Eurorail train pass

It depends on the train system. In Italy all trains except Regionale require a seat reservation at an additional fee. In France, train pass are limited to just a few seats per train so those seats need to be reserved well in advance and the fee can be substantial depending on the train. In Germany it is a mix. You can reserve a seat at an additional cost or take your chances. If the train is full, you don't sit. So it just depends. In general train passes are not the best deal financially anymore but they do provide some convenience. Without knowing your travel schedule, difficult to determine if a pass would be cost effective.

Are you sure that a pass is right for your itinerary? A lot of people seem to buy them and discover later that it would have been less expensive just to buy the tickets they needed. Ticket prices include the reservation fee on trains with mandatory seat reservations, and if you're in a position to lock down your itinerary and buy tickets early, you can get big discounts.

Before you buy any rail pass -- before, not after -- thoroughly read the advice at www.seat61.com
Many North Americans seem to assume that a pass is essential. Think in the other direction: Find out how much individual fares will cost, then look at the passes. Prime caution: Trains requiring seat reservations, usually the higher-speed connections between cities, also require pass-holders to purchase those reservations separately. That adds to the hassles and to the expense. Some experts also say that such reservations may be limited by a quota, unlike the open sales on individual fare purchases. See what Seat61 thinks, but it is inevitable that you will have to go to individual train operators (such as SNCF in France) for research. Like any other simple solution, one pass is not the answer to everything.

I speak from the perspective of someone who has used a EuRail Pass. They might save you some money - but probably not if you are taking trains that also require a reservation. I got tired of conductors pointing this out when they checked our tickets.

Bear in mind that, especially in France, they limit the number of reservations available to people traveling with EuRail Passes.

I say this without rancor - a EuRail Pass is probably not the way to go.

I have had good experiences with a Eurorail pass in Scandinavia (Sweden and Norway) last summer. Our journeys were from Oslo to Bergen, Stockholm to a small town in southern Sweden (Morrum - my wife has cousins, there), Morrum to Oslo and, as we were given a 'free day' with our pass (buy three days of use in a 30 day period, get a bonus day 'free') which we used in a one-day round trip from Oslo to Lillehammer.
Our travel needs were fulfilled by our rail pass, but a good deal of that fulfillment had to do with the particulars of our travel demands.

Several suggestions have been made to carefully identify your itinerary and do some price comparisons. That is a good idea.

Here is the direct link to The Man In Seat 61's discussion of rail passes. Make sure you thoroughly understand all his points before buying any pass: https://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets

And don't assume you need first class for comfortable travelling. Second class in the train is business class in a plane.

Hi,

Should you encounter that pass quota in France (I have a few times), it's no big deal, more of a nuisance, certainly not important enough to preclude using a Pass on a TGV in France.

Ask when the next departure is, or if you have a 1st class Pass, and due to the Pass quota no seats are available, ask about 2nd class. Worse scenario is you may have to change to the next date for departure. It also depends where you are going, ie within France or crossing over to Germany, via Metz or Forbach. (I don't go the northern route via Belgium). I've never had to do that, change my dep date, when told of the Pass quota. I just changed to 2nd class, got that reservation, or vice versa, ie, I had a 1st class Pass, wanted to sit in 2nd class using the Pass, was told of the Pass quota applying to 2nd class. Then I asked about 1st class, which was ok, assuming the SNCF guy was telling me the truth in the first place, so ended up buying a 1st class reservation.

Now, this was always in the summer (high season) and almost last minute or just the day before when encountering the Pass quota.

See Do I Need Seat Reservations?. Links on that page take you to further pricing details, located on our single-country rail description pages.

Generally, the DB schedule link at Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online is your best resource to see which leg(s) of any trip are "subject to compulsory reservation." But note that the site has failed to attach that notation on Italian trains for the past year, even though they're required for InterCity, EuroCity, and Frecce trains (anything faster than a regional train in Italy). The notation "Global price" does mean much the same thing, but not in clear English.

Countries that don't tend to require seat assignments on daytime trains include Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, parts of "Eastern Europe," Ireland, and Great Britain (covered by a BritRail pass, not a Eurail pass).