and don't allow railpass holders to
make 'reservation only' bookings. The useful exceptions
are the German railways website
www.bahn.de (for trains to, from & within Germany,
also sleeper trains from Amsterdam to Prague/Copenhagen/Zurich/Munich,
and Paris to Berlin/Munich)
and the Italian railways website
www.trenitalia.com. On
www.bahn.de, use the journey planner as if you were going to
buy a ticket, locate the train you want and click 'check
availability', then look for the easily-missed link 'Book
only extra charge' at the bottom right. On the next
page, select 'Pass offer (InterRail, Eurail...)'. On
www.trenitalia.com, use the journey planner as if
you were going to buy a ticket, select a train and click
'continue', then look for the drop
down fare box marked 'More fares' and select 'Global pass'.
As there are no booking fees or
postage, this is the best way to make a reservation if
they cover the trains you want.
In
advance, online or by phone from the overseas agency
which sells your railpass: You can
usually make reservations by phone
or online from the agency which sells you the pass. You
can make seat or berth reservations to go with a railpass
on many western European trains at any of these agency
websites, although bear in mind that agencies will
charge a bit more that you'd pay at the station (or
online direct from the train operator) and add a booking
fee or postage fee on top.
European residents qualify for the
InterRail pass range. They do not qualify for
the Eurail pass range. So if you're a European citizen or an overseas
citizen who has been resident in a European country for more than 6
months, or a citizen of the Russian Federation, Turkey plus a few
north African countries, go straight to the InterRail pass
page where all will be explained.
Overseas visitors (Americans,
Australians and so on)
qualify for the Eurail pass range. If you are not
resident in Europe you cannot buy an InterRail pass. Citizens of the Russian Federation & Turkey do
not qualify for Eurail passes, they qualify for InterRail
passes.
InterRail & Eurail passes cover exactly
the same trains. So a European and (say) an American can
travel together, the European using an InterRail and the
American using a Eurail, no problem.
There are a handful of other railpasses that
anyone qualifies for, for example a Swiss Pass,
explained here.
Understanding the Eurail pass range...
Eurail is the pass range for overseas
visitors who don't live in Europe.
Eurail (often mistakenly called 'Eurorail')
isn't a company or a train operator. It's simply the
brand-name for a range of international rail passes for overseas
visitors to Europe, offered jointly by the various national train
operators. There are no special 'Eurail' trains, Eurail
passes simply give unlimited travel on all the normal scheduled train
services run by the various national train operators.
The national railways participating in the Eurail scheme are
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic (which joined in
January 2009), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden & Switzerland.
Eurail Global, Eurail Selectpass &
Eurail Single-country: The first choice is between a Eurail Global
pass covering almost the whole of Europe, a 'Eurail
Selectpass' covering your choice of any 3, 4 or 5 neighbouring
European countries, or a 'Eurail single country pass' covering
just the one European country of your choice.
'Continuous' & 'Flexi' passes:
Eurail Global passes come in both 'continuous' & 'Flexi' versions.
The original 'continuous' version gives unlimited train
travel around most of Europe for a continuous period of either 15
days, 2 days, 1 month, 2 months or 3 months starting on any date
you specify. The 'Flexi' version only gives either 10
or 15 days free train travel within an overall 2-month period,
with the ability to 'spend' those unlimited travel days on
whichever days you choose within the 2 month period. The
Eurail Selectpasses all work on the 'Flexi' principle with a
choice of 5, 6, 8, 10 or 15 days unlimited train travel within a
2-month period, as do the Eurail single-country passes
which offer a choice or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 days unlimited
train travel within an overall 1-month period.
How do Eurail 'Flexi' passes work?
Let's say you buy a 10-days-in-2-months Eurail Global 'Flexi'
pass. The 2 month overall period starts on any date you
specify. There are 10 empty 'boxes' printed on your pass.
Each time you want to 'spend' one of your 10 unlimited travel
days, you simply write the date in ball-point pen in one of the
boxes, and you then have 24 hours unlimited train travel from
midnight to midnight in the area covered by the pass. In
fact, it can be more than 24 hours, because of the 'overnight
train rule'. An overnight train leaving after 19:00 counts
as the following day, so you could in theory start travelling just
after 19:00 on a sleeper train, then travel all around through the
next day until midnight.
Adult, Youth & 'Saver': Each
type of Eurail pass comes in adult, youth & saver versions.
Youth means anyone under 26. 'Saver' simply gives a discount
for 2-5 people all buying Eurail passes and travelling together.
You can mix & match passes:
Don't be afraid to buy a combination of passes. If you were
spending 5 days in France and 5 days in Italy, two 5-day
single-country passes would be the cheapest pass option, a 10-day
Eurail Selectpass covering both France and Italy costs a bit more,
though would give you more flexibility. A 10-day Eurail
Global pass would cost more than either of these options, but to
no purpose if you're really only going to visit France and Italy.
Though of course, if you changed your mind and suddenly wanted to
see Amsterdam, you could do that with the Global Pass...
There are a few other passes in addition
to the main InterRail & Eurail pass ranges. Key amongst
these is the excellent Swiss pass for Switzerland. For more
information on this and other passes, see
this section if you're an
overseas visitor or
this
section if you're a UK or European resident.
How do I buy a
Eurail pass, browse pass types or check current Eurail prices?
People seem to think there's a definite answer, such as 'a
rail pass is always cheaper than normal tickets if you're
going to Switzerland, but normal tickets are always cheaper
than a pass if you're going to Italy or Spain or eastern
Europe'. True, some rail passes (like the
excellent Swiss pass) are better value than others (like
railpasses for Italy or eastern Europe where fares
are so cheap anyway), as you have to clock up more mileage
in Italy to justify the pass, whereas it doesn't take
much in Switzerland to make a Swiss Pass worthwhile.
But it depends on how much travelling you plan to do,
and on which sort of point-to-point ticket you compare it with.
A $70-a-day railpass (even with a $10 reservation fee on
top) is cheaper than a $150 fully-flexible buy-it-on-the-day
point-to-point ticket, but much more expensive than a $45 cheap
point-to-point
ticket bought online in advance on a
no-refunds-no-changes-to-travel-plans basis. So
there's no simple answer without working it out for
yourself.
OK, so how do I work it out?
Here is a step-by-step guide to checking whether a pass will
actually save you money over normal tickets. If you
find this too difficult, can't be bothered or can't afford to spend half an hour working
it
out, skip this bit and go straight to the
Which railpass should I buy section. But a little legwork
can save you a lot of money. Here's how:
Decide where you want to go:
First, decide which countries and
which cities you want to visit. This is the fun
bit! Decide what interests you, and use a good
European guide book like the
Lonely Planet Guides or Rough
Guides. If possible,
sketch out a rough itinerary. It doesn't have to
be detailed, though you can use the invaluable online timetable at
http://bahn.hafas.de to plan train times if you
like.
Decide
which railpass best fits this itinerary: Look for
the rail pass that most closely fits your trip, see
what rail pass should I
buy?
Work out the 'pass-price-per-day':
Divide the rail pass price by the number of days train
travelling you expect to do, to get a 'pass price per
day'. This is your yardstick.
Allow for railpass supplements:
Remember that in addition to the cost of the pass,
passholders have to pay a surcharge to travel on many long-distance
premium trains. You'll also need to pay a sleeper
or couchette supplement on overnight trains (though these save a hotel
bill). A rough 'rule of thumb' for budgeting
purposes is to add 10 euros per journey for any
daytime long-distance journey to, from, between or
within France, Italy or Spain, but there's seldom any
supplement to pay on trains within or between
Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, and
in eastern Europe there either is no supplement or it is
small, say 3-6 euros. For overnight trains, again
as a rough rule of thumb, add 20 euros for a basic
couchette or 50 euros for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper (per
person) for any overnight journey. For a more
accurate and route-specific idea of which trains do and
don't have supplements, and how much they cost, see the
do I need to make reservations
or pay supplements? section.
Find out what the point-to-point fares would be:
See
how
can I find out what the point-to-point fare would be?.
The point-to-point fares produced by the journey
planners on railway websites include any
supplement or reservation charge, so no supplement
worries here. You'll need to
decide if you want flexibility and the ability to vary
your itinerary and be spontaneous (in which case, you
should compare the rail pass price with the most
expensive fully-flexible fare shown in the journey
planner search results) or if you are
prepared to commit to specific trains on specific dates,
to take advantage of cheapest advance-purchase fares.
And compare the two:
Compare the pass price per day with the typical
point-to-point fare for the sort of journeys you expect
to make. If you've planned an itinerary, compare the
cost of the pass with the cost of normal tickets for
those journeys.
Don't forget that a rail pass is more flexible,
usually allows you to hop on and off trains
spontaneously, saves you time queuing at ticket offices,
and may cover additional trips that you didn't expect to
make (for example, if you plan to spend a few days in
Paris, it will cover a daytrip to Versailles).
Even if a rail pass is a bit more expensive, it can still
be better to buy one.
The examples below show that it pays to do your research.
Don't assume that a rail pass is always the most economical
option. In fact, your working assumption should be the exact
opposite: Assume that normal
point to point tickets are the cheapest option unless
you can prove that a rail pass will save you money.
There's one other problem with railpasses that can
occasionally raise its head, especially at busy times
and especially (it seems) in France on TGV services and
on trains between Paris & Italy, Paris & Switzerland,
Paris & Belgium, Paris & the Netherlands. I'm not sure how
often it happens, as it's only cropped up in people's emails to
me once or twice - but perhaps many railpass holders are
simply told the train is full, and go away thinking it
really is full when if you're paying cash there's lots
of seats left.
