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Lots of Eurail Questions

Posted by (Akron, Ohio, USA) on

We're planning a trip to Germany, Brugge and Amsterdam. We'd originally planned on purchasing the 6-day Germany/Benelux pass but while doing research, I've come up with some questions.

I know that even with the pass, sometimes reservations must be made for seats on certain trains. When I go to the German Deutsche Bahn's website and search for connections, only some of the trains are marked with an "R" that indicates that reservations are required while other trains going to the same destination do not indicate required reservations.

Our rail plans include:
Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim
Mannheim to Bacharach
Bacharach to Cologne
Cologne to Brugge
Brugge to Amsterdam
Amsterdam Central to Schipol
(no overnight trains, no trip longer than about 3.5 hours)

So, my questions include:

Are the Passes good on all trains or only some?

Why do some trains require reservations while others to the same destination do not?

Is it likely I'd be able to avoid trains that require reservations for my rail plans?

The reason I ask is because I compared the cost of a Pass with the cost of purchasing point-to-point tickets when we arrive in Europe and if we did not have to pay reservation fees the Pass would be a better deal but if we were to pay to reserve seats for most of our trips, it would be smarter to just buy p2p tix at the stations as we go.

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

~Heather in beautiful Akron, Ohio

Posted by
12 posts

Thank you for all of the responses! I did email Rick Steves Rail Department and they were very helpful. Thanks for all of the advice!

Heather B

Posted by
6898 posts

The most likely reason that you see an R on some runs and not on others is that the local regional trains do not require a reservation. These train are regional and stop at every stop. Thus, the runs take more time. Your pass should be good for the base fare without any additional fees. The faster intercity and inter-country trains require reservations.

Posted by
852 posts

See "Railpasses" at the top of this page.,,

Hi H.B.,
... can't do any harm to start questions by asking the Rick Steves Railpasses Department. Just click on the tab.
... bon voyage! P

Posted by
12 posts

Thank you. I've read this page many times but still had questions as I've found conflicting info on other rail sites.

Posted by
19284 posts

Heather, I think passes will be valid on all of these train, although some, like Thalys, require a large supplement. On some lines, like Mannheim to Bacharach, the express trains (IC, ICE) are popular and require reservations. On the other hand, if you buy the reservation only (for a railpass), it is probably only €4, from DB.

For the German part of the trip (FRA-Mannheim-Bacharach-Köln), by spending 1-2½ hours more on regional trains, your rail fares would total about $75 each, which leaves only the Köln-Brugge-Amsterdam portion to justify the remaining $188 each for railpasses. FRA to Mannheim can be done with a regional fare of €14,60 ($23.36) via Frankfurt-Niederrad for an extra 48 min vs express. Mannheim to Bacharach is €13 ($20.80) each with a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket and take 23 min longer. Finally, Bacharach to Köln is €19,30 ($30.88) each with a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket and DB tickets (€6,30) from Bonn to Köln. The Bacharach to Köln leg would take ¼ to 1¼ hours longer depending on if you had to spend time in Koblenz to buy the Bonn-Köln tickets.

BTW, I figure Köln to Brugge at €40,80 and Brugge to Schiphol at €50,90. That's €91,70 - $147. Total would be $222, not enough to justify the railpass, unless you want to spend an extra $40 to avoid having to having to buy all those tickets individually.

Posted by
61 posts

If you can't find the answer in print, call Rick's office - they staff a desk specifically for answering these sort of questions. Very friendly, and definitely knowledgeable.

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