Eurail or Interrail?

Before we start, which of Europe's two great railpass ranges applies to you?

  If you live in Europe including the UK you qualify for Interrail, so hop over to the Interrail page.

  If you live in America, Australasia, Asia or Africa you qualify for a Eurail pass, read on.

Introducing Eurail passes

Eurail is the railpass range for overseas visitors, giving unlimited train travel across most of Europe with a Eurail global pass, or in the country of your choice with a Eurail single-country pass.  This page talks you through buying & using a pass, and whether a pass or point-to-point tickets is best.

  Eurail map showing train routes in participating countries.

  Eurail reservations guide:  Which trains are covered by Eurail? Which trains need a reservation? How much are reservations? How to make reservations online

Useful train travel information

  General information for train travel in Europe

  Where to buy cheap point-to-point tickets

  1st class versus 2nd class

  Luggage on trains & luggage storage at stations

  Sleepers & couchettes explained

Trains, buses, flights or hire car?

Whether you use a Eurail pass or buy point-to-point tickets, the train is the best way to tour Europe, relaxed, in comfort, seeing a lot in a short time.  It's not just transportation, train travel is part of the European way of life, the journeys are an experience and in some cases a highlight of your trip.  A Eurail pass gives you freedom & flexibility, or you can buy cheap point-to-point train tickets by booking in advance, just as you would with a budget airline.

Speed & practicality European trains link almost every city & town at up to 200 mph, often faster than flying as there's no trek to the airport, no 2-hour check-in, no airport security hassle.  A '1 hour flight' takes 4 hours.  Paris-Amsterdam takes 3h20 by train, Paris-Geneva 3h05.		Comfort & time to chill out Unlike flying, train travel is relaxed & hassle-free.  Unlike bus travel it's high comfort.  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 Zurich to Prague or Paris to Venice, 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 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, feet up & glass of wine to hand.

Things to consider

• In Europe, cars and city centres don't mix

  Hiring a car is a great way to explore the countryside, but to visit cities such as Paris, Rome, Prague, Barcelona or Budapest, hiring a car is a big mistake.  It's not like driving in the States.  In overcrowded Europe, driving on busy motorways is tedious.  European cities are congested, parking non-existent or expensive.  There may be fines for entering traffic-free zones.  Some car hire companies won't let their cars cross borders, others charge prohibitive fees for one-way cross-border rentals.

• A 1-hour flight takes 4 hours

  With the bus or train to the airport, 2-hour check-in, flight, more airport hassle then another bus, train or taxi into town, a 1-hour flight takes 4 hours.  And you miss out on the experience:  The train lets you chill out, read, chat, work, meet people and experience Europe - it can even be a highlight of your trip.  If you fly you must factor in the extra cost of airport transfers & baggage fees. And short-haul flights cause disproportionate environmental damage.

• Long distance buses are usually the poor man's choice

  Buses travel on ugly motorways which spoil the scenery they pass through.  A 3-hour train ride at 186 mph with hourly departures might be an 8-hour endurance test by bus with 2 departures per day.  You're stuck in a bus seat, no restaurant or cafe-bar and at night you sleep slumped in a seat.  Unlike trains, you may not be allowed to bring your own food & drink, let alone alcohol such as a nice beer or glass of wine.  Avoid!

• Relax by train, city centre to city centre

  The rail network covers almost every town & city, with a range of departures every day.  Trains run at up to 320 km/h (199 mph), faster than flying for journeys such as London to Paris (2h20), Paris to Amsterdam (3h20), Paris to Geneva (3h05), Barcelona to Madrid (2h30) or Rome to Venice (3h45).  Even Paris-Barcelona (6h30) is better by train, with great scenery compared to 5 hours of RER train, airport, flight, airport, then metro.  Sleeper trains are an experience, covering huge distances while you sleep, such as Amsterdam-Vienna, Zurich-Prague or Prague-Krakow, saving a hotel bill & avoiding the 4 or 5 daytime hours wasted by flying.  Trains are low-hassle, low stress, with loads of legroom, you can wander to the bar or restaurant.  Or bring your own picnic and bottle of wine or beer, it's allowed on most trains!

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What is a Eurail pass?

• Eurail is the brand name for the range of railpasses offered to overseas visitors giving unlimited travel on trains run by the national rail operators and various other train operators in 33 European countries, see the list of participating countries below or see the Eurail map.

• Eurail is not a train operator and there no special 'Eurail' trains.  You use the regular scheduled trains run by the participating train operators, the same trains we Europeans travel on.

• The participating train operators have set up a small Eurail management company to manage both the Eurail & Interrail schemes, based in Utrecht in the Netherlands.  They run the official Eurail website www.eurail.com.  As it happens, I've been there to discuss scheme improvements with them, nice people!

• You can choose a pass giving unlimited travel for various periods of time on the national rail networks of all 33 participating countries (Eurail global pass) or just one of those countries (Eurail one-country pass).  The different types of Eurail pass are explained here.

• On many trains you can just hop on and show your pass, but on many long-distance & high-speed trains others you must pay a small fee to make a seat reservation.  You also need to pay for sleeping berths on overnight trains.  The cost of reservations and how to make them is shown on the Eurail & Interrail reservations page.

• To understand how Eurail passes work, which trains they cover and how reservations work, see how a Eurail pass works. 

• There are a handful of other railpasses worth knowing about as they are sometimes better value than Eurail, for example the Swiss Pass, Trenitalia Pass & Renfe Spain Pass.  These non-Eurail passes are explained here.

Who qualifies for a Eurail pass?

• You can buy a Eurail pass if you are resident outside Europe, for example in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Asia or Africa.

• If you live in Europe or in Turkey, Russian Federation, Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia you cannot buy a Eurail pass, you qualify for the Interrail pass range instead.  Interrail passes cover exactly the same countries & trains as Eurail, with the same fees for the same reservations, so an American and a British traveller can easily travel together, one using a Eurail pass, the other an Interrail pass.

• Over recent years Eurail passes for overseas visitors and Interrail passes for European residents have converged.  Pass types & prices are now identical.  The way the Eurail & Interrail passes operate in terms of trains covered and the need for (and cost of) reservations is identical.

Which countries participate in Eurail?

• The countries participating in the Eurail pass scheme are:

  Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia (new from 2020), Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia (new from 2020), Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey & (new in 2019) the United Kingdom. 

  Eurail does not cover Albania, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia or Moldova.

• Map of countries participating in the Eurail scheme.

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Eurail pass types explained

It's quite simple:  There are One-country or Global Eurail passes, in 1st or 2nd class, for each age group, adult, youth, senior & child.

Who's going?

• Adult - self explanatory.

• Senior - for anyone aged over 60 on the first day of pass validity, at 10% less than the adult price.

• Youth - for anyone aged under 28 on the first day of pass validity (raised from under 26 in 2017).

