22 days Eurail Global Pass for Scenic Rail Journey in Europe

OK - Let me start - you will be scolded about buying a rail pass - It is not the cheapest option but sometimes money is NOT the primary concern. We love the freedom of traveling on a rail pass - no reservations except in our arrival city. There are trains that require reservations and a supplement payment for those reservations and TGV & Thalys have very limited (for your dates there will likely be none) seats for pass holders, BUT, do not dismay. Get yourself VERY familiar with the DB site - you can search for trains all over Europe there and find trains and routes that do not require reservations nor supplements. We traveled for a month all over and never needed a reservation nor paid a supplement.

You have a very ambitious itinerary - 10 places in 22 days is a lot and you will have a lot of time on trains - not necessarily a bad thing - sometimes the journey is the destination. Croatia & Slovenia are somewhat "transportationally challenged" so travel within can be slow and not the best connections.

"Will prefer direct trains, less time traveling and more time exploring new countries."

If that is truly the case you will want to trim at least 2 of your stops. I am assuming also that the flights are already booked so keeping Paris is a must. You might consider deleting Slovenia & Croatia and making your way up the Rhine River and through Alsace on you your way to Paris - staying 2 nights in a location before moving on.

Play with the map & various routes and with the DB site.

I would go Croatia - Venice - Switzerland - Paris (your Eurail Pass covers Ferry from Croatia to Italy)

Is this really a question about departing this week? If so, you would have to order a pass this minute and pay for overnight delivery. Maybe you meant next month or next year. Buying a pass in the Vienna main station (when available) costs perhaps 10-20% more.

All of these countries are on the Eurail Select Pass, but Plitvice Park is not served by rail. Flying from Venice to Paris is also usually faster and cheaper than train travel; try www.skyscanner.com. Or you might go to Venice before Switzerland.

How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.

The link the Christi provided shows that you get a 20% discount on SNAV ferries, not full coverage. The discount would not use a counted travel day on a flexi-style pass. There are also cheap flights between Croatia and Rome, probably fewer to Venice.

Thank you Laura for clarifying that. I was guessing they had already purchased a global pass and flights in/out.

Looking for feedback on on a "sample itinerary" for a 22 day trip starting in 4 days? Assuming you're not teasing/trolling us, and you're honestly asking for substantive feedback, here goes...

That's a lot of ground to cover in 22 days! The number of days next to each stop will need to include travel time, and some of those trips are the better part of a day by rail. So based on what you've listed, you're really not giving yourself much time to enjoy any of the places you're traveling so far to visit.

Agree with the earlier post about perhaps eliminating a few stops. Croatia would be one outlier (perhaps Slovenia as well?). Vienna and Paris are also pretty far-flung from the Alps and Venice, which seem to comprise the core of your trip. So if you haven't locked any of that in yet, or any of those places are 'negotiable' for perhaps saving for the next trip, you may want to think about paring down your list of places, both in number and geographical spread.

But if we assume you're going to do all of what you listed, and that the Vienna and Paris ends of your route are non-negotiable, re-ordering the itinerary to look something like this might cut down a bit on some backtracking:

Arrive in Vienna

Vienna-Croatia

Croatia-Slovenia

Slovenia-Venice

Venice-Salzburg (which would include time in Hallstatt)

Salzburg- Innsbruck

Innsbruck-Switzerland

Switzerland-Paris

Depart from Paris

You'd still need to do the math on the number of days spent at each place while accounting for the 8 pretty decently long legs of train travel to get to each place. Of course, since you've given yourself almost 4 whole days to react to feedback, adjust your plans and get all that locked down, you're probably gonna be just fine... : )

It's quite a hectic schedule, and I'd suggest giving up Innsbruck.
Connections by train to parts of Croatia are not very good and you will probably need to purchase 'add on' tours for both Plitvice National Park in Croatia and Lake Bled in Slovenia.
Something like this perhaps ...