Here's the problem: In the old days, if you had a
Eurail pass you were treated as having a normal 2nd class
ticket, on an equal footing with other passengers.
So if there was one seat left on the train and you were
first in the queue to make a seat reservation on that train
with your Eurail, then you got it and the person
behind you didn't. But many trains in western
Europe are now yield-managed, meaning that the number of
seats sold at each price is controlled by a quota held
in the
reservation system, and there's a separate quota for
railpass holders. At busy times this quota can be
very small or even zero. So now, if there's one
seat left on the train, a railpass holder is told "Sorry,
the train is full" (in other words, there are no
passholder places available), and the seat is sold to the passenger behind you
willing to pay cash. They already have your money
after all, as you've already paid for the railpass!
Personally, I think this is sharp practice, though as I
say it may not be a problem except on certain trains at
very busy times. But you should be aware of how
things work. If you need to be on a specific train
on a specific date, a normal point-to-point ticket
booked on that train guarantees you a place, whereas
simply holding a Eurail pass and expecting to make a
reservation at the station on the day may not, even if
there are seats available! Of
course, you could buy any mission-critical reservations
along with the pass from the same agency in the same
phone call, so you only buy the pass if the reservations
are OK.
Common railpass mistakes: Italy...
Many people buy a railpass to tour Italy, but passes
seldom make financial sense. A
'Flexi' type Eurail pass typically costs 55-69 euros
per day (this is the pass price converted into euros and divided by the number of days
of free train travel, it's not rocket science). Perhaps this sounds good
value. But all high-speed trains in Italy now require a
seat reservation even with a railpass, so there's
no 'convenience factor' in having a pass, you still have
to make a seat reservation before you can get on a
train. And the reservation costs 10 euros per
trip, which must be factored into your budget and
comparison with normal tickets. So with the
passholder surcharge added the pass price per day
becomes 65-79 euros per day, 1st class. And you're
forced to travel 1st class with a pass, because (unless
you're under 26 years old) 2nd class Eurail passes don't
exist.
They then travel from Rome to Florence on day 1, a
journey which at full price only costs 44 euros 2nd
class or 63 euros 1st class including a reservation, bought at the ticket office even on the day
of travel. And bought in advance at
www.trenitalia.com, a cheap 'Mini' fare might be
only 44 euros 1st class or an amazing 19 euros in 2nd
class. Next day they do a day trip to Siena, a
12 euro return ticket. Then they go from Florence
to Venice, at full price 43 euros 2nd class or 60 euros
1st class, with discounted Mini fares available if you
book online in advance for perhaps 26 euros 2nd class,
42 euros in 1st class. Venice to Verona is
20 euros in 2nd class, 30 euros in 1st class, full
price. So why buy a pass? Venice to Rome is
104 euros in 1st class, so now a pass does save money, but you need to
do a journey of this length every day of your pass
validity to make it pay. You can check
normal ticket prices for Italy at
www.trenitalia.com. You want 'Base' fares for
flexibility, although if you pre-book in advance you can
get a 30% or even 60% discount.
Advice on using trenitalia.com.
Conclusion: A railpass seldom makes sense for Italy
unless you will do a journey equivalent to Rome-Venice
every day you use the pass, because passes are overpriced relative to normal Italian point-to-point fares,
especially once the 10 euro passholder surcharge is
added for all high-speed trains.
Eastern Europe is also cheap, so be careful about
buying a pass for those countries, too.
Switzerland is just the opposite, where high
point-to-point fares and good-value railpasses make
railpasses a good bet.
Common railpass mistakes: Eastern Europe...
Many people buy a railpass to tour eastern Europe.
But as with Italy, normal fares in that part of Europe
are so cheap anyway it hardly makes sense to use a pass.
Bought at the ticket office when you're there, you can
often find cheap deals too, making point-to-point even
cheaper.
For example, an Eurail pass costs
around 50-70 euros per day. The normal fully-flexible fare
from Prague to Krakow is only 1,068 koruna (£35) if you
buy it at the station in Prague, but usually they can do
you a cheaper fare of 855 koruna (£29). So why buy
a pass?
It's often difficult to buy tickets online (or even just
find out the real ticket-office fare) for journeys in
eastern Europe, but it's easy to buy tickets at the
station when you're there. Bear in mind that
tickets for eastern European journeys bought from UK, US
or Australian agencies are usually more expensive than
the price you'd pay at the ticket office when you're
there.
Common railpass mistakes: Budget train fares for
Spain...
A railpass typically costs the equivalent of 40-45 euros
per day (the pass price converted into euros and divided
by the number of days validity). But remember that
every long-distance train in Spain now requires a
reservation even with a pass, and passholders have to
pay a supplement of around 7 to 10 euros per train ride.
If you insist on flexibility, a pass will probably save
money on balance over full-fare buy-on-the-day tickets
for long-distance journeys. For example,
railpass-per-day + supplement = 45 + 10 = 55 euros.
A full-fare Madrid-Seville ticket costs around 75 euros.
The pass saves 20 euros on this trip.
But if you're prepared to book in advance and commit to
a fixed itinerary, you can buy cheap 'Web' fares online
at www.renfe.com, in
this case Madrid-Seville costs only 28 euros, saving 27
euros over using a railpass. These blow railpasses
out of the water price-wise. And less queuing at
the ticket office as you print out your own ticket and
breeze onto the train!
Conclusion: Cheap book-ahead online 'web'
fares are a better bet for travel around Spain, if
you're prepared to pre-book on a 'no refunds, no changes
to travel plans' basis. Remember to budget for the
supplements which apply to all fast trains in Spain
Common railpass mistakes: Budget train fares in
western Europe...
Passholders now have to make a reservation and pay a
special passholder fare (typically 5 to 15 euros) before
boarding most international trains in western Europe,
certainly those involving France, Spain and Italy, so
passes have lost their convenience factor. You can
no longer just hop on and show your pass, you need to
queue up at the ticket office to make a reservation.
The same trains have adopted airline-style
point-to-point fares, with cheap fares if you book in
advance on a 'no refunds, no changes to travel plans'
basis, and much more expensive fares if you buy a
fully-flexible ticket on the day of travel.
Let's take a typical example. Paris to Geneva,
Bern, Basel or Lausanne in Switzerland by high-speed TGV
starts at £25 one-way for a cheap point-to-point ticket
if you book in advance, rising to around £100 for a fully
flexible buy-on-the-day ticket. This compares with
an InterRail pass (for Europeans) costing around £48 per
day plus an £9 passholder fare or a Eurail pass (for
non-Europeans) costing maybe 50-70 euros per day plus a 10
euros passholder fare.
So if you insist on flexibility, railpasses may save
money over normal full-fare tickets for long-distance
trips. In our example, the pass cost was £48 + £9
= £57, the fully-flexible fare was £100.
However, if you're prepared to commit to a fixed
itinerary, the cheap book-ahead train fares blow
railpasses out of the water price-wise. £25 using
a cheap point-to-point ticket versus £57 using a pass,
half the cost! Of course, maybe the £25 tickets
have sold out for your date of travel, so maybe you end
up paying £35 or £45 instead, whatever, but it's still
cheaper than buying the pass. And you can easily
buy the cheap point-to-point ticket online with no
booking fee, whereas the railpass and supplement cannot
be booked online direct from the train companies, you
will probably have to buy them from an agency, and the
agency will no doubt add a booking fee or postage charge
on top. So why bother with the pass, just go
online and snap up that cheap ticket!
A particular example to note are the Paris-Madrid,
Paris-Barcelona, Zurich-Barcelona &
Milan-Barcelona overnight 'trainhotels'.
For travel in a 4-berth sleeper, a special
point-to-point fare of around 72 euros (£68) is easy to
get on almost all trainhotels up to a few weeks before
departure, when the fare goes up to the fully-flexible
fare of 130 euros (not a very sophisticated fare
structure, I grant you!). When I go to Spain from
the UK, this £68 sleeper fare is what I always buy.
An InterRail pass costs around £48 per day (or, for
non-Europeans, a Eurail pass maybe 50 euros per day),
then you have to pay a 72 euros (£68) supplement for the
same 4-bed sleeper. That's right, the supplement
is £68/72 euros, exactly the same price as the book-ahead
fare that everyone in their right mind pays without a
pass. So why bother buying the pass? I
certainly don't bother with a railpass for any
international trips I make from the UK to Spain,
Switzerland or Italy.
Also worth quoting as an example are the City Night Line
sleeper trains on routes such as Amsterdam-Prague,
Amsterdam-Vienna, Paris-Berlin, Paris-Munich and so
on. Their budget fares start at 49 euros including
a couchette, whereas with a pass you have to pay a 27
euros couchette supplement plus the cost of the pass.
Again, if you're prepared to pre-book an can get the
cheapest rates, passes don't make sense.
Conclusion: 'Budget train fares' have
arrived, as train operators copy budget airlines and
offer very cheap point-to-point deals if you book in
advance. If you're prepared to pre-book your
itinerary a couple of months in advance on a
'no-refunds, no-changes-to-travel-plans' basis online
direct from a European train operator (as opposed to
buying from an overseas booking agency), these cheap
fares blow railpasses out of the water price-wise.
There's advice on how to book which train tickets on the
How to buy European
train tickets page.