• Child - for kids under 12.  Children 4-11 inclusive get a free Eurail pass when accompanying someone on an Adult pass, although they still need to pay reservation fees.  On some retailer's website this is shown as 'family'.  You have to buy an Adult pass to get the free Child passes, you can't get them if you buy a Youth or Senior pass.

• Infants - children aged under 4 travel free on trains anyway and don't need any pass, nor do they pay any reservation fees.  In some countries the age limit for infants is 5 or even 6, so don't pay if you don't have to, see the age limits for each European country here.

Where are you going?

• A Eurail Global pass covers all 33 participating countries, see the list or see map of rail network in the Eurail countries.

• A Eurail Single-Country pass covers just the country of your choice, it's cheaper than buying a global pass covering all countries.  A Eurail single-country pass exists for each participating country except Switzerland (for Switzerland, use a Swiss Travel Pass instead).  There's a Eurail Scandinavia pass covering all the Nordic countries.

How long for?

• You can buy Eurail passes giving unlimited train travel for various periods of time.  You need to get your head around two different concepts:

• Continuous passes give unlimited travel every day for a continuous period of time, either 15 days, 22 days or 1, 2 or 3 months, starting on any date you like.  These give the ultimate in freedom and flexibility, but to make them worthwhile you need to be on a train every day or two.

• Flexi passes are more economical if you plan to stay put for a number of days between travelling.  You can buy a Flexi pass giving 4, 5 or 7 days travel within an overall 1 month period, or giving 10 or 15 days travel within an overall 2 month period.

  It's best explained with an example:  In February, you buy a 5-days-in-1-month pass.  There's no need to decide on travel dates when you buy it, you can activate it any date in the following 11 months.  Later, you decide you'll use the first of your 5 travel days on 10 July.  You activate the pass on 10 July, giving unlimited travel from midnight to midnight that day.  The overall 1 month period starts ticking, you can now 'spend' each of the remaining 4 travel days on any dates you like between 10 July & 9 August.  You could use them on the 12 July, 24 July, 2 August & 9 August or whatever, activating each travel date as you need it - no need to decide in advance.  Got it?

1st or 2nd class?

• You can choose 1st or 2nd class with any pass type.

• 2nd class is absolutely fine, it's the way we Europeans normally travel, unless the Company is paying!  Many local trains are 2nd class only, and on many sleeper trains you can access all accommodation types (even deluxe sleepers with toilet & shower) with only a 2nd class pass plus the relevant sleeper supplement.

• But 1st class seating is available on most longer-distance trains and if you can afford it, 1st class is obviously nicer, with wider, plusher seats, more legroom.  In 1st class there are usually more businessmen tapping on laptops and fewer families with kids.  Don't assume 1st class gets you any food or drink or free limo transfers or complimentary massages, this is not an airline.  Your default assumption should be that 2nd class seating is nice, 1st class seating is nicer, and it's normally just the nicer seating with fewer people per car that you're paying for when you go 1st class.  Sometimes a 1st class pass will get you into a first class lounge at a station, but more often than not it won't.

• What's the difference between 1st & 2nd class?  That may help you decide!

Other railpasses

• As well as the large and well-known Eurail pass range, several countries do their own non-Eurail pass, which can be worth checking.  This includes the Swiss Travel Pass for Switzerland (as there is no one-country Eurail pass for that country), the Renfe Spain Pass which is worth considering as a better bet than the Eurail one-country pass for Spain.  I've summed these passes up here.

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Eurail pass prices

They're priced in euros, but you can buy in your own currency.  You can check prices and buy online at the Eurail website www.eurail.com or at www.raileurope.com.  As I write this, 1 USD = €0.88, 1 AUD = €0.61.  Check current exchange rates.

You can check one-country pass prices at www.eurail.com or www.raileurope.com

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• There's no magic answer

  Why?  Because in the 21st century, European point-to-point train fares vary like air fares, cheap in advance, expensive at short notice or on popular days or dates.  Just like flights!

  The cost of a Eurail pass also varies, depending whether it's adult, senior or youth, and whether it's for a shorter or longer period.  Longer period passes are better value as the cost-per-day is lower.

  The only way to know for sure is to go online and check current point-to-point prices for your specific dates for each journey you plan to make, add them up and compare to the price of a Eurail pass, remembering to factor in the cost of any necessary passholder reservation fees.

  You can check point-to-point prices by selecting the starting city here, I'll tell you which website to use to check fares for that specific route.

  But it's not all about price, it's also about flexibility.  This example may help:

• How much is a point-to-point ticket?

  Assume you plan to go from Prague to Berlin:

  - €18.99 is the cheapest possible advance-purchase fare, price varies like air fares, specified train only, no changes, no refunds.

  - €82.50 is the fully-flexible fare which can be bought on the day, unlimited availability, good for any train.

  Assume that a few days later you plan to go from Berlin to Amsterdam:

  - €37.99 is the cheapest possible advance-purchase fare, price varies like air fares, specified train only, no changes, no refunds.

  - €139.99 is the fully-flexible fare which can be bought on the day, unlimited availability, good for any train.

• How much is a Eurail pass?

  If you divide the pass cost by the number of days travel, you get a cost-per-day.  The longer the pass duration, the cheaper the cost-per-day:

  - €64 per day using a 5-days-in-1-month Eurail global pass (5-day price divided by 5)

  - €45 per day using a 10-days-in-2-months Eurail global pass (10-day price divided by 10)

  Or if you're aged under 28 and can buy a youth pass:

  - €48 per day using a 5-days-in-1-month youth Eurail global pass.

  - €34 per day using a 10-days-in-2-months youth Eurail global pass.

  A pass gives you unlimited travel, so you can use any train you like, as if you'd bought the fully-flexible ticket.  Better, as you could go up & down on trains between Prague & Berlin all day if you wanted, or carry on beyond Berlin to Cologne or Hamburg.

• So is a pass cheaper?

  No, point-to-point advance-purchase tickets are cheaper, it's not a trick question!  Prague-Berlin from €18.99, Berlin-Amsterdam from €37.99.

  And easiest too, easy to buy online at the German Railways website and show on your phone.  Click, click, booked!

  So if you're only planning 2, 3 or maybe 4 such trips on fixed dates, your accommodation is pre-booked and you're happy to commit to specific trains 2-3 months in advance on a no-refunds, no-changes basis, then advance-purchase tickets are usually cheapest & easiest.

• But at short notice or on popular dates, a pass might save money

  Remember these are the cheapest possible advance-purchase fares.  On your date, prices may be higher, especially at popular times of year.  And if you need to go tomorrow or next week so cannot book months in advance, a pass can be cheaper than short-notice point-to-point fares.

• A Eurail pass makes sense if you value flexibility

  Even when it costs more than advance-purchase tickets, a pass may still make sense because it is flexible.  It's significantly cheaper than the fully-flexible fare for most longer-distance journeys.

  With an advance-purchase ticket you're nailing your plans to the floor months in advance.  Trading up to a pass gives you the freedom to travel when you want, or even decide not to go to Prague after all, but to Vienna instead.  A Eurail pass gives unlimited travel all day, so you can make additional journeys the same day, before or after this one.