June 8 Arrive Vienna
June 10 Hallstatt
June 12 Salzburg
June 14 Zagreb (for Plitvice National Park Croatia)
June 17 Ljubljana (for Lake Bled Slovenia)
June 20 Venice
June 23 Milan
June 24 Switzerland (where ??)
June 27 Paris
June 30 Depart Paris.

Thank you every one for helping out.

The post is real.

Both (H+W) of us are physicians, busy schedules /coverage issues etc added uncertainty and prevented us from detail planning ahead of time.

Ordered global passes 05/31, arrived 06/01/2016.

So far , has booked Marriott for Vienna stay and Park Hyatt for Paris Stay as we knew our arrival and departure cities for sure ( Fully refundable, can be changed if necessary)

Rest of the hotels not booked as rest of the trip not finalized.

Thought was global pass will give us flexibility and freedom to travel . Plan is to book on the morning of arrival to intended location.

If there is better itinerary , we can try to change departure city from Paris to another convenient city.

Thanks again.

Sincerely

Dieharddoc

Personally - I would keep Paris! But I have the "Paris Rule" - if you are in Europe you must go to Paris!

The biggest outlier is Croatia and transportation within is challenging and slow. Innsbruck is also a miss

One of the joys of the rail pass is the ability to change your plans on the fly - have an itinerary but it is not engraved in stone. That is what we do - if we miss a place - we call that a reason to return!

The best advice I can give you - TRAVEL LIGHT!!!! One carry on size bag and a purse or day pack - you will thank me about your fourth or fifth time on or off a train - you literally have minutes.

Most trains around Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia (and Germany) don't need reservations. Optional seat assignments can be purchased locally for trains that offer them.

That's not the same for a fast TGV train to Paris, whether it departs from within the country or from a neighboring country. These do limit the number of rail pass travelers. Try to decide and reserve that train soon or at least a week ahead.

• The best train connections from Venice to Paris connect to a French TGV at either Milan or Torino. There are only three of these per day. Other connections go via Switzerland.
• Pass holder reservations are more expensive for TGV Lyria departing directly to Paris from a Swiss city. They're cheapest from Strasbourg (France) or Germany, and mid-priced from Milan or Torino.

To get the most our of your pass within Switzerland, see the Swiss blow-up on your Eurail map, plus the bonus list and our Swiss summary.

Thank you.

Going to carry only one convertible carryon/backpack/detachable daypack per person.

Will eliminate Innsbruck as suggested.

Be sure and add international service with data to your smart phone. Google maps is fantastic to find your way around - when getting directions just pick the walking icon - and you can access the DB site on the go.

Not sure where your language skills are but download a translate app - google translate works well - even translates text via the camera.

Have a great time!

If you have questions along the way there is almost always someone on this board who can answer them. I will apologize for the is this for real comments - some folks here can't wrap their head around taking a trip without at least months of careful planning - me 20 minutes - I'm out the door! This is probably one of the nicest (most civilized) forums on the web!

Oh - and don't forget to validate your rail pass at the first train station before using it.

Thank you for all your help and suggestions.

As per google maps, fastest way from Lake Bled, Slovenia to Venice is by car. ~ 3hours

From Venice, it appears there are trains to Milan.

From Milan , plan to enter Zermatt in Switzerland by train to St Moritz. ( Glacier express)

St Moritz to Tirano (Bernina Express)

How do I get back to Interlaken for ride on Jungfraubahn train? Google shows ~ 7 hour train ride.

From Zurich to Paris by train ? ~ 7 hours.

(It appears will have to drop Plitvice national park in Croatia.)

While the 3 hrs by car looks faster at first glance it will probably be pretty close - time wise with the train - and on the train you can both relax and enjoy the countryside passing by. By the time you add picking up and returning a car you might save an hour. If you do decide on the car be prepared for a hefty fee to drop the car in a different country and you will NEED to get an International Driving Permit before you leave the US - $15 at most AAA offices while you wait.