Fares for international journeys in eastern Europe are difficult to
find online, so here are some approximate fares as a rough
guide. These are all one-way adult 2nd class
fares. 1st class fares are 50% more than the 2nd
class fare. Returns are normally twice the
one-way, but in many cases there are reductions for
return tickets. Children under 12 travel at half
fare. You will need to add the same
sleeper &
couchette supplements to these basic fares as you'd
pay with a rail pass.
Prague-Krakow
35 euros*
Prague-Budapest 57 euros*
Prague-Vienna 48 euros*
Prague-Bratislava 44 euros*
Prague-Bucharest 153 euros
Prague-Belgrade 82 euros
Budapest-Krakow 64 euros
Budapest-Prague 69 euros
Budapest-Bratislava 28 euros
Budapest-Bucharest 80 euros
Budapest-Vienna 37 euros
Budapest-Warsaw 90 euros
Budapest-Krakow 80 euros
Budapest-Moscow 97 euros
Budapest-Istanbul 124 euros
Budapest-Belgrade 39 euros
Budapest-Sofia 84 euros
Budapest-Thessaloniki 118 euros
Budapest-Kiev 69 euros
Budapest-Zagreb 36 euros
Warsaw-Budapest 73 euros
Warsaw-Prague 54 euros*
Warsaw-Vienna 63 euros
Warsaw-Budapest 83 euros
Sofia-Istanbul 18 euros
Vienna-Prague about 50 euros*
Vienna-Budapest 37 euros**
Vienna-Warsaw 63 euros
Bucharest-Istanbul 40 euros
Bucharest-Belgrade 142 euros
Belgrade-Istanbul 43 euros
Belgrade-Sofia 45 euros
Belgrade-Zagreb 44 euros
Belgrade-Budapest 39 euros
Belgrade-Venice 80 euros
* You can find special cheap fares from just 19 euros (496 Czech Koruna) available on daytime
trains if you pre-book using
www.cd.cz/eshop & print
out your own ticket!
** You can find special cheap fares from 19 euros if you pre-book online at
www.oebb.at.
Some American travel agency websites show sample
point-to-point fares for comparison with the rail passes
they sell. These point-to-point
fares are often
the most expensive fully-flexible fares, not the cheap
deals that you can now get on many international trains
in western Europe if you book in advance. It's best to check the actual
fares quoted on the European train operator
websites.
European
trains normally only open for reservations 90 days
before departure (or sometimes 60 days) and most websites will only show train
times and ticket prices within this time period.
So if your European trip is still many months away,
choose a random date within the next 60 days and enquire
about fares for that date. The prices won't change
much in 6 months!
You can buy these rail passes if
you live in the UK or another European country, or can prove
you have been resident in a European country for more than 6
months. If you
live overseas, for example in the USA, Canada, Australia, or
New Zealand, see the
next section.
Rail passes for just one country...
Any country in Europe:
You can buy a
single-country InterRail
pass for almost any country in Europe, giving
unlimited train travel in that country for either 3,
4, 6, or 8 days within an overall 1-month period.
The days of unlimited travel don't have to be used one
after the other. Each time you want to use up one of
your train travel days, you just write the date in one
of the empty boxes printed on your rail pass.
This is a good option if you are only going to be
making train journeys occasionally, with long periods
staying in one place between trips. Note:
Eurodomino passes were withdrawn in 2007,
replaced by this new range, as was the France pass.
Swiss Pass: 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8 days unlimited
travel in Switzerland within 1 month. The Swiss
Pass is very good value and highly
recommended, as Swiss rail fares can be expensive.
Unlike many other railpasses these days, you don't
have to rack up a huge mileage to make a Swiss
Railpass worthwhile. And
as virtually no Swiss train requires a supplement or
reservation, a railpass gives you that wonderful 'hop on, hop off'
convenience. You can check Swiss point-to-point
fares at
www.sbb.ch.
Map of Swiss routes showing which routes are
covered by a Swiss rail pass and which only give a 50%
discount for passholders.
A few other singe-country
rail passes are also available.
This is one of the best pass deals there is.
Unlimited train travel for
5 days in any 10 day period (flexi), 10 days in any 22
day period (flexi), 22 days continuous or 1
month continuous, covering almost all of Europe.
Adult or child 2nd class, adult or child 1st class,
youth (under 26) 2nd class versions are available. For
more information, see the InterRail
page.
5, 10 or 15 days unlimited
1st class train travel within one month in Greece,
Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro.
However, normal fares in these countries are already
extremely cheap, and ordinary tickets are often
cheaper.
ScanRail passes used to give unlimited train travel in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and
Finland, but were withdrawn from sale in December
2007. They have been superseded by the
new range
of InterRail passes.
Rail passes for
a grand tour of Europe...
If you
want to travel extensively across most of Europe, see the InterRail
pass
page.
Rail Europe has a pretty good system for choosing which
rail pass or combination of passes would be best for
you, depending on which countries you're visiting, how
many days actual train travel you plan to do, an how
many total days you plan to spend in each country.
Pick the Rail Europe website for where you live and use
their online pass chooser system:
If you plan to travel
extensively across most of Europe, the famous
Eurail
pass is the top-of-the-range rail pass which gives unlimited train travel in
23 participating countries, covering Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic (joined January 2009), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia (joined 1 January 2012), Slovenia, Spain, Sweden & Switzerland. It's available
in both 'Continuous' and 'Flexi' versions for varying
periods of time.
Map of rail network in the Eurail countries.
France Pass for France.
For comparison, you can check French point-to-point fares at
www.tgv-europe.com. Remember that most
long-distance French trains require a reservation before
boarding, even with a pass.
Paris Visite card: Unlimited travel on the
Paris metro, and more. Eurail passes for France
cover the national rail operator (SNCF) but not the
Paris metro.
Swiss pass
for Switzerland. The Swiss Pass is very good value and comes
highly recommended, as Swiss rail fares can be expensive.
Unlike many other railpasses these days, you don't have to rack up
a huge mileage to make a Swiss Railpass worthwhile. And
as virtually no Swiss train requires a supplement or
reservation, a railpass still gives you that wonderful 'hop on, hop off'
convenience that railpasses have lost in France, Spain
or Italy where every long-distance train now requires a
reservation. You can check Swiss point-to-point
fares at
www.sbb.ch.
Map of Swiss routes.
German Rail pass
for Germany. A good deal, as no supplements or
reservations are required on most German trains, you
just hop on and show your pass. For comparison,
you can check German point-to-point fares at
www.bahn.de, there are some amazingly cheap point-to-point
fares available if you're prepared to pre-book and
commit to a particular date and train.
Czech Flexipass for Prague & the Czech Republic.
Though Czech rail fares are very cheap anyway, so don't
buy this pass unless you're sure it will save you money.
Spain Pass for Spain. The issue here is that
every long distance train in Spain requires a
reservation and 6-10 euros supplement in
2nd class, or 10-30 euros 1st class (the
first class supplement may include an at-seat meal &
drinks). For comparison, you can check Spanish
point-to-point fares at
www.renfe.com, and the fares quoted here include the
reservation and supplement.
Portuguese Rail pass for Portugal. You can
check Portuguese point-to-point fares at
www.cp.pt.
Most Portuguese long distance trains require reservation
before boarding.
BritRail Pass for Britain.
Reservation is never compulsory on British trains, and
there are no supplements to pay, so you can always just hop
on and show your pass, making BritRail passes very easy to
use. For comparison, you can check
British point-to-point fares
using the online form
here or at
www.nationalrail.co.uk. There's advice on
understanding the different types of UK rail fare on the
UK page. For unlimited
travel on the London Underground for 3 or 7 days when
staying in London, you can get a
London Visitor Travelcard, easily bought in London at an
Underground station.
With
Eurail Selectpass you can choose any 3, 4 or
5 neighbouring countries out of the 23 European counties
in the Eurail scheme, and choose to buy either 5, 6, 8
or 10 or 15 days unlimited 1st class train travel within
any 2 month period on the national rail networks in
those countries. More on
Eurail.
For 3 or more countries, there's the
Benelux Tourrail pass covering the Netherlands,
Belgium & Luxembourg, the
Eastern
Europe pass covering Austria, Hungary, Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Poland, the
Balkan Flexipass covering Greece, Turkey, Romania,
Bulgaria, Macedonia & Serbia. ScanRail passes
(covering Denmark, Norway, Sweden & Finland) were
withdrawn in December 2007, replaced by 'Eurail
Scandinavia' passes.
The national railways participating in the Eurail scheme are
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic (which joined in
January 2009), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia (joined 1 January 2012), Slovenia, Spain, Sweden & Switzerland.
Who qualifies for a Eurail pass?
You can buy a Eurail if you live in
the USA, Canada or the rest of the Americas, Australia, New
Zealand and most of Asia and Africa. If you are a European citizen or if you
live permanently in Europe, Turkey, Russian Federation,
Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia, you cannot buy a Eurail pass, but
you qualify for an InterRail pass
instead. Eurail passes should normally be bought before
leaving your home country.
Eurail Global pass...
The original Eurail 'Global' pass is
the deluxe option, giving
unlimited 1st class train travel across all 23 participating countries for a
continuous period of either 15 days, 21 days, 1 month, 2
months or 3 months. If two of you travel together, the
'Saver' version of the Eurail pass gives you a discount.
If you are under 26 years of age, there is a cheaper 'Youth'
version of the Eurail pass which gives 2nd class travel.
