Railpasses Part II
Railpasses—Eurail, Europass, country train passes—are one of the original budget tools for European travel and remain one of the best.
Railpass Tips
The family of Eurail passes is available in Europe from major city train stations—though most guide books and travel agents, including Eurail itself, will swear up and down it isn't. However, since they cost up to 150% of the US price, it might as well be unavailable. Do your wallet a favor and buy the thing before you leave home.
To see whether you a railpass will save you money on your trip, use the search engines for point-to-point tickets at Rail Europe and Britrail (see below). Plug in the data for all the train trips you plan to take, jot down the prices for each, add them up, and if the total is close to or greater than the cost of the railpass that will do the same job, the choice is clear.
If you're using a flexipass, you need to pick each trip whether of not to use up a railpass day on it. When you first get the pass, calculate quickly how much per day it costs. Then, every time just before you go to get on a train, pop over to the automated ticket machine (or, if lacking, up to a ticket agent) and check out the price for the trip you're about to take. If it costs less than a day's use of the flexipass—and you plan to travel more days than the pass is going to cover—just buy the ticket and save the railpass day for a long-haul trip where you're really going to need it.
Rail passes also often get you discounts on private rail lines (such as those in the Alps) and the Eurostar between London and Paris or Brussels, and discounts or free travel for ferry crossings (Italy to Greece) and some boat rides on rivers (Rhine, Mosel) and lakes (especially Swiss ones). These bonuses can change from year to year, so check with the agency that issues you the pass and read the literature they send with it to see what extra goodies you may be getting.
Rail passes are good all the way up to the borders of the countries they cover. So if you're traveling from a Eurail country to a non-Eurail country—say Vienna, Austria, to Prague, Czech Republic—you can go to the ticket window in Vienna and purchase a ticket for just the stretch from the Austrian/Czech border to Prague. Your pass will cover the Vienna-to-the-border segment.
How Does a Rail Pass Work?
From the date you buy the pass, you have six months to start using it. The day you want to begin using the pass, you have to have it validated at a European train station. Aside from reserving couchettes or buying supplements, this is the only time you'll have to wait in a ticket line. With consecutive-day, unlimited use Eurail passes, you just hop on trains at whim.
Flexipasses give you a certain number of days (5 to 15) within a two-month window of travel. Printed on the flexipass are as many little boxes as you've bought days of travel. Every time you board a train, just write the date in the next free box (in ink). When the conductor comes around, he checks your ticket to make sure you've put down the right date.
Consecutive-day passes are best for those taking the train very frequently (every few days), covering a lot of ground, and making many short train hops. Flexipasses are for folks who want to range far and wide but plan on taking their time over a long trip, and intend to stay in each city for a while. You can get more mileage out of a pass by waiting to validate it until the day you leave your first city or whenever you need it to kick in.
Use it smartly. Remember that the pass isn't valid in England. If you're starting a trip in London and then moving on to Paris before gallivanting around the rest of the Europe, consider that the pass will only save you $15–$20 off the cheapest regular ticket on the Eurostar train into Paris.
With a consecutive-day pass, just buy the Eurostar ticket individually (without the discount) so that you don't have to validate your pass until the day you leave Paris. On a month-long trip, this strategy may mean you can drop down to the 21-day pass rather than the one-month one and save some serious cash.
When Don't I Need a Rail Pass?
Nifty as they are, rail passes aren't the wisest investment for every trip. Eurail is primarily for people on an extended, whirlwind tour; the Selectpass can be handier on short, more focused trips, but it still may be overkill if you only plan to take a few train rides over the course of your visit.
Will any pass be right for you? The answer will be different for every trip, so get ready to do some math. For example, you'd have to travel at least 22 days (24 days on the youth pass) on a two-month consecutive-day pass before it starts costing less per trip than the 15-days-within-two-months flexipass.
Are the extra days worth it? It depends on your travel plans and how much liberty you want to be able to jump on trains at a whim. After you've drawn up an itinerary, estimate how much you think you'd spend on individual tickets using Rail Europe.
Also look into no-frills airlines to see if they can make the connection even cheaper. If a rail pass will save you dough and still do the job, then go for it.
Railpass resources
Rail Europe - Central clearinghouse for perusing rail schedules and buying railpasses. You can also purchase individual tickets, but I wouldn't bother—they're a smidgen cheaper in Europe, plus buying them as you go leaves your schedule more open and flexible. I use the site largely to figure out schedules and ballpark prices for comparison purposes (ie: should I take a train or a no-frills airline?).
Die Bahn - Germany's national rail site, available in English, is the only one to include international timetables in its searchable database (no prices, though, for routes outside Germany).
Railfan Europe - Useful independent links page to most of the national railway Web sites. National Web sites tend to be more reliable and detailed than what you can get through RailEurope, but though some sites have English versions, most are in their native language only. Plus, some provide only schedules, not prices, and several are far from intuitive (apparently adapted for the Web from whatever antiquated in-house reservations system the country has been using for decades).
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This article was last updated in October 2006. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.