• For extensive itineraries, a pass is better

  For extensive itineraries, using a stack of advance-purchase point-to-point tickets might be cheaper, but it's risky.  If a flood, fire, strike or landslide knocked out one journey, the rest of the trip could come crashing down like a house of cards as advance-purchase tickets become worthless if you miss the train.  A Eurail pass gives you the flexibility to re-plan, re-schedule or even re-route as necessary.

  Mrs 61 and I once travelled from my in-laws in the Netherlands to Italy using passes.  The day before our return, a train crash in Belgium blocked our planned route, Milan-Paris-Rotterdam.  But with our passes we easily re-routed via Milan-Zurich-Cologne-Rotterdam.

• But avoid using use a pass for short hops

  Vienna to Bratislava costs only €11 or so, Florence to Pisa only €9, even bought on the day.

  It'd be cheaper to buy a 4-days-in-1-month pass plus a point-to-point ticket for a short hop like this, than to pay an extra €50 for a 5-days-in-1-month pass.  Common sense, surely?

• Remember to factor in the passholder reservation fees

  The point-to-point fares you see online always include any necessary reservation.  If you use a pass, you may have to pay a reservation fee in addition to the cost of the pass.  Here's a rule of thumb:

  In France, Italy, Spain, reckon on a €10+ reservation fee for every train other than purely local ones, in addition to the cost of the pass.

  However, in Benelux, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark & most of eastern & central Europe, there are usually no fees to pay (unless you want a sleeping berth), you can just board a train, sit in any empty unreserved seat, and show your pass to the conductor.  That's a generalisation, but even if a seat reservation is required in these countries it's typically €2 - €5, the same as any other ticket-holder would pay.

  The Prague-Berlin & Amsterdam-Berlin examples above usually involve no reservation fee, unless you choose to reserve a seat.

  You need to pay a passholder fare to use Eurostar between London & Paris, Lille, Brussels or Amsterdam.  This costs €30 in 2nd class or €38 if you have a 1st class pass, see Eurostar passholder information.

  On overnight sleeper trains you need to pay for a sleeping-berth, perhaps €39 for a couchette or €100 for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper.

  See a list of Eurail reservation requirements & costs in each country.

My advice, without doing the maths

• You must decide if you want freedom & flexibility, or are happy to commit to specific trains well in advance.  It's a 4-way decision:

  (1)  Buy a Eurail pass for unlimited flexible travel, remembering that a reservation fee must be paid for certain trains;

  (2)  Buy full-flex point-to-point tickets as you go - cheap for short hops, expensive for longer distances;

  (3)  Buy cheap advance-purchase tickets direct from the operator, limited or no refunds or changes to travel plans allowed;

  (4)  Mix & match these options:  Combine a Eurail pass with regular tickets for short hops or pre-planned longer journeys.

  It's risky to generalise, but I'll have a go, for those without the patience to do the maths.

• For a few short train rides

  Don't buy a pass!  Nice to Cannes is €5, Florence to Pisa €9.  A railpass is overkill for a few short local journeys.  Obvious, I hope.

• For 2, 3 or even 4 long train rides where your dates are known & fixed

  Don't buy a pass!  If you can book 2-3 months ahead, have a fixed itinerary with all your accommodation pre-booked, the cheapest option is to commit to specific trains on a no-refunds-no-changes-to-travel-plans basis using advance-purchase point-to-point tickets bought direct from the relevant operator, following my route-specific advice here.

  If you don't really need the unlimited train rides, unlimited distance and unlimited flexibility of a pass, you can save a lot of money this way.

  Just remember that if you need to travel tomorrow with all the advance fares sold out, a pass could still be cheaper.

  Overseas travel agents often don't know about these cheap advance-purchase train fares, and overseas agency sites often can't access the cheap fares for every route.  For example, the ONLY website that can sell those €21 tickets from Prague to Budapest is the official Czech Railways website - I say again, follow my route-specific advice here!

• For a few long train rides where you DON'T want to nail your plans to the floor

  Cheap advance-purchase tickets commit you to specific dates & trains with limited or no changes to travel plans allowed.  A pass may well save money over longer-distance full-flex fares bought at the station, if you travel far enough each day, even if it costs more than cheap advance-purchase fares.

• For an extensive itinerary with many train rides covering several weeks

  For a longer trip, say several weeks exploring every major city in Europe or a very long journey such as London to Istanbul, I'd buy a railpass even if advance-purchase fares were cheaper.  A Eurail pass allows you to flex your dates, trains and routes as necessary.

• If you're under 28 years old, consider a pass

  The youth Eurail pass compares well with even the cheapest advance-purchase fares.  For one or two or three specific journeys, I'd still buy advance-purchase tickets, but for anything more than that consider the pass.  Even if it costs a few euros more, the extra flexibility is worth it, giving you the ability to change your mind or divert via another route or train if something goes wrong with one leg of the itinerary.  Incidentally, the age limit for Youth passes changed in 2017, anyone under 28 now qualifies for a youth pass, previously it was under 26.

• If you've kids under 12, consider a pass

  The free Eurail passes for children under 12 may swing the balance towards buying a pass, even for a pre-planned itinerary.  Now you really have to do the maths, as shown in the next section.

• You can mix-and-match a pass with point-to-point tickets

  For example, for 11 days of train travel in Europe, it's cheaper to buy a 10-day Eurail pass plus one point-to-point ticket for the shortest/cheapest of all your train rides, than to buy the next size up, a 15-day pass.  Or if the start of your trip is known and fixed, but you want to stay flexible for the rest, you could buy a cheap ticket for the first journey or two, then use a railpass.  And if your plan includes a few short local hops, use point-to-point tickets for those, and buy a cheaper pass with fewer unlimited travel days to cover the longer journeys.

• To sum up

  Perhaps you came to this page thinking that railpasses save money, but these days they often don't.  It's more accurate to think of them as trading up to affordable go-as-you-please flexibility.  Stands to reason, really.  A pass giving unlimited flexible travel all over Europe ought to cost more than a cheap budget ticket for a specific route & train booked two months in advance.

Typical Eurail pass example:  Rome - Florence - Venice

• Eurail passes only make financial sense for Italy if you plan to travel a significant distance every day, or perhaps make two medium-distance trips every day, which few people do.

• I find people typically go from Naples to Rome, then Rome to Florence, then Florence to Venice, then perhaps Venice to Milan or Cinque Terre, 1 trip per day.  Even at the full-flex Base fare bought on the day, this doesn't justify a Eurail pass once you add the €13 passholder reservation fee for every Italian fast train.  And if you're prepared to forego flexibility and book cheap no-refunds no-changes advance purchase fares you can save a lot of money over the cost of a pass.

• So for Italy, only buy a Eurail pass if you have done the maths and factored in the €13 passholder reservation fee for every fast train.

