Seeking advice on Eurail Travel passes

[cutz]

I am seeking advice on purchasing Eurail Travel passes. on a previous trip we just booked single tickets for the travel we did, but we are about to head off to Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary travelling between these countries by train. It seems there is about $200 per person to be saved by pre-booking a 5+1 day Eurail pass and then getting the legs of the travel pre-booked. I am working thru a local travel agent, but online prices in Europe seem to be less expensive. Working with the local agent has been convenient, but the price difference isn't insignificant. Does anyone have any suggestions about getting best deal on this type of Eurail pass? There are 4 of us travelling so the savings add up.

 

[Mattg]

I have personally found that the Eurail passes are not worth the money. They aren't that cheap, and often you need to make a reservation and sometimes pay a supplement for certain services anyway. Have you checked the price of booking each of the train legs separately, compared to buying a Eurail pass?

Also, note that if you are over 26 you'll need to buy a more expensive First class Eurail pass.

There are actually two types of passes - Eurail and Interail. The Interail passes (sold by local agents within Europe) are much better value, but as far as I'm aware, they are only available to residents of the European Union. If you're Australian, you'd have to instead purchase a Eurail pass. (This is what your agent in Australia would be selling you.)

 

[medhead]

I'll echo that you need to be careful in comparing the pricing. I normally start with Bahn.com to search routes and get prices. Pricing is only released about 60 days in advance.

Can you give an idea of your possible routes?

I've previously purchased eurail passes from a travel agent in Australia, but I thought you could also purchase them directly from eurail. I'd say the First class pass is preferable anyway. Just looking at one online site (eurail.com) a 4 country 5 day pass is 418 euro. They're also offering a freebie for a child up to 11 years. 2 adults travelling together get a 15% discount - 712 euro.

German trains don't require prebooking, not sure about Austrian. That means that as longer as you're not in peak hour then you can just jump on a train and should be able to find a seat. Still I only recall booking fees of upto about 10 euro anyway.
Deutsche Bahn trains run into Austria, Hungary and Italy.

Night trains only use one day not 2.

Finally as a travel tip, I really enjoyed catching the Hydrofoil between Budapest and Vienna. A bit of a longer trip.

 

[Franky]

Agree with the comments above, and point out the advice re 'The Man in Seat 61' which IIRC appears earlier on this thread.

 

[moa999]

Did Switzerland and Germany last year and instead bought the Swiss 50% card (about Eur100 for a month) and booked a lot of the online specials that come on 2wks out, and the Probe 25% card in Germany (obviously I cancelled it before it converted to an annual).

It was substantially cheaper versus an equivalent Eurail for what I did.

 

[theblank]

i did a 30 day eurail pass as a kid, brilliant. As you probably know, its for the lower class travel only, but it means you can get on any train, any time, anywhere, and I did, including a few the wrong direction and a few we should have still paid for.
Met a few other travellers too old to get the cheap eurail pass, they just bought a ticket for each fair, it was too costly for them.

 

[medhead]

Another point to note for Germany are things like the Bavaria pass. a cheap way to travel on regional trains, s-banns and such. But not IC, ICE, etc.
https://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/offers/national/regional/laender-tickets/bavaria-ticket.shtml

 

[VPS]

I costed it a couple of years ago and also came up with the conclusion the Eurail pass wasn't the best value for money - agree with the comments above - whatever you do avoid these people Rail Europe - Rail travel planner Europe - Train travel in Europe (Eurostar – TGV – Eurail – Eurorail) - it's almost impossible to get them on the phone if there's an issue and once you're on their mailing list it takes about 2 years to get off it

 

[grov]

Having undertaken many trips using Eurail, I have to disagree. At around A$100 per day's travel in first class, you can travel a long way throughout Europe for a lot less than paying for individual fares. You rarely have to book if you travel in non-peak periods, avoiding peak morning and peak afternoon, especially Monday morning and Friday evening. And of course staying away from Thales trains. You quickly learn how to spot the pre-booked seats and sit elsewhere. In many cases you will have a first-class rail coach to yourself, or with very few other passengers. And the flexibility that Eurail offers, being able to change travel direction and stops at any time during a journey, is fantastic. It's really hard to convince Aussies to get away from short flight hops and try the high-speed trains in Europe - rocketing through the scenic countryside in comfort is a great way to travel and see more of Europe.