If you don't want continuous
unlimited travel - for example if you will stay put for long
periods between train trips - the Eurail Flexi pass gives 10
or 15 days unlimited 1st class travel within any 2 month
period. You choose when the 2-month period starts, and
you choose which days within those 2 months you do your train
travelling. You simply write the date in one of the ten
or fifteen spaces provided on your Eurail pass each time you
want to 'spend' one of your 10 or 15 days unlimited travel.
If two of you are travelling together there's a 'Saver'
version of the Eurail Flexi pass, which gives a discount.
If you are under 26 years old there's a discounted 'Youth'
version of the Eurail Flexi pass which gives 2nd class travel.
Eurail Selectpass: 3, 4 or 5 adjoining countries...
If you don't want to tour all 23
Eurail countries you can save money by choosing a Eurail Selectpass giving either 5, 6, 8 or 10 or 15 days unlimited
1st class train travel within any 2 month period on the
national rail networks of any 3, 4 or 5 bordering countries.
Again, if two of you are travelling together there is a
discounted 'Saver' version of the Eurail Selectpass. If
you are under 26 years old there is a 'Youth' version of the
Eurail Selectpass giving 2nd class travel.
There are also special deal Eurail
passes covering just 2 or sometimes 3 countries, such as the
popular France-Italy Eurail pass, France-Spain Eurail pass or
Switzerland-Austria Eurail pass. These all work on the
'flexi' principle, of 4 or more days of free travel within an
overall 2-month period.
There is a range of single-country
Eurail passes covering just one country, all based on the
'flexi' principle of 3 or more days of free travel within an
overall 2-month period.
Before starting to use your Eurail pass,
you need to 'validate' it at any main
station when you arrive in Europe, before you get on your
first train. You do this by going to the ticket office,
where the booking clerk will enter the start date on your
pass. Your Eurail pass is then valid for the overall
pass period. See the video below about validating your
pass. It really is that simple!
Using your pass...
'Continuous' type Eurail passes are
then valid for unlimited train travel for the whole pass
validity period.
'Flexi' type Eurail
passes give you a certain number of unlimited travel days
during the overall pass validity period, which is usually 2 months
starting on the date you choose. If
the number of days is, say, 5, there will be five empty boxes
printed on your Eurail pass. On a day when you want to use one
of those 5 free days of travel, you simply write in the date
in one of those boxes in ball-point pen. You now have unlimited train
travel from midnight to midnight on that date. You do
not have to decide in advance which 5 days these will be, you
can decide as you go, simply writing the date in a box each
time you want to 'spend' a day of free travel, until
all your boxes of free travel are used up. Simple!
Unlimited travel really does mean unlimited
travel. I'm not sure which part of 'un' people don't
understand, the 'u' or the 'n'! You can take as
many trains as you like that day, you can stay on trains all
day of you really want to! Though there may be seat
reservations or small supplements to pay on certain trains,
more about that below.
The 'overnight trains leaving after
19:00' rule...
Although a Flexi pass day normally runs from
midnight to midnight, direct overnight trains leaving after 19:00 count as running the
following day, so this only uses up one day of your pass.
So for example, if you travelled on the 'Phoenix' sleeper
train from Amsterdam to Prague, leaving Amsterdam at 19:01 on August
2nd
arriving Prague 09:38 next morning, then travelled on to Cesky
Krumlov
later that day, this would only use up one day of free travel,
and the date you'd write in the box on your pass would be
August 3rd. You will need to pay the normal supplements for overnight
travel in a couchette or sleeper, see the
couchette & sleeper page.
Important:
To use this sleeper train rule, your pass validity period must
have started on or before the day the sleeper train leaves.
In other words, in this example the pass validity must have
started on or before 2 August, even though the first day
written into any of the five 'boxes' on the pass would be 3 August. Obviously with continuous passes this isn't an
issue, the rule just applies to 'Flexi' type Eurail passes.
What trains can you use with a Eurail pass?
A Eurail pass gives unlimited free
travel on all the normal scheduled train services run by the national train
operator in each of the countries it covers, although you'll
need to make a reservation and/or pay a supplement on some
trains, see the country-by-country
list below. Eurail passes also cover
the main private operators in Switzerland and a few other
countries, as shown in the country
by country guide.
Map of rail network in the Eurail countries.
You're given a small timetable
booklet with your pass. People often think that
the trains in the
booklet are the only trains you're allowed to take with your
Eurail pass. Of course not! You're allowed to use
any normal scheduled train run by the operators covered
by your pass, whether it's in that booklet or not, read the
bullet point above!
To find train
times, go to the excellent German Railways online timetable at
www.bahn.de (English selector upper right).
It covers the whole of Europe. As a general rule, any
train shown in its database can be used with an Eurail
pass when travelling within a country covered by the pass, although supplements or special fares must be paid on
some. It will also show which trains have compulsory
reservations.
Some Eurail pass agencies give out a
Eurail timetable booklet, and people sometimes think these are
the only trains they can use. Nonsense! You can
use any train operated by the national rail operators covered
by your pass, and the
booklet contains only a tiny fraction of the thousands of
trains you can use.
Eurail only covers certain
countries. For example, it does not cover the UK, Russia or Ukraine. It does not cover Eurostar
trains between Paris & London, although passholder fares
are offered.
What about supplements & reservations?
Just about every international train
in western Europe and many internal trains, require
passholders to make a reservation or pay a supplement before
boarding, see the
country-by-country guide which explains this and gives
you an idea of the cost on each route.
You can make reservations (and pay supplements) in advance
with the agency that sells you your Eurail pass (although they
may charge you a booking fee), or you can make them when
you get to Europe at station ticket offices.
What if my Eurail pass doesn't
cover a city I want to visit, such as London?
No problem, you just need to buy a
ticket to cover the section of journey within the country
that's not covered by your pass.
Prague Excursion pass:
There's no need for this any more, as the Eurail global pass
now includes Prague & the Czech
Republic as of January 2009.
Eurostar London-Paris:
Eurail doesn't cover Eurostar trains between London & Paris,
or trains within the UK. However, Eurostar offers a
passholder fare to Eurail passholders from Paris or Brussels
to and from London. To buy a Eurostar passholder fare,
click here if you're in the US or Canada,
click here if you live in Australia or NZ.
This is
often the biggest surprise for people who thought their
rail pass gave them unlimited train travel with
nothing further to pay. For example, almost all long
distance trains to, from and within France, Italy, Spain
& Portugal now require railpass holders to pay a small
surcharge of some sort and make a seat reservation
before they board the train. This doesn't mean you
shouldn't buy a railpass, but you should be aware of these supplements and factor
them into your budget and your assessment of the cost of a pass versus point-to-point tickets.
How do
you make reservations or pay supplements with your rail pass?
At the
station as you travel around: You
can make reservations and pay any supplement
or special fare at the station ticket office either in
advance or on the day of departure, normally up to half
an
hour or less before the train leaves. Just show your
rail pass at the ticket window and ask for the
reservation. Many European railway staff speak
some English, but if you don't speak the language, just write down what you want and show it to the booking
clerk. Easy! In Italy, you'll find it easier
to use the self-service ticket machines, which have a
touch screen with an English language facility, and
accept cash and credit cards - look for the 'global
pass' option when you're offered a list of fares.
In advance, either online or by phone from the agency that sells you the
rail pass:
You can make reservations when you buy your rail pass
(or after you bought it), from the same agency which
sells the pass,
though most agencies charge a booking fee and possibly
postage as well. You can make reservations to go
with a railpass online at the various Rail Europe
websites (but unfortunately not the Rail Europe's UK
website), using the 'Buy tickets' section and tick the
'I have a railpass' box. Be warned, I've come across a few cases where it was
cheaper to buy a cheap advance-purchase point-to-point
ticket online direct from the train operator as if no
pass was held and print out your own ticket, than to pay
an overseas agency for the passholder reservation charge plus their
booking fee plus postage! Here's that list of Rail
Europe websites again, to make reservations with a
railpass online:
Online direct from the train operators, either before or after buying your rail pass:
Unfortunately, most ticket selling websites
will only sell complete tickets (including a
reservation), they don't allow 'reservation only'
bookings for passholders. This notably includes the French Railways
website
www.voyages-sncf.com and the Spanish
Railways website
www.renfe.com. However, there are a couple of rail operator websites that
do allow 'reservation only' bookings to go with a rail
pass.
The German Railways website
www.bahn.de and the Italian Railways website
www.trenitalia.com allow 'reservation only bookings' if your train is a
domestic German or Italian train, or an international train
starting in Germany or Italy.
To make passholder reservations on trains to, from or
within Germany, go to
www.bahn.de.
It also works for City Night Line sleeper trains across
Germany, such as Amsterdam to or from Copenhagen,
Prague, Warsaw, Munich, or Zurich. Use the journey
planner as if you were buying a ticket. In the
search results, locate the train you want and click to
check availability. Now look for the little black
link bottom right 'book only extra charge'. It's
easy to miss! It appears on most but not all
trains. If it doesn't show up, you'll have to book
by phone or at the station.
To make passholder reservations on trains within
Italy, or on direct international trains departing from
Italy, go to
www.trenitalia.com.
Use the journey planner as if you were buying a ticket,
select the required train in the search results and
click 'continue'. Now look for the drop-down box
marked 'More fares' and select 'Global pass' in the list
of fare types. You'll now be booking a passholder
reservation.