Typical Eurail pass example:  Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest

• If you book a cheap no-refunds no-changes advance fare a couple of months in advance, Berlin-Prague starts from €18.99, Prague-Vienna from €15, Vienna-Budapest from €19.90.  This is the cheapest way to make such a circuit if you can book ahead and don't need flexibility.

• If you want to stay flexible, a Eurail pass can save money over full-flex on-the-day prices.

Typical Eurail pass example:  London - Paris - Brussels - Amsterdam

• Eurail passes now cover Eurostar London-Paris/Brussels, but with a passholder fare of €30 in Standard class or €38 in Plus (1st class).

• Eurostar (formerly Thalys) Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam charges a €20 passholder reservation fee for Paris-Brussels or €25 Paris-Amsterdam, with even these passholder places limited by quota, meaning you'd better book in advance even with a pass in case the quota runs out.  If you book this through an agency, they'll charge you a €10 fee for selling you the €20-€25 fee.

• Booked 2-3 months ahead, you can buy Paris-Brussels tickets from €29 or Paris-Amsterdam tickets from €35 including reservation.  I would think long and hard before choosing to make a London-Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam circuit using a pass rather than advance-purchase tickets.

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How does a Eurail pass work?

• Eurail passes give unlimited travel on national & international trains

  A Eurail pass gives unlimited travel on all the train services run by the national train operator in all of the countries it covers. 

  These aren't special 'Eurail trains', these are the normal, regular, scheduled trains in each country, including high-speed trains, sleeper trains, intercity trains, suburban trains & local trains.  Both national and international trains.

  Unlimited means unlimited:  You can take as many trains as you like, 1 train or 20 trains, 8 miles or 800 miles.

  Eurail passes also cover certain private train operators, and even a few ferry services.  The country-by-country guide explains what train & ferry operators are covered in each country.

  You need to make a reservation for a small fee on some trains, more about that below, and pay for a berth on night trains if you want one.

• Eurail passes don't cover

  Metros, trams or buses in big cities as these are usually run by an urban transit authority;

  Some small private local train operators such as Euskotren narrow-gauge trains in Spain (Hendaye to San Sebastian to Bilbao) or the Circumvesuviana railway in Italy (Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento);

  A few private inter-city operators who compete with the state-owned national operator on some routes, such as Italo trains in Italy or Ouigo trains in Spain.  Nor do they cover lo-cost subsidiaries set up by the national operator such as Ouigo in France or Avlo in Spain.  If in doubt, see my country-by-country guide.

• Flexi & Continuous passes

  Continuous passes are valid for a continuous period starting on the date you activate the pass.  For example, if you activated a 1-month pass on 10 July, it would give continuous unlimited travel from 00:00 on 10 July until 24:00 on 9 August.

  Flexi passes have an overall validity which starts ticking on your first travel day, a date you choose when you activate the pass.  You can then spend each of your remaining travel days on any dates you like within that overall validity period.

  For example, if you activated a 5-days-in-1-month Eurail pass on 10 July, your first day of unlimited travel would be 10 July, you can then spend each of the remaining 4 travel days on any dates you like until 9 August, let's say on the 12 July, 17 July, 2 August and 9 August.  Or whatever.

  Each pass day is good for as many trains, journeys & kilometres as you can cram in from 00:00 to 23:59.  In fact, a pass day can cover you beyond midnight if using a sleeper train.

• How to find train times on which to use your pass

  Use the excellent German Railways online timetable at int.bahn.de.  It covers pretty much the whole of Europe.  Most trains shown in its database can be used with an Interrail pass, although supplements or special fares must be paid on some.  It will also show which trains have compulsory reservations.

  Or download the Rail Planner app.  Go to www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app and download the Rail Planner app for your phone (please let me know if that link stops working).  This is this a great Europe-wide timetable app which you can use to check train times whilst on the move as the timetable works offline, with no mobile data costs.  The app also does passholder reservations for Eurostar & Trenitalia high-speed trains.  If you buy a Eurail mobile pass, the pass sits in the Rail Planner app on your mobile.  The Rail Planner app warns you when a train shown in its search results isn't covered by Eurail.

• What about ferries, for example Italy to Greece?

  A Eurail global pass also gives free travel on Superfast Ferries, Minoan Lines & Blue Star Ferries between Italy (Bari, Brindisi, Ancona or Trieste) and Greece (Corfu, Igoumenitsa or Patras for the train to Athens).  A few euros for port taxes needs to be paid, and cabin berths are extra.  Superfast and some other ferry operators charge a small summer supplement (about €10 or so), you pay at the port.  A Eurail pass also gives a significant discount (typically 30%-50%) on normal fares for some other shipping operators, for example, Silja Line (Stockholm-Helsinki or Stockholm-Turku).  There is no longer any discount on Trasmediterranea (Barcelona to Ibiza, Majorca & Minorca and Algeciras to Tangier).

When do you need a reservation?

• The country-by-country reservations guide explains which specific trains require a reservation in each country, how much it costs & how to reserve.  But here is my rough - but pretty accurate - rule of thumb.

• Local, regional & suburban trains

  In virtually all countries, you can hop on any local, regional or suburban train at any time, sit in any empty seat and show your Eurail pass to the conductor when asked.  Seat reservation is not even possible.  Easy!

• Pass-friendly countries

  Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark & most of central & eastern Europe.

  In these countries, seat reservation even on long-distance trains is usually optional and there's nothing extra to pay unless you want a reserved seat, or couchette or sleeper on an overnight train.

  You can just hop on any train without a reservation, sit in any unreserved empty seat, and show your Eurail pass when asked by the conductor - even premier high-speed trains like Germany's superb ICE or Austria's excellent railjet trains.  Trains cannot 'sell out'.

  If you want a reserved seat (a sensible move for a long journey to having to stand at busy times) it only costs €3-€4.50.  Passes retain their 'hop on, hop off' convenience factor for travel in and between these countries.

  There are a few key exceptions:  International journeys to or from France do require compulsory reservation with a fee to pay.  Eurostar (formerly Thalys) high-speed trains between Brussels & Amsterdam and between Brussels & Cologne have compulsory reservation & a fee for railpass holders.  There's a surcharge on railjet & EuroCity trains between Germany/Austria & Italy.  A few scenic tourist trains in Switzerland require a seat reservation/supplement, such as the Glacier Express & Bernina Express.  Poland, Slovakia, Hungary & Romania require seat reservations on all their inter-city trains, but these are just normal seat reservations costing €1-€3, no big deal.  All this is explained in the country-by-country guide.

• Pass unfriendly countries

  France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden

  In these countries, inter-city trains are all-reserved like planes.  Passholders must pay to make a reservation for every inter-city journey, including international journeys starting or ending in these countries.

  Reckon on paying €10+ for every train ride in these countries, sometimes less, sometimes more.  On Italian Frecciarossas it's €13.  French TGVs it's €10 (limited quota) or €20 when the €10 places sell out.  Eurostar (formerly Thalys) Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam is €15-€25. TGV-Lyria €30-€70, Paris-Milan TGV €31, Paris-Barcelona TGV €34.

