This will be my first time in Europe and my first time using a train system. I am having a hard time deciding weather to purchase a pass or just buy point to point tickets. I will be on a pretty tight schedule (mid-late September). My schedule is as follows:
Amsterdam --> Berlin
Berlin --> Prague
Prague --> Vienna
Vienna --> Salzburg (Austria)
Salzburg --> Munich
4 Country pass or individual tickets?
Any tips and/or advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you :)
I have never bought a Eurail pass, always advance nonrefundable tickets, except when there is a cheaper option with local or regional tickets. Salzburg-Munich is one of those cases where a Bayern Ticket is cheaper, especially if more than one is travelling. That ticket is 23 euro for the first person and 5 euro for each additional person up to 4 extra persons. Must be used only on regional trains after 9 am weekdays. Good for the rest of the day including U-bahns and buses.
Westbahn runs hourly between Vienna and Salzburg where you buy your low cost tickets from the conductor.
Check at the websites of the German (www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml) and that of the Austrian railways (https://tickets.oebb.at/en/ticket) what advance booking of your trips will cost. (Mind: the schedules for September are not yet available, but checking with a train early June will give you a good price indication.)
The outcome is probably that advance buying of tickets is the most economical way.
Eurail Passes are almost NEVER a good deal unless you plan to spend an inordinate amount of time on trains. If you've got a very long distance to travel then by all means jump on a cheap one way flight of which there are MANY discount carriers all over Europe. Don't get suckered into a Eurail Pass. Point to Point usually cheaper. Eurail Passes do NOT include a reservation, but if you buy a point to point ticket and a reservation is required then the reservation is automatically included with the ticket. THere are other drawbacks - but if you're a novice train traveler then definitely stay away from Eurail Passes.
It is called, Doing Homework. Really the only way you know for sure is go through each national rail site, get the price of the ticket and add it up. Another kind of quick way is to look at the daily cost of the rail pass and compare to single tickets. Then you know for sure. Standard advice these days without a lot of research is that rail passes seldom pay.
I used to get passes, but it's been about 15 years since I last bought a pass. The price of passes seemed to go up until they were no longer a good deal.
I keep my travel legs shorter now, rather than spend whole days driving or on a train. Point to point is always a better deal for short distances.
I don't qualify for either student or senior discounts. Those might change the equation enough to favor passes.
Hi,
I use a rail pass (w/o the promo 10 days/2 mos), but would I if I had your itinerary "on a pretty tight schedule" for those five listed rides, the answer is no. .
Get the point to point or the adv discount tickets, even though you lock yourself in as regards to flexibility. Because of your time schedule, you don't have much flexibility anyway. If you did, I would tailor the rides differently.
Rail passes have increased in price over the past few years, so they're no longer the deal they used to be many years ago. In many cases these days, discounted advance purchase tickets are more cost effective than a pass. You'll have to do the math to determine which option is better. For the five rail trips you'll be making, I'm not sure a pass will be the least expensive option.
You may find it helpful to have a look at these websites.....
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/should-i-get-a-rail-pass
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm
Although it may not be a concern in the countries you're visiting this time, some rail systems have compulsory seat reservations and these are NOT covered by the passes so you'd have to buy them separately. Not having a valid reservation results in hefty fines in Italy, so if you ever decide to go there you'll need to be aware of that.
As this is your first time in Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as that provides lots of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. After that use the country or city-specific guidebooks to plan sightseeing, transportation within cities, hotels, etc.
"Really the only way you know for sure is go through each national rail site, get the price of the ticket and add it up"
If you just get the price of a full fare ticket they might add up to more than the cost of the rail pass, but that would be wrong. There are a lot of ways to save vs full fare tickets.
For instance, there is a EuroCity train (EC) every two hours from Berlin to Prague. Full fare is 67,60€, but you can get an advance purchase SparPreis (Savings Fare) ticket from the Bahn website for 29€.
Or, Salzburg to Munich would be 32€ to 36€ per person on an EC or RJ (RailJet), but with advance purchase, you could get a ticket for 19€/P. Or, for regional trains, you can purchase a Meridian Guten Tag Ticket right up to train time for only 21€ for the first person.
Every Land (state) in Germany has a regional pass (Länder-Ticket) which allows unlimited travel on regional trains all day for a low price (23€ in Bavaria), and the Bahn has the Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket for weekdays or the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for weekends for unlimited travel all across Germany for a day.
Just don't use full fare tickets in your comparison with a rail pass.
Also remember that in most countries, the faster trains require a supplement (called a reservation) to ride them with a rail pass. Be sure add reservations to the cost of a rail pass.
Thank you all so much for your input! I think I will stick to the point to point tickets. I would like to make advance reservations for each train when it gets closer to my departure date if that's possible. So I should just got to the regional train websites to do that?
Thank you again!
Go to Lee's Bahn Website link. They have the easiest and most reliable site I've used to book tickets in advance. There is also rail europe, but they charge you for every ticket they sell you. I'd only pay extra if you can't figure out how to book through the Bahn website (I don't think you'll have any problem).
You can book advance tickets any time up to your travel day. They sell a certain amount of discount tickets. As the cheapest sell out, the price goes up - so typically the earlier you book the better. Remember a prebooked ticket is like an airline ticket, it's good for the train specified. If you miss the train, you have to buy a new ticket without an advance discount.
A few pieces of language that will be helpful during your trip: Deutsch means German, Bahn means train, Hoff means station, Hauptbahnhoff means main train station. There are different types of trains. Regional is a local train, they stop at all stops, take the longest but cost the least. They'll have an R in the name (e.g. RE for regional express). If you're going to a small town, you need to be on a regional. If you're going from city to city, it's normally better to take an intercity, IC, train but go by the schedule.
In town there are S bahns, I'm not sure the S stands for suburban but that's how I think of them. They get you out to the suburbs. The U bahns are the metros/subways, think underground (even though they aren't always underground). They get you around town.