There is a train Mon to Fri from Bled to Venice which takes 5 1/2 hours

Bled Jezero dep 08:37 R 4211 Regionalzug Direction: Nova Gorica

Nova Gorica arr 10:12

transfer 40 min.

onward journey by bus or taxi

Gorizia Centrale dep 11:42 R 2452 R 2453 Regionalzug Direction: Venezia Santa Lucia

Runs as R 2452 up to Udine, then as R 2453

Venezia Santa Lucia arr 13:56

Google Maps is not the best place for train info - DB site. I am not well versed in the Alp trains so I will leave that to others.

Zurich to Paris via TGV is 4 hrs

Zürich HB 09:34 4:03 0 TGV

Paris Gare de Lyon 13:37

Hi,

If flexibility is the main concern, then get the Pass. Forget about the savings whether you break even with a Pass or not. The Pass has its advantages as it has disadvantages. It just depends on you which takes priority. With your itinerary I myself would not get the Pass esp as it pertains to Austria.

OP already has pass - so that train has left the station! 😏

sorry

From Milan , plan to enter Zermatt in Switzerland by train to St Moritz. ( Glacier express)

St Moritz to Tirano (Bernina Express)

How do I get back to Interlaken for ride on Jungfraubahn train? Google shows ~ 7 hour train ride.

From Zurich to Paris by train ? ~ 7 hours.

To avoid a lot of backtracking, from Milan, take the train to Tirano, then the Bernina Express to St Moritz. Take the Glacier Express from St Moritz to Zermatt. Then take the train from Zermatt to Interlaken for the Jungfraujoch. If scenic rides are part of the purpose, take the "Loetschberger" between Brig and Spiez for the journey from Zermatt to Interlaken. Interlaken to Zurich via Luzern to include the Brunig Pass route. Zurich to Paris there is a TGV-Lyria train every 2 hours that will get you there in 4 hours. A little bit shorter would be to skip Zurich by going from Luzern to Basel and picking up the TGV-Lyria in Basel. 3 hours to Paris.

I agree that the original proposed itinerary would benefit from trimming, and Croatia is a prime candidate for elimination this time around. However, I'd like to point out that Plitvice can be reached by bus from Zagreb. You'd want to spend the night there, though, so you could begin walking early the next day before the crowds arrive, and that might well require making a hotel reservation right away. I'm not aware of any practical public transportation directly from Ljubljana to Plitvice. There conceivably could be bus tours, but any day-trip is going to get you to the park when it's already mobbed.

Bled, Slovenia, is very accessible by bus from Ljubljana (bus station very near train station). And taxis were quite inexpensive in that area last year. That might be a viable option for a short side trip if the public transportation schedules do not cooperate.

Although there are some direct bus services from Slovenia to Venice (DRD, GoOpti), I would go ahead to use the rail pass that you have. I have done the train route via Gorizia that Christi posted and the connection between stations by local bus was easy enough, right in front of the station; two of you would probably take a taxi.

Downloaded translate app. Called At&T for data package ~ $60 for 300mb?. Mainly will use for google maps.

Will finalize trip hopefully by tonight and start making train and hotel reservations for remaining days.

With Paris floods thinking of spending only last 2 days in Paris?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I certainly hope the rains will have abated by the 27 June!

Don't let the current weather change your plans 3+ weeks from now - I expect the weather will change by then.

I am certain you will have a great time - just be careful - once bitten the "Euro-bug" is incurable - the only treatment - more trips!

Update:

Thank you for your suggestions.

Had a wonderful time in Europe.

Google maps/ translate app/eurail pass helped a lot.

Buying 22 consecutive days pass was an overkill.

Alps in Austria/ Switzerland/Italy/Slovenia were wonderful.

Already planning next trip to Europe.

So glad it went well and you had a wonderful time.

Glad you had a great trip! I was wondering how it turned out for you. It seems you have acquired the same affliction we all here suffer from: returner's remorse and already planning my my next trip!

I see you were in Vienna on the same days as I was, if you kept to your schedule. Hectic trips can be done, just takes more organisation. I prefer the direct trains too, no need to transfer