• Is there a quota for passholders?

  Usually, no.  On 99% of trains/routes/operators, even if there was only one seat left on the train, you'd be entitled to it with your pass.  In other words, there's absolutely no disadvantage in using a pass, it's just as good as having a full-flex ticket.

  However, in a handful of cases - usually involving France - there are limited places for passholders, so a train can be sold out for passholders but still have seats available for fare-paying customers.  Most notably this includes Eurostar to/from London, Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam on Eurostar-formerly-Thalys, Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs & Paris-Barcelona TGVs.

  But for most other trains including French domestic TGVs, TGV-Lyria and Spanish or Italian high-speed trains, passholders can always get seats unless the train is physically full, which might happen at Christmas or Easter or on a busy Friday, but you'll usually find places even on the day.

• Sleeper trains

  You need to pay for a sleeper or couchette reservation on overnight trains, typically perhaps €34 for a couchette or €94 for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper, less than this in eastern Europe.  Remember that with a flexi type pass, an overnight train only uses one pass day, the date of departure, see the explanation here.  See the country-by-country guide for costs for specific sleeper routes.

• See the country-by-country reservations guide to see which trains need a reservation, what it costs, and how to make it.

Can you avoid having to reserve?

• Sometimes you can avoid paying a reservation fee fairly easily if you don't mind a slower or less comfortable journey.  For example, from Rome to Florence there are fast & frequent high-speed Frecciarossa trains with a €13 reservation fee, but also a few comfortable and fairly fast InterCity trains with only a €3 reservation fee, and some slower regional trains with no reservation at all.  Between Brussels & Amsterdam there are high-speed Eurostar (formerly Thalys) trains taking 1h49 with a €15 passholder fee or hourly InterCity trains taking 2h52 with no reservation necessary.  The choice is yours!

• In other cases avoiding a fee is more trouble than it's worth, as it would mean a relay-race of local trains taking hours longer and involving umpteen changes of train.  Just bite the bullet & pay the fee!  I'd put Paris-Brussels, Paris-Amsterdam, Paris-Nice, Paris-Italy in this category.

  Tip:  To see if there is a reasonable no-fee alternative, try using the Europe-wide online timetable at int.bahn.de, but click Mode of transport  and select Local transport only.

Overnight trains

• What's the difference between a couchette and a sleeper?

  Couchettes are basic padded bunks with sheet, rug & pillow, 4 or 6 per compartment, a youth hostel on rails.  Sleepers are hotels on rails, with proper beds & washbasin, 1, 2 or 3 beds per compartment.  Couchettes & sleepers are explained in more detail here.

• How much does it cost?

  You need to pay a fee to use a couchette or sleeper with your pass.  To give you an idea, here are the passholder supplements for the most common type of sleeper train, a Nightjet.  They now vary like air fares, so these are the starting prices:

  Seat from €14, couchette in 6-berth €34, couchette in 4-berth €44, bed in 3-berth sleeper €54, bed in 2-berth sleeper €74, bed in single-berth sleeper €114, berth in 2-berth deluxe sleeper €94, berth in single-berth deluxe sleeper €134.

  Berth fees for specific routes are listed in the Eurail pass reservation guide.

  The fee is per person per bed, one ticket = 1 bed.  If you are alone and book a single sleeper you get the whole compartment to yourself, if you book a bed in a double sleeper, you get one bed, some other passenger of the same gender gets the other bed and you'll share with them.

  Only a 2nd class ticket or pass is needed for all accommodation types on Nightjet, even single or double deluxe sleepers.  However, in much of eastern Europe, a 1st class pass is necessary to travel in a single-berth sleeper, a 2nd class pass is OK for berths in a double or triple.  On Italian domestic sleeper trains a 2nd pass is all you need to book single, double or triple sleepers or couchettes, but you can't use Excelsior sleepers.

• Using a pass on a sleeper train

  If you have a flexi-type pass, an overnight train only uses one day on your pass, the day of departure.  Here is the new rule, which replaced the old 'After 19:00' rule in January 2019:

  A Flexi pass day normally runs from midnight to midnight.  But if you board any overnight train before midnight, and do not change trains after midnight, you only need to use one day on a Flexi pass, the day of departure.

  It no longer matters what time your sleeper train leaves on day 1, or what time it arrives on day 2.  The date you enter on your pass is that of day 1.  As normal, you get unlimited travel from midnight to midnight on day 1, so can take other trains on day 1 in addition to the sleeper train, all on the same pass day.  You can then continue your journey on that direct overnight train until you get off at your destination on Day 2.  The only proviso is that you cannot change trains after midnight, and that both the departure day and arrival day must fall within the overall validity period of the pass.

  For example, if you wanted to take the Dacia Express leaving Vienna at 19: 42 on the 1st August and arriving Bucharest at 16:06 on the 2nd August, you'd use 1st August as one of your unlimited travel days, this covers the whole of the sleeper journey, even the part on 2nd August - in this example well into in the afternoon.

  This gives you unlimited travel all day on 1st August, so it would also cover any other journeys you wanted to make on that day, for example a preceding journey from Prague to Vienna to connect with the sleeper.

  On the other hand, if you wanted to take an onward train from Bucharest to Constanta on 2nd August after getting off the sleeper, that means using up another travel day, this time dated 2nd August.

  But even if you don't use any other trains on 2nd August, that day of arrival still needs to fall within the overall validity period of your pass, in other words, if you had a 5-days-in-1-month flexi pass the 2nd August must be inside the 1 month period, it cannot be Day 32 just outside it.  Got it?

  The country-by-country reservations guide explains how to make sleeper or couchette reservations for specific routes.

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How to use a mobile pass

• Mobile Eurail passes were introduced in September 2020 and 97% of people now choose a mobile pass.  Once you get the hang of it they're really easy to use.  The mobile pass sits in the Rail Planner app on your phone, and instead of a printed travel diary you use the app's journey planner to find trains and add them to your 'trip', and then (when you actually board that train) you add that journey to your pass.  The in-app instructions are clear and well-written.

  I'll first describe how to use a Eurail mobile pass as a solo traveller.  Then if you're a couple, family or small group, I'll explain how to buy & use multiple passes on one phone at the end of this section.

• Step 1, buy the pass

  You can buy a Eurail pass up to 11 months in advance.  You do not need to decide exactly when you will use the pass, it can be activated on any date you choose within the next 11 months.  So if your plans alter or your trip is postponed, no worries.

• Step 2, download the Rail Planner app

  Get the Rail Planner app for iPhone or Android at www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app.

• Step 3, load your pass into the app

  After buying the pass, you are sent a confirmation email with your pass number.  Follow the instructions to load the pass into the app by entering your pass number.