 

[cutz]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. We are going Milan Airport - Milan - Varenna (Lake Como) - Milan - Spiez - Interlaken - Zurich - Salzburg - Budapest for 4 people. After doing research (The man in Seat 61 was very helpful) we ended up booking through the travel agent. Worked out at about AUD$750 ea which was less than what I could get the point to point fares for, plus we have a spare day and could do Munich for a day from Salzburg if we are up for it. The price included the booking fees and seating allocation for the longer haul legs, which was worth it as we have our two elderly mothers travelling with us. Last time we travelled, we were able to book "saver" seats which were a lot cheaper, but they didn't seem to be available this time, hence the Eurail pass seemed good value. I will let you know how it worked when we get back.

 

[Jmrocky]

Lol didn't read further, and saw you booked with Eurail anyway. Good luck and enjoy, some great rail trips there.

 

[Magoo]

$750 each and you think that's good value!?

Using the websites for each country, as advised in seat61.com, and purchasing in advance, as your timing is probably established, you could almost have booked for the four of you at that price. I've travelled almost that much, mostly in first class, for about $100 by using the advice of the Man in Seat61, and Tripadvisor Train Travel forum.

For some reason, travel agents in Australia are really poor at advising on rail travel in Europe. Their only knowledge is Eurail - or they recommend RailEurope, a reseller with markups and limited choice. And they are apparently pretty much uncontactable if there's a problem.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[grov]

For that spare day, here's a thought:
Between Zurich and Salzburg, divert off to the fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. Go via Bregenz, Lindau around the end of Lake Bodensee, up and over a very scenic mountain pass on a single rail track. Then around Biessenhofen, jump off and catch the train down to Fussen, with a short taxi ride to Schwangau. Then return via Munchen and onto Salzburg. A lot to do in two days but doable. (You can figure out the details with the Eurail train timetable and Google Maps.) If you don't want to go to Neuschwanstein Castle, you stay on the train from Zurich and end up in Munchen for the night.

 

[medhead]

$750 each and you think that's good value!?

Using the websites for each country, as advised in seat61.com, and purchasing in advance, as your timing is probably established, you could almost have booked for the four of you at that price. I've travelled almost that much, mostly in first class, for about $100 by using the advice of the Man in Seat61, and Tripadvisor Train Travel forum.

For some reason, travel agents in Australia are really poor at advising on rail travel in Europe. Their only knowledge is Eurail - or they recommend RailEurope, a reseller with markups and limited choice. And they are apparently pretty much uncontactable if there's a problem.

Enjoy your trip.

That's a big claim to make considering you don't know the actual trips to be taken. I'd be surprised if it is possible to do 5 train journeys, on 5 separate days, all in first class (remember all their travel is in 1er) for $100.

The OP has run the numbers and found that the pass was cheaper. Can't we just accept that sometimes a eurail pass does actually work out cheaper?

 

[24601]

$750 each and you think that's good value!?

Using the websites for each country, as advised in seat61.com, and purchasing in advance, as your timing is probably established, you could almost have booked for the four of you at that price. I've travelled almost that much, mostly in first class, for about $100 by using the advice of the Man in Seat61, and Tripadvisor Train Travel forum.

Enjoy your trip.

Depend's - a pass where you can just turn up at any station and simply jump on almost any train on a whim, or time spent making lots of little bookings. Eurail is brilliant for freedom and flexibility. If your itinerary is set in stone then better to do the numbers a la Seat 61.

