Best train. Option

Leslee, your daughter does not need a pass. What she needs to experience is walking into a real train station and the process of buying tickets in one. For most youths in the U.S.A., this is an experience they usually don't have. Her journey is very easy to plan. If you have the precise travel dates down, you can buy the tickets online right now. If not, she can walk into the train station, buy the ticket, and board the train.

You can see the train schedules right now. For Paris/Luxembourg and for Luxembourg/Brussels, you can see the runs on http://en.voyages-sncf.com. Just don't select USA as your Ticket Collection Country. If you do, the website will try to switch you to RailEurope which you do not want. Select Australia or Argentina. Don't worry, you're not going to these countries to get tickets. It's just keeping you from switching to RailEuroe. Both runs have direct trains. Fares for each run are about 40Euro. At Brussels-Midi, it's a frequent local train to and from Bruges. The website to see these runs is https://www.b-europe.com/Travel This is the official Belgian railway website. You can also see the train runs from Bruges to Amsterdam on this website. Two choices here. Your daughter can take all local trains to Amsterdam (3 of them) for 47Euro. Trip takes 4+ hours. Or, she can take the local back to Brussels-midi and take the direct Thalys train for 86Euro. Trip is one hour faster.

Buying a pass does not help you learn any of this. A bit of homework in the travel books and on the train websites will help a whole lot more. From the train websites, she can get an idea of what trains are available. Note also that on the Thalys train system, you will pay a supplemental fee to get your seat reservation. Thalys has one of the highest supplemental fees in Europe at up to 39Euro extra. Also, Thalys limits their train seats to Eurail passholders. Spend an extra hour on the train and take the locals to Amsterdam. It will be a wonderful learning experience.

bahn.de (the German rail website) is one of the best to plan your trip through. You'll buy through the sites that Larry mentioned but Bahn can help with figuring out schedules and routes. Typically, point-to-point tickets are better than a pass - and this will be even more true because of your daughter's age. Under the youth pass, she would be riding second class, but you would be riding first. You could buy two adult passes, but again - it will typically work out cheaper to buy separate tickets for each place you're going - not trying to put it all into a pass (especially when you include the seat reservations that Larry details). You can certainly walk into a train station and by the tickets - but that you'll often save more money if you plan ahead and can get deals. Usually these tickets are less expensive because they're non-refundable/non-exchangeable, but if you can lock yourself into a certain time/route, you can save money by buying ahead. Check online and see if any of these deals are available. If they're not, then you can allow yourself more flexibility and buy in the train station the day you're traveling.

I have to say, sure - not all American young adults have experience planning and purchasing train travel, but that is because traveling by train is so limited in the United States. That's the same with adults... you can't fault us youth for that. I planned and purchased tickets for Euro travel since I was 19. A year later, I studied abroad for a semester and traveled to 11 countries while there. Now, in my early-mid 20s, I've planned all the details for a 2 week trip with my in-laws. Anyway, it seems to me that Leslee is traveling with her daughter - not trying to do the planning for her because her daughter feels incapable. Young people get a bad rep on here sometimes, and I'm not sure it's all valid.

Hi,
I have questions about how to buy train tickets from Chamonix to Annecy to Colmar and to Luxembourg if I only want to take the trains that doesn't require reservations. My trip will start the mid of June and lasts a month. I plan to spend nights in each of the cities. Would any of you please advise me on which websites I should get on and how to read the schedule? Thank you.

Emma,
You should really start a new thread rather than tagging on to an existing one. Go to www.bahn.com.

Sorry, I'm new to this forum. Thanks for the advice.

www.seat61.com answers all your questions, has loads of tips, and how to get the cheapest prices.

No pass. Follow Larry's advice. Do you have exact dates for us?