  Incidentally, an obvious anti-fraud measure is that you can only load a given pass onto one device at a time.  So you can't load one pass onto 10 phones!  If you load your pass into your phone and that phone is lost or stolen or you upgrade phones, you can load your pass onto a new phone using your name & pass number, tapping Move pass when prompted and following the steps shown to move the pass to the new device.

• Step 4, create a trip

  The next step is to create a trip and connect the pass to it.  Think of a trip as a personal in-app folder in which you can store interesting journeys (individual trains or journeys involving multiple trains) found using the app's journey planner that you may or may not end up taking with your pass.  You can call the trip anything you like, My Big Eurail Trip, Mark's European Adventure, Fred, whatever.  Your trip lives in the My trip tab on the app.  A pass can only be connected to one trip.

• Step 5, activate your pass

  When you know for sure when you want to start using your pass, follow the in-app instructions to activate it, entering your passport number and desired start date.  With a flexi-type pass, you choose the date of your first unlimited travel day and the overall validity period (the overall 1 or 2 month period) starts ticking from that date.

  Even after doing this, you can still change your mind - you can alter the start date any time until 23:59 the day before, Central European Time.  However, once the first pass day has started at 00:00 CET, you can't change your mind, that travel day is used.

  It's safest to activate on the day you want to start using it.  One person bought a pass in February, immediately entered a July activation date, forgot about it, postponed his trip to August, then found the pass had already activated and burned through its 1 month validity!

• Step 6, look up trains in the planner and add them to your trip

  Open the app, click on Planner at the bottom and use the journey planner to look up train times.  In the search results, find a departure that suits you, click on it for details, then click Save journey to add it to your trip.

  You can add as many journeys to your trip as you like, journeys added to a trip are not connected to your pass and there is no obligation to actually take them.  As I said, a trip is just your personal library of trains you might be interested in, and you can edit the list at any time.  I wasn't sure if I'd leave Engelberg at 09:02 next morning or finish breakfast early and make the 08:02, so I added both journeys to my trip (which I'd called Engelberg as that's where I was going) to have them both handy.

• Step 7, when you board a train, toggle that train onto your pass

  Find the journey in your trip and slide the grey toggle next to it to add it to your pass.

  If you now click on My pass you'll see that journey added to your pass, and if you click on Show ticket you'll see all journeys added to the pass for that day listed underneath the QR code.  If you make a mistake or change your mind at the last moment, don't worry, you can un-toggle the train to remove it from your pass.  It's that simple!

  As it happens, I made the 08:02 from Engelberg, so went to the My trip tab, opened Engelberg and toggled the 08:02 onto my pass.  I then swiped left on the 09:02 to delete it from Engelberg - or I could have just left it there, it doesn't matter.

  Incidentally, toggling a train onto your pass in this way does not in any way 'reserve' or 'book' that train.  Reservations are an entirely separate thing.  All this does is (a) make the pass valid for that train, it's not a valid ticket until you have done this and (b) act as an electronic travel diary to tell the Eurail organisation what trains you've used so they can crunch the numbers and accurately allocate pass revenue to train operators.

• Step 8, show your pass to the conductor

  When a conductor comes along, open the app, click on My pass, pass details appear.  Click on Show ticket, the pass QR code appears.  The conductor will scan the QR code.  Most of the time, that's it.

  Sometimes the conductor will ask you to scroll down from the QR code to the list of journeys which have been added to the pass that day (he's making sure you've correctly added that train to your pass so that the rail operator ultimately gets their share of pass revenue).

  Sometimes you'll be asked to show your passport, but not always.

• Troubleshooting

  These two tips are worth remembering if you have any problems showing your pass:

  1.  If you click Show ticket and the pass QR code fails to appear, go to My Trip and deselect the train you are using, then toggle it back onto the pass it.  Go back to My Pass, click Show ticket again and the QR code may now appear.

  2.  If that doesn't fix it, or if the app even denies that you have a valid pass, don't panic!  Put your phone into aeroplane mode, which stops the app trying to contact the main server in an area with poor reception.  Restart the app and it'll show the pass from it own local data.

• How to add a train manually if Rail Planner can't find it

  Occasionally, Rail Planner's journey planner can't find a train you want to take, but you can add such journeys manually.

  For example, Interrail is valid on the local trains between Latour de Carol & Barcelona, but Rail Planner can't access the database they're listed on.  And from Bucharest to Istanbul it thinks there's a change of train, which in summer in the direct couchette car there isn't.

  Simply scroll down to the bottom of the search results and click on the link where it says Can't find your journey?  Add it manually to your pass.  You can now enter the correct origin, destination, time and (optionally) train number.

• Buying & using passes for multiple people

  You can buy passes for multiple people in one transaction, for example for your family, partner or group of friends.  You'll get a separate pass number for each person.

  One option is to give each person their own pass number so they can load their own pass on to their own phone and use it independently as explained above.  You should use this option if there is any chance that people may want to split up and head off on their own.

  The other option is for you to be 'group leader' and manage all the pass stuff on behalf of everyone else, by loading multiple passes onto one phone.  Just remember that you won't then be able to split up as all the passes will be one one phone.  This cannot be changed afterwards without help from the Eurail Support Team .

  The process for handling multiple passes on one phone is a bit clunky, but works.  If you try to add a 2nd pass to the same trip, it offers to duplicate the trip.  Go ahead and create a duplicate trip for each person in your group and connect their pass to that trip (remember to rename each trip so you know which trip belongs to which person).  When you find a train in the journey planner and want to save it to your trip, you are offered tick-box options to save it to multiple trips, so you can save it to everyone's trip at once.  When you board the train, you need to open each person's trip and add that journey to that person's pass - unfortunately there's currently no way to do that in one go!

• See the screenshots below:  OK, so these show an Interrail pass, but Eurail passes work exactly the same way, same app, same everything.

1. Planner:  Click Save journey to save a journey to My Trip.		2. My Trip:  Edit as you like.  Toggle to add a journey to your pass.		3. My Pass:  Click Show ticket when the conductor comes along.		4. Interrail ticket, upper.  The conductor will scan the QR code.		5. Interrail ticket, lower, showing list of trains added to pass.

How to use a hard-copy pass

• Activating your pass:  When you get to Europe and want to start using your pass, you need to activate it at any main station before you get on your first train. You do this at the ticket office, the booking clerk will enter the start date on your pass and rubber stamp it. Your Eurail pass is then ready to use and the overall pass validity period starts.  So if you had a 10-days-in-2-months pass, the overall 2 month period would start from that date.  Alternatively, if you're absolutely sure of the date when you want your overall pass validity to start, you can specify that date when you buy your pass.  It then arrives pre-activated from that date and there's no need to activate it at a station.

• Using the pass:  The classic hard-copy Eurail pass is printed on blank ATB-size international train ticket stock with a security background.  If it's a flexi-type pass it will have boxes printed on it for each travel day.  When you want to use a travel day, you simply write the date in indelible black or blue ink in one of the boxes, using each box in turn.