 

[Jan Geoghegan]

If you are travelling for a long period, Eurail passes are well worthwhile, especially the multi-country passes. One pass we found extremely good value was the Swiss Pass when we independently travelled on trains between lakes and rivers in Switzerland on boats over 13 days. They also can be used for public transport in some of the major towns in Switzerland. We would hop on a boat for a day or a morning, explore the town or village, then either stay overnight at a B&B or hotel nearby or board another boat to go somewhere else for the afternoon and stay overnight at that destination. We saved a lot by using the Swiss Pass in that time and it's one of the most relaxing, interesting and scenic trips we've ever done anywhere in the world. If you are only travelling between a few destinations, over a short period, point-to-point tickets are usually better value.

 

[moa999]

Depend's - a pass where you can just turn up at any station and simply jump on almost any train on a whim, or time spent making lots of little bookings. Eurail is brilliant for freedom and flexibility. If your itinerary is set in stone then better to do the numbers a la Seat 61.

I thinks that is it in an essence.
The Eurail is great for an essentially flexible pass at a cheap price.
But if you are willing to trade away flexibility for advance (or late) booking it can normally be done more cheaply.

Similar scenario for the JRail passes.

 

[Jmrocky]

That's a big claim to make considering you don't know the actual trips to be taken. I'd be surprised if it is possible to do 5 train journeys, on 5 separate days, all in first class (remember all their travel is in 1er) for $100.

The OP has run the numbers and found that the pass was cheaper. Can't we just accept that sometimes a eurail pass does actually work out cheaper?

The itinerary is at the bottom of the first page (Maybe more journeys that that). Quite a few are short trips <1hr on regional routes. Just out of interests sake I plugged them into each country's operator and raileurope, and all 1st class was pushing to hit 300 aud, but I'm guessing they did their homework. Swiss have higher priced rail than other surrounding nations as well.

I wouldn't use them myself, either buy directly from the operator or utilise an operator's pass instead of Eurail for versatility.

 

[medhead]

The itinerary is at the bottom of the first page (Maybe more journeys that that). Quite a few are short trips <1hr on regional routes. Just out of interests sake I plugged them into each country's operator and raileurope, and all 1st class was pushing to hit 300 aud, but I'm guessing they did their homework. Swiss have higher priced rail than other surrounding nations as well.

I wouldn't use them myself, either buy directly from the operator or utilise an operator's pass instead of Eurail for versatility.

I had trouble breaking that into a meaningful set of day trips. They talked about a 5 day pass with a +1 day bonus, and they have 1 day spare. So 5 day trips. I think it is reasonable to assume:

1. Salzburg-Budapest
2. Zurich - Salzburg
3. Milan airport to Varenna is less certain but probable, you wouldn't do Milan airport to Milan for a day.
4. Varenna to Milan/Spiez/Interlaken
5. Milan/Spiez/Interlaken to Zurich

Bit of uncertainty on the last 2.

Day trip 1 and 2 above on random Thursday in June are pricing at euro 150 and 180 respectively on Bahn.com That's ~A$550.

Anyway, I can't really work it out. *shoulder shrug
The OP seems happy.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. We are going Milan Airport - Milan - Varenna (Lake Como) - Milan - Spiez - Interlaken - Zurich - Salzburg - Budapest for 4 people.

 

[Traveller1955]

I find by booking 90 days out on Bahn.de that excellent prices appear but be warned they quickly disappear. Just do your preparation and wait as 9.00 am in Sydney is just after midnight in Germany so little competition at the 90 day opening. Similar experience for eurostar and Thalays. The fun is in the planning. German rail has inter state rail travel on the State card such as Bavaria card which gets you to Salzburg as well for a very low per person fare. I enjoy train travel particularly in Germany. Last year we were on an ICE train from Stuttgart to Koln and we made 318 km per hour on the viewing screen. No rocking!!!