Making a reservation
with a Eurail pass...
Making a reservation
with a Eurail pass at a station when you're in
Europe is easy, as this Eurail video shows.
The video refers to a timetable booklet supplied
with your Eurail pass: Please be aware that
the handful of trains shown in that booklet aren't
the only trains in Europe (only a tiny fraction are
shown) and they certainly aren't the only ones
you're allowed to take with your Eurail pass.
You can take any train run by the national train
operators covered by your pass, subject to paying
any required supplement or reservation charge.
Can I avoid paying a supplement?
Sometimes you can
avoid the supplement if you don't mind a slower or less
comfortable journey. For example, different types of train
may serve one route, and a
supplement may be charged only for the faster or more
comfortable ones. From Rome to
Florence there are high-speed Eurostar Italia
trains which carry a 10 euro surcharge, but on the same route there are
comfortable and reasonably-fast 'InterCity' trains with only a small 3 euro
surcharge, and finally there are 'InterRegional' trains
which are much slower and much more basic, but
there is no supplement or compulsory reservation at all. The choice between
speed and comfort or saving the supplement is
yours!
In
other cases, the only way you can avoid the supplement
is to take a succession of local trains, taking hours
longer and involving several changes of train. It
may be better to bite the bullet and pay the supplement.
To find out if there is a reasonable non-supplement
alternative, use the Europe-wide online timetable at
http://bahn.hafas.de, but change the
'means of transport' box at the bottom of the page from
'standard search' to 'without ICE/IC/EC'.
The
Thomas Cook European timetable
has train, bus & ferry times for every country in Europe
(eastern and western) plus currency and climate information.
It is definitely worth buying if you're planning an
extensive tour with a rail pass - having your own comprehensive
timetable puts you in control of your own trip, and will save you
hours in queues for station information desks or struggling
with station timetables which show only the most basic
information. It costs
around
£13.99 from the bureau de change section of any UK branch of
Thomas Cook, or you can
buy online at
www.thomascooktimetables.com (with worldwide delivery).
Alternatively, you can
buy the twice-yearly Independent Traveller's edition at
Amazon.co.uk also with shipping worldwide.
The Thomas Cook Rail Map of
Europe is easily the best and most comprehensive
map of train routes all over Europe. High speed and
scenic routes are highlighted - well worth buying to go with
your rail pass!
Buy online at Amazon
(with worldwide delivery).
The all-Europe online timetable:
You can check train times for almost any European train journey
online at
www.bahn.de. This is an
extremely useful resource for trip planning, provided by the
German Railways.
Recommended
guidebooks...
If you're planning a grand tour, I strongly recommend
investing in a
Thomas Cook European Timetable for in-depth train information,
and the relevant Lonely Planet Guide for in-depth country
information on the sights to see, places to stay, places to
eat. Alternatively, the Europe by Rail guide combines
basic train info with country information.
Which train companies in each country are covered by Eurail?
Which trains require a reservation or supplement with a Eurail
pass? How much
are the supplements?
Here is a country-by-country guide
to which train operators are covered by Eurail passes in each
country, which trains require a reservation or payment of a passholder supplement, and how much
that supplement is likely to be. It is not 100% complete,
so always check in the timetable to see if the train you want to take is
'supplement payable' or 'special fares apply' and check prices when you book.
If you can provide more accurate information,
please email me! Supplement
are generally the same whatever type of rail pass you have. You can
pay the supplement and make a reservation in your own country from the agency
that sells you the rail pass (a booking fee may be charged) or you can pay at the
ticket office before boarding the train. The supplements shown below are
per person, per journey, with any type of Eurail pass. The first class supplement is usually the same as
the 2nd class one, but is sometimes higher. For an equivalent country by
country guide for InterRail passholders, see the
InterRail pass
reservations & supplements.
Using a railpass in Austria is
easy, as reservation is only optional not mandatory on almost
all Austrian domestic daytime trains, and there are no supplements to
pay, even on Railjet trains. So you can simply hop on any train,
find an empty seat and show your pass when asked.
Overnight trains from Vienna to Bregenz
(per person): couchette in 6-bunk compartment 22 euros, couchette
in 4-bunk compartment 30 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, bed
in 2-bed sleeper 65 to 79 euros
International trains:
To Germany by IC or ICE train from Vienna, Salzburg or Innsbruck: No supplement.
To Zurich from Vienna, Salzburg or Innsbruck by
RailJet train: No
supplement, reservation optional.
To Budapest by InterCity, EuroCity or
Railjet train from Vienna or
Salzburg: No supplement. Reservation optional.
To Prague by EuroCity train from Vienna: Supplement 7 euros,
reservation compulsory.
To Florence or Rome by EuroCity train from Innsbruck: 5 euros supplement,
reservation compulsory.
To Hamburg or Berlin by overnight
train from Vienna: Couchette in 6-bunk compartment 22 euros, couchette in
4-bunk compartment 30 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, bed in
2-bed sleeper 65 to 79 euros.
To Venice or Rome by EuroNight sleeper train from Vienna:
Couchette in 6-bunk compartment 22 euros, couchette in 4-bunk
compartment 30 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, bed in 2-bed
sleeper 79 euros.
To Cologne or Hamburg by EuroNight
sleeper train from Vienna or Linz: Seat 19 euros, couchette in
6-bunk compartment 34 euros, 4-bunk couchette 42 euros, berth in 3-berth
deluxe sleeper with shower 95 euros, berth in 2-berth standard sleeper
95 euros, berth in single-berth standard sleeper 126 euros. With
1st class pass, berth in 2-berth deluxe sleeper 105 euros, berth in
single-berth deluxe sleeper 158 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
Using a railpass within
Belgium is easy, as reservation is not necessary or even possible on
Belgian domestic trains, and there are no supplements to pay, even on
Belgian InterCity trains. You can simply hop on any train, find an
empty seat and show your pass when asked.
However, you should avoid
making domestic Belgian journeys such as Brussels-Antwerp or
Brussels-Liege on the irregular international high-speed
Thalys trains, as a reservation
is required and a hefty fee payable by passholders. Use the
alternative Belgian InterCity trains for free, instead!
International trains:
Brussels to Amsterdam: No supplement or seat reservation is required on the
convenient hourly InterCity
trains. However, for the
high-speed Thalys trains
a special passholder fare applies, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com!
Brussels to Cologne: No supplement for travel on an
ICE train, but Thalys high-speed trains
charge a special passholder fare, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com!
You can avoid
Thalys by using the four daily ICE trains or by using much slower hourly local trains, changing trains at Aachen.
Brussels to Paris: Thalys high-speed train:
A special passholder fare applies, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com! You can avoid using Thalys by
taking frequent local trains from Brussels to Mons and then Mons to
Lille, then using a TGV from Lille to Paris for a seat reservation of
3-5 euros.
Local trains, 'barz' & 'patnicheski' slow trains do not require
reservations. Seat reservation is compulsory on all express trains ('Expresen'),
this costs around 0.50 euros, and can only be done when you're in
Bulgaria.
International
trains:
Reservation is
obligatory on all main international trains.
Croatia
Eurail passes are valid on:
HZ (Croatian national railways)
National trains:
A 6 euros supplement
is charged
for the premier air-conditioned ICN daytime train from Zagreb to Split.
1 euro supplement for InterCity trains Zagreb to Rijeka.
A 7 euros supplement
is charged
for SuperCity trains. No supplement on other trains.
International trains:
Prague to Vienna by EuroCity
train: 7 euros supplement, reservation compulsory.
Prague to Dresden & Berlin by EuroCity train: No supplement,
reservation optional.
Prague to
Budapest or Bratislava by EuroCity train: No supplement, reservation
optional.
Prague to Amsterdam,
Cologne, Zurich, Basel or Copenhagen by direct
City
Night Line sleeper train: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
Prague to Krakow or Warsaw by sleeper train:
10 euros per person in
6-bunk couchette, 14 euros in 4-bunk couchette, 18 euros sharing far more
comfortable 3-bed sleeper (recommended), 26 euros sharing a 2-bed sleeper
(all bookable with a 2nd class pass, a 1st class pass is only required
for single occupancy). You can check Polish
sleeper and couchette supplements online at
www.wars.pl.
The sleeper supplement includes complimentary tea/coffee and croissant.
Prague to Venice by sleeper train: Similar to City Night Line
supplements above.
30% discount on Stena Line
ferries (including Frederikshavn-Gothenburg)
50% discount on
Color Line
ferries (including Frederikshavn-Oslo).
National trains:
No supplements to
pay on any normal internal
train, including Danish InterCity trains.
International trains:
Copenhagen to Hamburg by
EuroCity ICE train:
No supplement.
Copenhagen to Stockholm by
X2000
125mph train:
supplement 7 euros, reservation compulsory.
Copenhagen to Cologne, Amsterdam or Basel by
City Night Line sleeper
train: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
30% discount on
Irish ferries
(including direct Ireland-France ferries).
National trains:
In France, railpass holders must
pay a fee and make a seat reservation to travel on almost all
long-distance trains.
TGV high-speed
trains: These run on most long distance routes, and seat reservation is
compulsory. A supplement is charged which includes the reservation
fee, 6 euros 'off-peak', 18 euros 'peak'. Places at the 6
euros rate are limited by a passholder 'quota', when that is sold out
the fee becomes 18 euros.