• Filling in the travel diary:  The pass comes with a blank travel diary.  Each time you take a train, you need to write the date, where it's from and where it's to, in black or blue ink.  You send it back to them after your trip (free postage) and it's used for market research, it helps allocate Eurail revenue between operators.

  Tip:  If you fill up all your diary pages you can print off more pages at www.eurail.com/content/dam/pdfs/Additional My Trip lines 2022.pdf  (please let me know if that link ceases to work!).

• To make it clear, Brussels to Nuremberg with a change in Frankfurt requires two separate entries, Brussels-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Nuremberg.  However, if a conductor found you had made only one entry, Brussels to Nuremberg, they should point it out (and maybe ask you to change it) but that's all.

• In theory you could be fined if the conductor finds that you haven't filled in your travel diary, but in practice most conductors will simply ask you to do so if you forgot.  However, there's always the risk that you'll meet a jobsworth, so play safe and fill it in while you're waiting for the train or as soon as you get on.

Hard-copy pass:  This is a 10-days in 2 months Interrail global Flexi pass, Eurail passes are virtually identical.		The Eurail train travel diary: You need to fill this out each time you board a train.  Larger image.

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How to make reservations

'Pass' and 'reservations' are totally separate

Option 1, online at the train operator's website

• If it's possible - unfortunately, it seldom is - making reservations at the train operator's own site is ideal as you pay no added booking fee & you get a wide choice of seating options and occasionally seat selection from seat map.

  Unfortunately, most train operator websites don't sell passholder reservations, only normal tickets.  Eurostar, SNCF (French Railways) & Trenitalia all used to sell passholder reservations, but stopped because it was abused by fare-evaders without a pass.

• Operators that can sell passholder reservations on their websites include:

  - ÖBB (Austrian Railways) at www.oebb.at, which sells passholder reservations for Nightjet sleeper trains, Nightjet partner sleeper trains, and Vienna-Italy railjet trains.

  - SJ (Swedish Railways) at www.sj.se, which sells passholder reservations for Swedish domestic trains and Copenhagen-Stockholm, Stockholm-Oslo international trains.

• There are also routes where trains are reservation optional, where passholders don't have to pay a special passholder reservation fee, just make a normal seat reservation if they want one like any other ticket-holder.  Some operators allow reservation-only bookings to be made on their website for anyone with an existing ticket, including a pass:

  - The DB (German Railways) website int.bahn.de can do 'seat-only' bookings for German domestic trains and international trains between Germany & Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague or Switzerland, with specific seat selection on key routes.  Passholders can use this facility.

  - The ÖBB (Austrian Railways) website www.oebb.at can do 'seat only' bookings on trains between Austria & Prague, Budapest, Germany or Switzerland, sometimes with seat selection.  Passholders can use this too.

  - The Czech Railways website www.cd.cz can do 'seat-only' bookings for many routes out of Prague, often with specific seat selection.  Isn't it great being able to choose your seats from a plan?

• To check if this is an option for a train you want to book, go to the Eurail reservations page & click on the country where the journey starts.

Option 2, online using the Eurail reservation service

• If you can't book online direct with the train operator, the next best thing is to book online using the official Eurail reservations service.

  You need to buy a pass before you can access this service, as a pass number is required even to run enquiries.

  There's a booking fee of €2 per reservation in addition to the reservation fee.  The prices shown include the booking fee.

  One downside, you aren't offered any seating choice, not even 'aisle' or 'window', you basically have to take what the system gives you.

• How to use it:  Go to www.eurail.com, click Seat reservations at the top, yes you have a pass, no you don't have an account, create an account, enter your pass number.  Now you can use the reservation system journey planner to bring up train departures for the route you want.

  You'll see the abbreviation IRT a lot.  This stands for Integrated Reservation Ticket, and simply means it's a ticket combined with a compulsory seat reservation (the way France, Italy, Spain do ticketing), as opposed to a stand-alone optional seat reservation designed to go with a separate travel ticket (the way Germany, Austria, Switzerland usually do ticketing.  A distinction too subtle to concern most travellers!

• Trains it can book, with an e-ticket:  Reservations shown as e-ticket are automated and usually emailed to you within minutes.

  Reservations can be made until 3 hours before departure, you can use their mobile website if you're already on the move.

  For example, the system can e-ticket passholder reservations for Eurostar, domestic trains in France (TGVs, Intercités, Intercités de Nuit couchettes), Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs, Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam/Cologne Eurostar (formerly Thalys), Paris-Switzerland TGV-Lyria, Paris-Germany ICE & TGV.  Domestic trains in Italy (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, Intercity, ICN sleeper trains), Switzerland-Italy EuroCity trains.  Copenhagen-Stockholm X2000 trains.  It will also book optional seat reservations in countries such as Germany or Austria, but you can make those without any added fee using the train operator's own website.

• Trains it can book, with a paper ticket that has to be posted to you:  Reservations shown as paper ticket have to be posted to you for an extra fee (perhaps €10 with tracking).  Tickets may take 2 or more weeks to arrive, so allow plenty of time.

  For example, the system has to send paper tickets for Paris-Barcelona TGVs, Lyon/Marseille-Barcelona AVEs, Prague-Krakow trains, Budapest-Bucharest daytime & sleeper trains, Berlin-Warsaw & Berlin-Krakow EuroCity trains, Norwegian trains.

• Trains it can't book:  The system cannot currently book trains in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Finland, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece or Turkey.  It also can't book Nightjet sleeper trains or Venice-Vienna railjets (but www.oebb.at can book these).  It only seems to offer 2nd class reservations on the Munich-Italy Brenner EuroCity trains.

• To check whether to use this service for a specific train, go to the reservations page & click on the country where the journey starts.

Option 3, online at b-europe.com

• Passholder reservations on Eurostar and Eurostar (formerly Thalys) can be made either at the official Eurail reservation service as explained above, or at the Belgian Railways international site www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass (please tell me if this direct link stops working).  The advantage of www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass is that you can check passholder availability before you buy your pass, as the pass number is only needed to buy the reservation, not to run an enquiry.  But at the time I write this, b-europe charges a €4 booking fee per total booking, the Eurail reservation service only charges €2 per person.

  Tip:  If you have a mobile pass and it won't accept your mobile pass number, simply generate a pass cover number from your mobile pass number using this special page: www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/generatePassCoverNumber.

• If you want to book a Eurostar train between London & Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam, see the Interrail & Eurail on Eurostar page.

Option 4, in person at the station

• You can make reservations at station ticket offices either in advance or on the day of departure, sometimes up to an hour or two before the train leaves, sometimes right up to departure time.  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!

The Rail Planner App

• I recommend downloading the Rail Planner App for your phone from www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app.  This is this a great Europe-wide timetable app which you can use to check train times whilst on the move - the timetable works offline, so no data cost issues - and you can also make passholder bookings within the app for Eurostar, Eurostar (formerly Thalys) & Trenitalia high-speed trains, with e-tickets delivered to your phone.

