Is a Eurail pass worth it for our trip?

I hope someone else can speculate; I'm not knowledgeable enough about fares on those routes to make an educated guess. But answering these questions may help:

• On what date is your first planned train trip?
• How long is your trip (days from first train to last train)?
• Are you flying from Berlin to Brussels? You didn't mention that leg.
• Are you prepared to lock down your exact itinerary way ahead of time (buying non-refundable/non-changeable tickets), or do you want the flexibility to adjust your travels dates as you go?

I assume you realize that if you don't want to sit up all night, you'll need to book couchettes (or sleepers) on the night trains and pay for them, and that when you take a train requiring a seat reservation, that will also be an extra cost.

The French travel legs are a bit dicey for trips not planned well in advance because SNCF has reservation quotas for passholders. There might be plenty of extra seats on a train but no reservation slots available for passholders.

Starts in mid June, lasts 25 days. Yes we are flying Berlin to Brussels and yes we are willing to lock in.

How big is the group?

Are you the only adults or are you 18 too?

Thanks for providing a pretty good summary of the routes. But more clarity would be helpful on which routes are on separate travel days, since that's what most rail passes count. Are the trips to and from Bruges are on different travel days, with an overnight stay there?

Have you checked schedules for all these trains? Most summer schedules should now be available through the DB link at Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online.

If you're not visiting Paris, then I strongly recommend that you fly from Amsterdam to Barcelona, rather than changing stations in Paris and paying Thalys and TGV reservation fees. There's no direct overnight train from Paris to Barcelona or even to the border. French night trains will be further reduced from July 1, although there still will be a route serving Marseille (possible to connect from there to Barcelona, in two steps) and Nice. See www.skyscanner.com for budget flights.

If using a flexi version of a Eurail pass, then any direct, overnight train starts use of one travel day, which is the day of arrival. Any connections that you need before boarding the overnight train count as the previous day (or you can buy separate tickets).

A Eurail Select pass for 6 travel days spread over just Italy-Austria-Germany-Benelux costs about $310, but the Vienna-Berlin night train runs via Czechia, so that's another reason why you might be looking at a Global pass, starting from $340 for 6 days within a month. Seat and sleeper reservation fees are extra and we'd recommend booking to/from Paris at the same time that you buy the pass. Again, how many days you'd actually use/want depends on issues mentioned above.

I spot-checked current fares Vienna-Berlin on the Deutsche Bahn website. You could buy a ticket (non-refundable/non-changeable) today for travel on June 20 (randomly selected date) for just 39 euros. That fare will escalate as others snap up the bargain tickets, but it's available right now.

I looked at Venice to Obertraun on the OBB website, buying today and traveling on June 16. The night train is currently available at 54.80 euros, but other trains are as low as 39 euros. Perhaps you could get that price on your actual travel date. Again, the low price will not be available forever and is non-changeable/non-refundable.

Also on the OBB website, the Obertraun-Vienna leg is currently available at 19 euros, and the entire Obertraun-Berlin trip is priced at 48 euros or 76.20 euros for June 20.

Traveling east from Obertraun to Vienna to pick up the night train adds 4 to 4-1/2 hours to the trip to Berlin. If you were willing to depart from Obertraun at 12:28 PM, you could be in Berlin at 11:10 PM the same day and sleep in a real bed. That ticket (for June 20) would cost you just 39 euros today (via the DB website). There's also a connection through Mannheim for 39 euros that includes 6 hours on a EuroNight train and means under 11 hours on the train, vs. about 14-1/2 hours for what you're proposing to do.

All the above prices include reservation fees where required.

It looks to me as if you can do this more cheaply by buying point-to-point tickets if you're prepared to buy them now.

Thanks all for your responses, I broke it up by travel day as I intended it to be originally but as I have been told, it seems there is a better way to get from Obertraun to Berlin, I'm open to suggestions. To answer some questions, we are all 18 and I would be open to fly from Amsterdam to Barcelona however we sort of wanted to have a nice full day to just relax on the train and then in Paris we would visit our family friends so we would prefer to train but if it makes much more sense to fly, then we would settle.

Our itinerary right now looks like this.

6/12-6/15: Rome
6/16-6/17: Venice
6/18-6/19: Obertraun
6/20-6/23: Berlin
6/24: Fly into Brussels b/c the flights were $12 landing in Belgium at 8. We want to stop and spend a few hours in Bruges then will train to Amsterdam and sleep there.
6/24-6/27: Amsterdam
6/28: Train to Paris, night train to Latour de Carol.
6/29-7/2: Local train in the morning to Barcelona, spend rest of time there.

Latour de Carol! A destination I never would have expected to see mentioned here, especially given that you are not going to Andorra.