Téoz trains: These run on routes such as Paris-Limoges-Toulouse,
Bordeaux-Toulouse-Marseille-Nice. Seat reservation
compulsory, 3 euros reservation fee.
Lunéa overnight sleeper trains in France (per person):
Couchette in 6-bunk compartment about 20 euros, 1st class couchette in
4-berth compartment (with 1st class pass) 20 euros.
However, there is no supplement to pay or reservation required on
local or regional trains including 'TER' (Trains Express Regionaux), or 'InterCité' long
distance trains which still operate on a few routes such as
Boulogne-Paris.
International trains:
To the UK: Eurostar Paris to
London: Passholder fare about 70 euros one-way, 140 euros return. The
cheapest regular fares are cheaper than the special passholder fare, if you can commit to a particular
date & train in advance.
To Belgium, Netherlands: Thalys high-speed trains
charge a special passholder fare, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com! You can avoid using Thalys by
taking a TGV from Paris to Lille with a seat reservation charge of 3-5
euros, then hourly or so local trains from Lille Flandres to Mons and
from Mons to Brussels, or take a train direct from Lille to Bruges.
To Germany: TGV or ICE
from Paris to Munich or Frankfurt: 5 euro in 2nd class, 20 euros
in 1st class, reservation compulsory. Paris to Cologne: Thalys high-speed trains
charge a special passholder fare, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com!
Paris to Berlin, Hamburg or Munich by
City Night Line sleeper
train: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Switzerland: Lyria TGV high-speed trains from Paris to Lausanne,
Geneva, Basel, Bern & Zurich: If your pass covers both France and Switzerland, the fare is 10
euros. If your pass only covers
France, the fare is about 35-45 euros. Reservation compulsory.
To Italy by day:
Paris-Italy TGV
trains Paris-Turin-Milan: Reservation compulsory, the passholder fare
is now a massive and ridiculous £51 (55 euros) in 2nd class, £69 (75
euros) in 1st class. Passholder places
are quota-controlled. It will often cheaper to put your pass in
the waste paper bin and buy a normal ticket, as these start at just 25
euros 2nd class, 35 euros in 1st class including reservation if you
pre-book at
www.tgv-europe.com.
To Spain: A special passholder fare is charged for each type
of sleeper on the
Elipsos overnight trainhotel
from Paris to Madrid & Paris to Barcelona, for anyone
holding a pass covering either France or Spain or both. The
passholder fares are shown for each type of sleeper on the
London to Spain page. They are also quoted
on
www.elipsos.com.
It's about 72 euros for a bed in a 4-bed sleeper. Note that there
are regular advance-purchase fares without a pass for the same cost!
Also note that on Elipsos sleeper trains, whether your railpass is 1st or
2nd class is irrelevant, you can choose any type of sleeper you like and
pay the passholder fare, regardless of the class of your pass. The two daily TGVs from Paris to Figueres charge just 4 euros supplement
to passholders, although you'll need to pay another 6.50 euros or so for
the connecting train to Barcelona. The daily Talgo train from Montpellier, Narbonne & Perpignan to
Barcelona also carries a supplement, 18 euros. By all means take local trains and change at the frontier
instead!
To Portugal: There's a small supplement to pay for the TGV
Paris to Irun on the Spanish border (maybe 4-10 euros), then a supplement
for the overnight Sud Express from Irun to Lisbon: 7 euros in a
seat, 30 euros for a berth in 4-bed Turista sleeper, 62 euros for a berth in
a Preferente 2-bed sleeper, 112 euros for a single-bed sleeper, 91 euros
in a 2-bed Gran Clase sleeper with shower, or 152 euros in a single-berth
Gran Clase with shower.
This includes S-bahn (suburban) trains operated by DB in some major cities
including Berlin.
Other Eurail benefits:
-
National trains:
Using a Eurail pass in Germany
is easy, as reservation is optional not mandatory on almost
all German domestic daytime trains and there are no supplements to pay,
even on fast InterCity (IC) or high-speed
InterCityExpress (ICE) trains.
So you can simply hop on any train, find an empty seat and show your
pass when asked. The only exceptions are a tiny handful of ICE
business trains, marked in the timetable as 'reservation obligatory', on
which a seat reservation is mandatory for about 6 euros.
Reservation on German overnight trains is mandatory. A seat costs
17.50 euros, a couchette in 6-bunk compartment about 15 euros, couchette in 4-bunk
compartment about 20 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper about 45 euros, bed in
2-bed sleeper about 60 euros. If you have an Eurail pass you can
make 'reservation only' bookings for overnight trains online at
www.bahn.de/citynightline
(English button top right) and print out your own reservation in .pdf
format.
International trains:
To Paris by
Thalys high-speed trains: A special passholder fare
applies, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com!
To Paris by TGV
or ICE from Frankfurt or Munich: Supplement 5 euros in 2nd
class, 20 euros in 1st class, reservation compulsory.
To Paris by by City Night Line
sleeper train from Berlin, Hamburg or Munich: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Amsterdam by IC, EC or
ICE daytime train
from various cities:
No supplement. Reservation optional.
To Amsterdam by City Night
Line sleeper train from Munich: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Copenhagen by EuroCity ICE train from Hamburg: No supplement. Reservation
optional.
To Verona, Bologna or Venice by EuroCity from Munich: 5 euros supplement,
reservation compulsory.
To Rome or Venice by City
Night Line sleeper train from Munich: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Vienna by IC or ICE or
RailJet from various cities: No supplement. Reservation
optional.
To
Vienna by sleeper train from Hamburg or Berlin (per person): Couchette in 6-bunk compartment 21.90 euros,
couchette in 4-bunk compartment 30 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 50
euros, bed in 2-bed sleeper 65 to 79 euros.
To Vienna by EuroNight sleeper train
from Cologne or Hamburg (per person): Seat 19 euros, couchette in
6-bunk compartment 34 euros, 4-bunk couchette 42 euros, berth in 3-berth
deluxe sleeper with shower 95 euros, berth in 2-berth standard sleeper
95 euros, berth in single-berth standard sleeper 126 euros. With
1st class pass, berth in 2-berth deluxe sleeper 105 euros, berth in
single-berth deluxe sleeper 158 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Budapest from Berlin or Dresden by EuroCity: No
supplement. Reservation optional.
To Budapest from Munich
by RailJet: No supplement. Reservation optional.
To Prague from Berlin or Dresden by EuroCity: No
supplement. Reservation optional.
To Prague by by City Night
Line sleeper train from Cologne: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Warsaw by Berlin-Warszawa Express: From 4 euros, reservation
compulsory.
To Warsaw by
EuroNight Jan Kiepura sleeper train from Cologne: Seat 4 euros,
couchette in 6-bunk compartment 20 euros, couchette in 4-bunk
compartment 25
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 32 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 52 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
112
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
65 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 125 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
To Krakow by EuroCity train from Berlin: Small supplement (4 euros?), reservation
compulsory.
InterCity trains (for example Athens -Thessaloniki):
Reservation required, the cost varies from 6
euros
to 40 euros depending on distance. Patras-Athens by InterCity train
around 7 euros
supplement.
InterCity Express trains (e.g. Athens -Thessaloniki): supplement
9 euros to 33 euros depending on distance.
Greece-Italy ferries:
Eurail passes give free travel on
Blue Star &
Superfast (Attica
Group) Bari-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras, Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras, and
on
Minoan Lines
Venice-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras and Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras.
Eurail passes provide 'deck class'
travel which means a place on the ferry but with no specific seat or berth.
There is space under cover on deck to use a sleeping-bag if you have one,
and many backpackers do this. Or you can pay extra for a reclining
seat or cabin berth. Very helpfully, Minoan Lines give free travel
to Eurail flexi pass holders without requiring them to use up a 'flexi
day' of travel.
Port taxes (a few euros) must
be paid (there's no port tax on ferry routes to or from Venice).
Supplement for reclining
aircraft-style seat: About 16 euros on Superfast Ferries, 12 euros on Blue
Star Ferries.
Supplement for cabin berths: 26 to 76
euros, depending on type of
cabin.
High season supplement:
Superfast and Blue Star charge Eurail holders a summer supplement, about
16-25 euros.
No supplement to
pay for
travel on local or regional trains.
A supplement is charged for InterCity trains (2.50
euros) & InterPici trains (0.80 euros).
International trains:
Budapest to Vienna by
EuroCity, InterCity or RailJet trains: No supplement. No reservation
necessary.
Budapest to Berlin by
EuroCity train: No supplement. No reservation necessary.
Budapest to Munich by RailJet train: No supplement. No reservation
necessary.
Budapest to Munich,
Berlin or Venice by sleeper train: Couchette in 6-bunk compartment
around 18 euros, 4-bunk couchette 25 euros, berth in 4-berth sleeper 35
euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 45 euros (all approximate).
Budapest to Krakow or Warsaw by sleeper train: Couchette in 6-bunk
compartment around 16 euros, 4-bunk couchette 23 euros, berth in 4-berth
sleeper 32 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 40 euros (all approximate).
30% discount on Stena Line
Ireland-UK ferries (Dublin-Holyhead, Rosslare-Fishguard,
Belfast-Stranraer)
30% discount on Irish Ferries
Ireland-UK & Ireland-France ferries (Dublin-Holyhead, Rosslare to
Cherbourg & Roscoff, Rosslare to Pembroke)
National trains:
No supplement to
pay on
any internal trains. Seat reservation is never mandatory on any
Irish train, you can just hop on and show your pass when asked.