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Other passes worth knowing about

Eurail is the main pass range for overseas visitors to Europe, but several countries also have their own national railpasses which can be worth knowing about as they can often be better value if you are just visiting that specific country.

• The Swiss Travel Pass for Switzerland.  This is Switzerland's own-brand railpass, there is no single-country Eurail pass.  Unlike many other railpasses you don't have to rack up a huge mileage to make a railpass worthwhile in Switzerland.  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.  Choose between a Swiss Travel Pass giving continuous free travel or a Swiss Travel Pass Flex giving so many days in a month.  There's more advice on Swiss Passes here.

  You can check Swiss Pass prices & buy a Swiss Pass at www.switzerlandtravelcentre.com - prices in CHF, USD, GBP or Euros and you simply print out your own pass.

  You can check Swiss point-to-point fares at www.sbb.ch.  Map of the Swiss rail network. 

• Spain Pass for Spain.  Renfe (Spanish Railways) offers its own Spain Pass, not to be confused with the single-country Eurail pass for Spain.  Renfe's Spain Pass works differently from the Eurail Spain pass, as it gives a set number of journeys, not unlimited travel - you can pay for between 4 and 12 journeys in a one-month period.  However, the Renfe Spain Pass is usually better value than the Eurail Spain pass as reservations are included, there are no hidden extra reservation costs.  Eurail holders must typically pay a €6-€10 reservation fee per journey on almost all long-distance Spanish trains, but with Renfe's Spain Pass it's all included, reservations are free and can be made online.  For more details about Renfe's Spain Pass, how it works, how to buy one and how to make reservations online, see the Renfe Spain Pass section on the Train travel in Spain page.

• BritRail Pass for Britain.  See BritRail prices, information & buy online at ACPRail.com.  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 at tfw.wales or www.nationalrail.co.uk.  There's advice on understanding the different types of UK rail fare on the Train travel in Britain 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.

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The European Rail 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 Eurail 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 £15.99 from www.europeanrailtimetable.eu.

The European 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 www.europeanrailtimetable.eu (with worldwide delivery).  There are other maps & even two good European Rail Atlases, see here.

The all-Europe online timetable:  You can check train times for almost any European train journey online at int.bahn.de.  This is an extremely useful resource for trip planning, provided by the German Railways.

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Recommended guidebooks

If you're planning a grand tour, I strongly recommend investing in a European Rail 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.

Click the images to buy online at Amazon.com (USA) or buy from Amazon.co.uk (UK)

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Hotels & accommodation

Tips for booking hotels in Europe

Location, location, location:  For a night between trains, I'd pick a decent hotel near the station.  For a longer stay, I'd want to be close to the sights, for example if we're talking somewhere like Prague, I'd want a hotel right in the old town.  That sometimes costs more, but you see more - if you're right there, you can wander out again after dinner, for example.  In a cheaper hotel 3 miles out, you probably wouldn't.

Hotels will almost always look after your bags for free if you need to check out and catch an afternoon or evening train, or if you arrive in the morning before you can check in to your room.

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Travel insurance & other tips

Always take out travel insurance

You should take out travel insurance with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover from a reliable insurer.  It should cover trip cancellation and loss of cash & belongings up to a reasonable limit.  These days, check you're covered for covid-19-related issues, and use an insurer whose cover isn't invalidated by well-meant but excessive Foreign Office travel advice against non-essential travel. An annual policy is usually cheapest even for just 2 or 3 trips a year, I have an annual policy with Staysure.co.uk myself.  Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed connection, see the advice on missed connections here.  Here are some suggested insurers, I get a little commission if you buy through these links, feedback always welcome.

  www.staysure.co.uk offers enhanced Covid-19 protection and gets 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot.

  www.columbusdirect.com is also a well-know brand.

  If you live in the USA try Travel Guard USA.

Get an eSIM with mobile data package

Don't rely on WiFi, download an eSIM with a European mobile data package and stay connected.  Most newer mobile phones can download a virtual SIM including iPhone 11 & later, see device compatibility list.  There's no need to buy a physical SIM card!  Maya.net is a reliable eSIM data retailer with a 4.5 out of 5 Trustpilot rating and a range of packages including unlimited data.

Get a Curve card for foreign travel

Most banks give you a poor exchange rate then add a foreign transaction fee on top.  A Curve MasterCard means no foreign transaction fees and gives you the mid-market exchange rate, at least up to a certain limit, £500 per month as I write this.  The money you spend on your Curve card goes straight onto one of your existing debit or credit cards.  And you can get a Curve card for free.

How it works:  1. Download the Curve app for iPhone or Android.  2. Enter your details & they'll send you a Curve MasterCard - they send to the UK and most European addresses.  3. Link your existing credit & debit cards to the app, you can link up to two cards with the free version of Curve, I link my normal debit card and my normal credit card.  4. Now use the Curve MasterCard to buy things online or in person or take cash from ATMs, exactly like a normal MasterCard. Curve does the currency conversion and puts the balance in your own currency onto whichever debit or credit card is currently selected in the Curve app.  You can even change your mind about which card it goes onto, within 14 days of the transaction.

I have a Curve Blue card myself, it means I can buy a coffee on a foreign station on a card without being stung by fees and lousy exchange rates, just by tapping the Curve card on their card reader.  The money goes through Curve to my normal debit card and is taken directly from my account (in fact I have the Curve card set up as payment card on Apple Pay on my iPhone, so can double-click my phone, let it do Face ID then tap the reader with the phone - even easier than getting a card out).  I get a little commission if you sign up to Curve, but I recommend it here because I think it's great.  See details, download the app and get a Curve card, they'll give you £5 cashback through that link.

Get a VPN for safe browsing.  Why you need a VPN

When travelling you may use free public WiFi which is often insecure.  A VPN encrypts your connection so it's always secure, even on unsecured WiFi.  It also means you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse with, to get around geoblocking which a surprising number of websites apply.  See VPNs & why you need one explained.  ExpressVPN is a best buy with a 4.7 out of 5 Trustpilot ranking which I use myself - I've signed up as an ExpressVPN affiliate, and if you go with expressvpn.com using this link you should see a special deal, 3 months free with an annual subscription.  I also get some commission to help support this site.

Carry an Anker powerbank

Tickets, reservations, hotel bookings and Interrail or Eurail passes are often now held on your mobile phone.  You daren't let it run out of power, and you can't always rely on the phone's internal battery or on being near a power outlet.  I always carry an Anker powerbank which can recharge my phone several times over.  Buy from Amazon.co.uk or buy from Amazon.com.

Touring cities?  Use hill walking shoes!

One of the best things I've done is swap my normal shoes for hill-walking shoes, in my case from Scarpa.  They're intended for hiking across the Pennines not wandering around Florence, but the support and cushioning for hiking works equally well when you're on your feet all day exploring foreign cities.  My feet used to give out first and limit my day, now the rest of me gives up before they do!

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