Have you investigated that connection? I may be missing something, but it looks as if the night train gets you to Latour de Carol at 9:50 AM and you sit around until after 3:30 PM, whereupon you embark on a 5-hour trek involving one bus and two trains, arriving in Barcelona at 8:34 PM. That's about 22 hours on trains and buses. The TGV does the run in 6-1/2 hours. There are currently some 79-89 euro tickets available for June 28 and 29, but the fare can go much higher.

Or you could fly. There are lots of non-stops on that route, with ticket prices for June 28 as low as $44 plus various fees (do partial booking on Skyscanner to see total cost). If you're traveling light this could be a good option, but do pay attention to the airports being used. Some of the budget carriers use obscure airports that are time-consuming and somewhat costly to reach.

I assume you're trying to use a lot of night trains to save on lodging costs. I did that myself when I was 20. But there's such a thing as false economy, and I think a 22-hour train ride is over the line. Think of the money you can save by not buying railpasses and spend some of it on a cheap hostel or hotel.

Remember you will need to pay supplements/seat reservations for the following journeys on premium high speed services, as well as sleeper/couchette on the night service.

1: Rome to Venice
2: Venice to Linz by night
4: Vienna to Berlin
5: Brussels/Antwerp to Amsterdam
6: Amsterdam to Paris
7: Paris to Barcelona

I was going to say, even with a railpass, you still have to pay the regular price for any kind of sleeping accommodations, be it a 6-bunk couchette, a 4-bunk couchette or a sleeping compartment. Otherwise, its just a seat. So price that in compared to a hostel.

Since there seems to be a lot of holes in our itinerary, what would you recommend we do?

Thanks for confirming the allocation of days. That is how they'd be counted for a rail pass (7 days).

I do still feel that an Amsterdam-Barcelona flight is a better value for your time and money, versus using 2 days of a rail pass plus $30 for a Thalys seat reservation and $32 for an overnight couchette bunk. Amsterdam and Barcelona airports are relatively close in, with easy local transport. Instead of spending half days in Bruges, Paris, and Latour de Carol, I'd spend more "quality time" in Bruges or any of your other destinations.

Laura, the OP has mentioned visiting a family friend in Paris.

The stop at Obertraun is adding some travel time and complexity, but I assume they've selected it for a reason, not just as a generic "cute little town".

Cribbing from the post of almost 5 hours ago:

6/12: Arrive Rome (4 nights)
6/16: Train to Venice (2 nights)
6/18: Overnight Train to Obertraun (2 nights)
6/20: Train to Berlin (4 nights) -- NIGHT TRAIN OR NOT?
6/24: Fly to Brussels; train via Bruges (visit briefly) to Amsterdam (4 nights)
6/28: Train to Paris; visit friend; night train to Latour de Carol (1 night)*
6/29-7/2: Local train in the afternoon, arriving Barcelona after 8 PM* (4 nights)
* OR 6/28: TGV PARIS - BARCELONA (5 nights)
OR 6/28: FLY PARIS - BARCELONA (5 nights)
7/3: Depart for home

I'd do nearly anything to avoid traveling from Paris to Barcelona via the Pyrenees on slow trains when there's no time to stop along the way. I recommend choosing one of the faster solutions for the Paris-Barcelona leg.

Eurail Youth Global Pass works out at US$56.50 per day.
http://www.eurail.com/eurail-passes/global-pass
Five day pass currently offers one free extra day, and you only need the 6 days below, because I would buy a walk up ticket for Obertraun to Vienna.

1: Rome to Venice
2: Venice to Linz by night
4: Vienna to Berlin
5: Brussels/Antwerp to Amsterdam
6: Amsterdam to Paris
7: Paris to Barcelona

If you have to purchase seat reservations once in Europe for each sector, it really negates the convenience of a pass, especially with time wasted at ticket offices queuing to be served.

Six sectors is not much to commit up and book in advance. My thinking is it will probably be cheaper to do it this way anyhow.

Hi,

Going from Vienna to Berlin can be done easily without having to go through Czechia, if the Pass you get excludes Czechia, as long as the Pass has Germany and Austria. There is no direct night connection Vienna to Berlin (I'll be taking the same night route in June.) You take the EN train Wien Hbf to Hannover Hbf , change to the ICE for Berlin Hbf. . You cross at Passau. If you don't need it, you don't have to get a couchette or sleeper. Just sleep in your seat in the general seating area, every one else does. Get a seat reservation at the train station ticket counter, show your Pass and or passport. I've never booked a sleeper or couchette, don't need it, and certainly would not pay the money.

True...night trains start at 7pm. If you use the Pass, prior to boarding, you write in the day/month slot the date of your arrival, ie the next morning. But I can tell you every night train I have taken since 2009, (there is a night train planned on every trip) , the first thing the conductor wants to see is not your Pass but the seat reservation. You'll see numerous persons of your age or 20s and 30s taking night trains. Taking a night train means you can squeeze out an extra day. It's no big deal, if they can do it, you can do it.