Eurail

Hi

from New Zealand

My wife and I in 50%26#39;s have seven week Eurail during Sept Oct 2007 over Europe and seek advice.

Cities include London Paris Dijon Milan Venice Lucerne Vienna Prague Cologne Luxemburg Brussels Franfurt - approx 4-6 days each city.

Any hints on travel from train to hotel anywhere and other travel hints

Thanks

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Hi mast, not really sure what your question is. For travel tips from train to hotel, it might be better that you post in each destination city forum. There are many local experts in those cities that have in-dept knowledge and will be able to help you there.

As for Paris, it depends upon where you are coming from or going to as to what station you arrive at in proximity to where you are staying. Once you have established your actual itinerary, it would be easier to provide more assistance.

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I would not suggest purchasing a Eurail pass. We purchased them and could not use them because the trains were full even though we tried to make reservations a week in advance. We ended up flying to our next destination because we had hotel reservations. The flight was not any more expensive than the train. It got us there faster but we missed the view of the countryside. My daughter lives in France %26amp; had problems in January using her Eurail pass as well. It seems like it is getting to be like the American frequent flier miles. Can%26#39;t use them when you need to. Also Eurail will not reimburse you in full if you can%26#39;t use them. Enjoy your trip!

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Not too sure about the train problem experienced by ‘twin39’. Only a few of the high-speed trains in Europe require reservations [EuroStar Chunnel, TGV France, EuroStar Italia, Thalys Belgium] and while one particular departure time may be fully booked I cannot imagine that the entire day would be. The best advise would be to not wait until the last minute to try and make a reservation when required.

For trains that do not require a reservation, you can board the train and in the rare event that the train was full you may not find a seat for a few stops.

Trains departing at popular times and direct trains are likely to have more passengers. Between 08:00 and 17:00 there are;

9 EuroStar Chunnel trains per day direct from London Waterloo station to Paris-Nord station,

6 TGV trains per day direct from Paris Gare-de-Lyon station to Dijon-Ville station,

11 EuroStar Italia, InterCity [IC] or EuroCity [EC] trains per day direct from Milano Centrale to Venezia [Venice] S Lucia station,

3 EuroCity trains direct from Wein [Vienna] Südbahnhof (Ost) station to Praha-Holesovice [Prague] station,

5 EuroCity trains direct from Praha-Holesovice [Prague] station to Berlin Hbf (Tief) station,

8 InterCityExpress [ICE] trains per day direct from Berlin Hbf (Tief) station to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf station. On this route there are 16 more departures per day with 1 connection.

4 InterCity trains per day direct from Köln [Cologne] Hbf to Luxembourg. On this route there are 5 more departures that require 2 connections.

12 InterCity trains per day direct from Luxembourg to Bruxelles-Midi [Brussels] station.

From Dijon-Ville station to Milano [Milan] Centrale station there is only 1 practical departure per day on a TGV train to Lausanne Switzerland connecting with a EuroCity train to Milano.

From Venezia S Lucia to Luzern [Lucerne] there are 2 departures per day with a connection in Milano and 1 departure with changes in Venice Mestre and Arth-Goldau Switzerland.

From Luzern to Wien Westbahnhof there is only 1 practical departure per day for the 10-hour journey with a connection in Zürich.

It would be easiest to research train schedules at the Swiss SBB website. In the ‘Comment’ column, if there is an R in a box then reservations are required. If there is an RE then reservations are recommended. http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en?

Buy using several of the national RR websites, it would be possible to determine what the fares would be for the 11 rail journeys listed above. This would take some time with the fare from Vienna to Prague to Berlin being the most difficult because the Czech rail website is only in Czech.

The comment from ‘twin39’ about not getting a rail pass is definitely incorrect. Due to the travel distances, you will definitely want to buy a Eurail Pass.

You propose to travel through 8 countries. For rail pass purposes, Belgium and Luxembourg are considered the Benelux countries. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic is not covered by the Eurail Global Pass Saver Flexi Pass so you would have to buy separate tickets for travel from the Austria-Czech boarder to Prague and from Prague to the Czech-Germany boarder.

The Eurail Global Pass Saver Flexi Pass is only available for travel in 1st class and the 10-day pass costs $942 AUD or ≈ 570 Euros [€ 57/day] each. As a comparison the 1st class fare from London to Paris is € 232.50, from Dijon to Milan is € 132, from Venice to Lucerne is € 105 and € 104 from Berlin to Frankfurt.

You would have no problems making reservations for travel in September and October and due to the length of the trips, I would recommend reservations for all travel. With reservations you can be assured of window seats together and you would not have to move if someone with a reservation boards the train. The rail pass would be valid for travel but you would have to pay the small surcharge [€ 10 for TGV trains, € 3.50 for ICE, IC and EC trains] for all reservations – even when not required.

Several of these journeys are over 6 hours so remember that you are allowed to bring your own snacks and beverages on board the trains. Stocking-up at a Supermarket or train station kiosk will save $ over the prices charged on board.

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Thanks your advice was helpful

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Hi from Colorado,

I just read the post saying that not all trains require reservations. My recent experience says that NEARLY ALL do!

We just returned, 6/27, from a trip to Europe that included a 3 day out of 60 one country Eurail pass.

Prior to purchasing it, I added up each segment and decided that the pass saved a little but would be more convenient than having to wait in lines. I traveled with Eurail passes about 20 years ago extensively and at that time you just hopped on and off. The only reservations I made in the past were for sleepers.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED! The pass did not end up being a cost savings and we still had to wait in line to make reservations for each leg. Reservations used to be nominal, $6, I think. Now reservations are required on many trains and they cost 15 Euros each person, each train, even if you are going 1 hour!. That was 45 EU or more than $60 for us for each leg. For one train the reservation fee exceeded the ticket price.

We traveled from Rome - Florence , Florence - Venice, Venice - Rome, and all trains required a reservation. That added $180 for reservations to the 3 day pass which was $500. I could have made the reservations from home but I wasn%26#39;t sure which trains we would make, so I made them every where from 30 minutes before to 2 days before. None of our trains appeared to be completely full.

I understood that all ES and all EuroStar trains require the reservation fee. That is pretty much all that service these main routes.

I would recommend adding up the ticket + reservation price that you can find on Eurail%26#39;s web site and compare if carefully. I don%26#39;t think I%26#39;ll be using Eurail again.

Have a great trip!

P.S. The good thing about the reservation required thing is that you DO have a seat and there aren%26#39;t people packed in standing (as there used to be.)

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The need for reservations varies by country, from my knowledge:

In France all TGVs require reservations (and that is now the majority of the fast trains).

In Italy Eurostar Italia need reservations as discussed, but there are often slower trains that don%26#39;t.

On the other hand in Germany %26amp; Switzerland don%26#39;t think reservations are compulsory on any train although they may be advised on some at busy times.

It really depends on where you want to travel.

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