International trains:
No supplement on the Enterprise
Dublin-Belfast trains.
Eurail passes are not valid on the
local Circumvesuviana Railway Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento.
National trains:
There's no supplement to
pay on
local or Regional trains.
However, railpass holders must
pay a fee and make a seat reservation to travel on almost all
high-speed long-distance trains.
Eurostar Italia & Eurostar City
trains: There's a 10 euro compulsory seat reservation charge for
passholders on all high-speed Frecciarossa, Frecciargento and
Frecciabianca trains, linking Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice,
Verona, Turin. You can occasionally find an InterCity train as a
cheaper alternative between these cities, but they are far slower and
less frequent.
InterCity trains: Since
2010, railpass holders do not need to reserve a seat on InterCity
trains, and there's now no supplement. Seat reservation is
optional, cost 3 euros.
International trains:
To Switzerland by EuroCity
train: Supplement 8 euros, reservation compulsory.
To Paris by
Italy-Paris TGV
from Milan or Turin: Reservation compulsory, the passholder fare
is now a massive and ridiculous £51 (55 euros) in 2nd class, £69 (75
euros) in 1st class. Passholder places
are quota-controlled. It will often cheaper to put your pass in
the waste paper bin and buy a normal ticket, as these start at just 25
euros 2nd class, 35 euros in 1st class including reservation if you
pre-book at
www.tgv-europe.com.
To Innsbruck or Munich by EuroCity train from Verona, Venice, Bologna: 5 euros supplement,
reservation compulsory.
Rome or
Venice to Munich by City
Night Line sleeper train: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
Rome or Florence to Vienna by EuroNight sleeper train: Seat 10
euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment 20 euros, 4-bunk couchette 30
euros, berth in 4-berth sleeper 40 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 50
euros (all approximate).
Venice
to Prague or Budapest by sleeper train: Couchette in 6-bunk
compartment around 18 euros, 4-bunk couchette 25 euros, berth in 4-berth
sleeper 35 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 45 euros (all approximate).
Italy-Greece ferries:
Eurail passes give free travel on
Blue Star &
Superfast (Attica
Group) Bari-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras, Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras, and
on
Minoan Lines
Venice-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras or Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Patras.
Eurail passes provide 'deck class'
travel which means a place on the ferry but with no specific seat or berth.
There is space under cover on deck to use a sleeping-bag if you have one,
and many backpackers do this. Or you can pay extra for a reclining
seat or cabin berth. Very helpfully, Minoan Lines give free travel
to Eurail flexi pass holders without requiring them to use up a 'flexi
day' of travel.
Port taxes (a few euros) must
be paid (no port tax on Venice routes).
Supplement for reclining
aircraft-style seat: About 16 euros on Superfast Ferries, 12 euros on Blue
Star Ferries.
Supplement for cabin berths: 26 to 76
euros, depending on type of
cabin.
High season supplement:
Superfast and Blue Star charge Eurail holders a summer supplement, about
16-25 euros.
A Eurail pass also gives free travel on the
following
private local train operators who now run trains on lines that were part
of the main NS network: Veolia, Syntus, Noordnet,
Arriva, DB Regio, Prignitzer Eisenbahn.
Other Eurail pass benefits:
30% reduction on Harwich-Hoek
ferries with Stena
Line (but you may find an inclusive train&ferry ticket between London
and Amsterdam better value and easier to book,
see the Netherlands page).
25% reduction on
Amsterdam-Newcastle DFDS ferry, see
www.dfdsseaways.com/railpass. Only bookable online, no discount
in Commodore Class.
National trains:
Using a railpass within the
Netherlands is easy, as reservation is not necessary or even possible on
Dutch domestic trains, and there are no supplements to pay, even on
InterCity trains. You can simply hop on any train, find an empty
seat and show your pass when asked.
However, you should avoid
making domestic Dutch journeys such as Amsterdam to Rotterdam on the
irregular international high-speed
Thalys trains, as a reservation is required and a hefty fee payable
by passholders. Use the alternative Dutch InterCity trains for
free, instead!
International trains:
Amsterdam to Brussels by hourly ordinary InterCity train: No supplement to pay,
seat reservation is unnecessary and not even possible on these trains, you
turn up and hop on, show your Eurail pass when asked.
Amsterdam to Brussels & Paris
by Thalys high-speed train:
A special passholder fare applies, a whopping 39
euros in 2nd class, a massive 62 euros in 1st class. The 39 euro
passholder fare is only 6 euros less than the cheap fare you can buy
without a pass at
www.thalys.com!
Amsterdam to Germany (Berlin,
Cologne, Frankfurt & so on) by IC or ICE train: No supplement, reservation optional.
Amsterdam to Zurich, Munich,
Prague or Copenhagen by
City Night Line sleeper
train: Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
Amsterdam to Warsaw by
EuroNight Jan Kiepura sleeper train: Seat 4 euros, couchette in
6-bunk compartment 20 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 25
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 32 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 52 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
112
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
65 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 125 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
No supplements to pay on any normal
Norwegian internal train.
Seat
reservations optional on long-distance trains, 6.30 euros per seat.
Oslo to Stockholm by IC train: 3 euros supplement, reservation
compulsory.
Oslo-Stockholm by
sleeper train: Seat 3 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartments 10
euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 16 euros, bed in 2-bed sleeper 30 euros (all
approximate).
Poland
Not covered by Eurail
global pass.
But Eurail Poland &
Eurail German-Poland passes are valid on:
Warsaw to Berlin by 'Berlin-Warszawa Express': supplement
from 4 euros if your pass covers both Germany and Poland. Special
reduced fare charged if your pass covers just Germany or just Poland.
Krakow to Berlin by EuroCity:
Small supplement to be paid (4 euros?), reservation compulsory.
Warsaw or Krakow to Vienna or
Prague by EuroCity train: Small supplement to be paid (4 euros?),
reservation compulsory.
Krakow-Prague,
Krakow-Budapest, Warsaw-Budapest, Warsaw-Berlin by sleeper train: 14 euros for a
couchette in a
6-bunk couchette, 18 euros for a couchette in a 4-bunk couchette, 18 euros
for a bed in a much more
comfortable 3-berth sleeper (recommended), 26 euros for a bed in a 2-bed
sleeper (also recommended), all those bookable with a 2nd class pass, 1st
class is only required for single occupancy. You can check Polish
sleeper and couchette supplements online at
www.wars.pl.
The sleeper supplement includes complimentary tea/coffee and croissant.
Warsaw to Amsterdam or Cologne by EuroNight Jan Kiepura sleeper train:
Seat 4 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment 20 euros, couchette in 4-bunk
compartment 25
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 32 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 52 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
112
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
65 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 125 euros. Book
at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
No supplement to
pay on
local or InterRegional trains.
InterCity trains (for example Lisbon - Faro): supplement 4 euros,
including compulsory seat reservation.
Alfa Pendular fast tilting trains Lisbon - Porto:
supplement 8 euros, including compulsory seat reservation.
International trains:
Lisbon-Madrid:
Special passholder fares apply for the 'Lusitania' trainhotel
Lisbon-Madrid: With a Eurail pass:
Seat 7 euros, 4-berth sleeper 30 euros, 2-berth sleeper 49 euros, 1-berth
sleeper 89 euros.
Lisbon-Paris: Supplement for the Sud Express from Lisbon to
Hendaye (for TGV to Paris): 7 euros in a seat, 30 euros for a berth in
4-bed Turista sleeper, 62 euros for a berth in
a Preferente 2-bed sleeper, 112 euros for a single-bed sleeper, 91 euros
in a 2-bed Gran Clase sleeper with shower, or 152 euros in a single-berth
Gran Clase with shower. A small
supplement is also payable for the TGV from Hendaye to Paris, maybe 4-10
euros.
InterCity trains require a
supplement, between 3 to 18 euros
depending on distance, and seat reservation is compulsory on all long
distance trains.
International trains:
Reservation is compulsory on all international trains from Romania.
Couchette supplement Bucharest-Budapest about 10 euros, Bucharest-Istanbul
about 6 euros. Sleeper supplement for bed in 3-bed sleeper
Bucharest-Budapest about 18 euros, Bucharest-Istanbul about 12 euros.
There is no longer any Eurail discount on Trasmediterranea ferries to
Ibiza or Majorca, or to Morocco. However, normal fare tickets for
these ferries can be booked at the Seat61 Ferry
Shop.
National trains:
Rail fares in
Spain are very cheap, but if you have an Eurail pass, every
Spanish long-distance train
requires you to make a reservation and pay a supplement, and even most
shorter distance regional trains require a seat reservation.
It's safest to assume that the only trains in Spain which don't
require at least a seat reservation are suburban trains ('cercanias')
around the big cities.
AVE and Talgo200 high speed trains (Madrid to Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz,
Malaga): Supplement 10 euros in 2nd class or 24 euros in 1st class
(includes meal in 1st class).
EuroMed
(Barcelona-Valencia-Alicante), Alvia (Madrid-Barcelona), Alaris
(Madrid-Valencia), Altaria (e.g. Madrid-Algeciras) trains: 6.50 euros
supplement in 2nd class or 24 euros in 1st class (includes meal in 1st class).
Most other long distance trains
(Talgo, Arco) charge a supplement, about 6.50 euros in 2nd class or 10 euros
in 1st class.
Unusually, even
many shorter-distance regional trains in Spain such as those classified 'TRD'
(Regional Diesel Train) require a seat reservation, 3 or 4 euros seat
reservation fee payable.
Elipsos overnight hotel trains
from Madrid to Paris, Barcelona to Paris,
Barcelona to Zurich, Barcelona to Milan: Special passholder fares
are charged to anyone holding a pass
covering at least one of the countries travelled through: See the
fares shown on the
London to Spain page or see
www.elipsos.com.
Note that on Elipsos sleeper trains, whether your railpass is 1st or 2nd
class is irrelevant, you can choose any type of sleeper you like and pay
the passholder fare, regardless of the class of your pass.
A supplement is charged for the daily Talgo train from Barcelona to
Perpignan, Narbonne & Montpellier, 18
euros.
'Lusitania' trainhotel
Madrid to Lisbon with a Eurail pass:
Seat 7 euros, 4-berth sleeper 30 euros, 2-berth sleeper 49 euros, 1-berth
sleeper 89 euros.
30% discount on Stena Line
ferries (including Gothenburg-Frederikshavn in Denmark)
National trains:
A supplement
is charged
for travel on 125mph X2000 tilting trains (for example,
Stockholm to Gothenburg or Malmö): about 7
euros in 2nd class or 17 euros in 1st class with 1st class pass (includes
a
light meal in 1st class).
Night train
supplements within Sweden (per person): Seat 3 euros, couchette in
6-bunk compartments 10 euros, bed in 3-bed sleeper 16 euros, bed in 2-bed sleeper
30 euros.
International trains:
Stockholm to Copenhagen by X2000:
Supplement 7 euros in 2nd class, 17 euros in 1st class.
Stockholm to Oslo by IC train: 3 euros supplement, reservation
compulsory.
Eurail passes also give free travel on these private
Swiss railways:
AB Appenzeller Bahnen AG
ASM Aare Seeland mobil AG
BDWM Transport AG
BLS AG (Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon)
BLT Baselland Transport AG
CJ Chemins de Fer du Jura
FART Regional lines Ticino, including the Centovalli railway to
Domodossola (Italy)
FB Forchbahn AG
FW Frauenfeld-Wil-Bahn AG
LEB Chemins de Fer Lausanne-Echallens-Bercher
MBC Chemin de fer Bière-Apples-Morges
MOB Montreux Oberland Bernois
MVR Transports Montreux-Vevey-Riviera
NStCM Chemin de Fer Nyon-St. Cergue-Morez
RA RegionAlps Martigny - Orsières / Le Chable
RBS Regionalverkehr Bern- Solothurn
RhB Rhätische Bahn AG (including RhB-Bus Tirano-Lugano)
SOB Südostbahn
SSIF Società subalpina di emprese ferroviarie
SZU Sihltal - Zürich - Uetliberg
THURBO AG
TMR Transports de Martigny et sa Regions
TPC Transports Public du Chablais SA
TPF Transports public fribourgeois
TRAVYS SA
TRN Transports régionaux neuchâtelois
WB Waldenburgerbahn
WSB Wynental- und Suhrentalbahn
ZB Zentralbahn AG
Eurail pass holders get 25%
or 50%
discount on these other private railway & bus services:
Using a Eurail pass in
Switzerland is easy, as there are no supplements to
pay and seat reservations are not required for any journey wholly within
Switzerland. This includes travelling on international
TGV-Lyria and
ICE trains on the Swiss part of
their journey, where they normally form part of the regular-interval
Swiss domestic train service. You just hop on any train, find an
empty seat and show your pass when asked.
The only exception to this is
that a seat reservation is required and a
supplement (CHF 10-20) is payable on one or two narrow-gauge
tourist-orientated panoramic
trains, such as the famous Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz,
the Bernina Express from Chur & St Moritz to Tirano
or Golden Pass Panoramic trains from Montreux to Zweisimmen.
Note that Eurail
passes only
give free travel on the RhB section of the Glacier Express route
(Disentis-Chur-St Moritz), you'll need to buy a ticket for the MGB
(Zermatt-Brig-Disentis) section. Youth passholders get 50% discount
on MGB, but adult & child passholders must pay full fare. Both
ticket and Glacier Express supplement can be bought before boarding the
train, at any Swiss station.
International trains:
To Milan by daytime EuroCity trains from
Zurich, Basel, Bern, Luzern, Lugano, Geneva: Supplement
8 euros.
To Innsbruck, Salzburg & Vienna
by Railjet train:
No supplement or reservation necessary.
To
Germany by IC & ICE trains: No supplement or reservation necessary.
To Paris by
Lyria TGV high-speed trains from
Zurich, Basel, Lausanne, Bern & Geneva:
Special passholder fares charged, about 10 euros.
City Night Line sleeper
train sleeper train from Zurich or Basel to Amsterdam, Prague,
Berlin or Hamburg (per person): Seat 17.50 euros, couchette in 6-bunk compartment
27.50 euros, couchette in 4-bunk compartment 37.50
euros,
berth in 3-bed sleeper 50 euros, berth in 2-berth sleeper 70 euros, berth in single-berth sleeper
110
euros (all bookable with a 2nd class pass). With 1st class pass, berth in 2-berth sleeper with shower
70 euros, berth in single-bed sleeper with shower 110 euros. Book at
www.bahn.de (do an enquiry on the journey planner, locate
the direct sleeper train, click to check availability as if you were
going to buy a normal ticket, then look for the 'Book only extra charge'
link at the bottom and on the next page select 'Pass offer').
It's
easy to book hotels online to go with your rail pass, but there are almost too many hotel booking websites
to choose from! I recommend these sites
to
find a hotel in most European countries:
Hotels Combined. This isn't a hotel booking site, but
a free search tool that checks all the other sites, saving you
hours on the internet going round in circles.
www.hotelscombined.com
is probably the best hotel search system I've seen, a free search tool
which checks all the main hotel booking sites (Opodo, Expedia,
Booking.com, Hotels.com, AsiaRooms, Travelocity, LateRooms and
others) to find the cheapest hotel rates. Set up in
2005, it's probably the best place to start for booking any
hotel online in any country, worldwide.
www.tripadvisor.com is a huge resource, and a good place
to browse independent travellers' reviews of all the main hotels.
www.booking.com is my own preferred hotel booking system
(Hotels Combined being a booking site comparison system). It
has a simple interface, a good selection in most countries
worldwide, useful online customer reviews of each hotel, and
decent prices, usually shown inclusive of unavoidable extras
such as taxes (a pet hate of mine is systems that show one
price, then charge you another!).
www.venere.com has an especially good range for hotels and
guesthouses in Italy, as they are an Italian-based company. On this site, the price you see is the price you pay, no
hidden extras, and you simply pay the hotel when you get
there. After you've booked, you can change or cancel
your reservation in line with the hotel's own change and
cancellation policy.
Budget backpacker hostels...
www.hostelbookers.com: If you're on a tight budget,
don't forget about the hostels. Hostelbookers allows
online booking of dorm beds or ultra-cheap private rooms in backpacker
hostels in most European cities at budget prices.
Never travel without insurance from a
reliable travel insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover loss of
cash (up to a limit) and belongings, and cancellation. An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year (I have an annual policy myself).
Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed
connection, but European international rail conditions of
carriage (known as the 'CIV') contain consumer protection
provisions that entitle you to travel forward by the next
available train if you miss a connection because of a delay to
the first train, irrespective of who operates which train, and
even if your ticket is in theory train-specific and
non-changeable.
Feedback from using
insurance for rail & ferry travel is always welcome. Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.
If you're a
UK citizen travelling in Europe, you should apply for a free
European Health Insurance Card, which entitles you to free or
reduced rate health care if you become ill or get injured in
many European countries, under a reciprocal arrangement with
the NHS. This replaced the old E111 forms
as from January 2006. The EHIC card is available from
www.ehic.org.uk. It doesn't remove the need for
travel insurance, though.
Get a spare credit card, one designed for foreign travel with no currency
exchange loading & low or no ATM fees...
It costs nothing to take out an extra credit card.
If you keep it in a different part of your luggage so you're
not left stranded if
your wallet gets stolen, this is a form of extra travel insurance in itself. In addition,
some credit cards are significantly better for
overseas travel than others. Martin Lewis's
www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money explains which
UK credit cards
have the lowest currency exchange commission loadings when you buy something
overseas, and the lowest cash withdrawal fees when
you use an ATM abroad. Taking this advice
can save you quite a lot on each trip compared to using your
normal high-street bank credit card! You can save money on ATM charges and exchange rates using a
Caxton FX euro currency Visa Card, or indeed the
multi-currency 'Global Traveller' Visa Card,
find out about these cards & sign up here.
Get an international SIM card
to save on mobile data and phone calls...
Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, and if you're
not careful you can return home to find some huge bills
waiting for you. I've known people run up over £1,000 in
data charges just by leaving their iPhone connected during a
simple trip to Europe. However, if you
buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone from a company
such as
www.Go-Sim.com you can slash the cost by up to 85% and
limit any damage to the amount you have pre-paid. Go-Sim
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
when you get home. It also allows cheap data access for laptops
& PDAs. A Go-Sim account and any credit on it doesn't
expire if it's not used between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.
You can buy these rail passes if
you live in the UK or another European country, or can prove
you have been resident in a European country for more than 6
months. If you
live overseas, for example in the USA, Canada, Australia, or
New Zealand, see the
This is the range of rail passes available if you live outside Europe,
for example, in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
India or Singapore.
