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Rail pass blues

Posted by on

My son and his friend (21 years old) are traveling to Europe this summer flying into London and out of Amsterdam May 22 returning on June 14. I maybe should have given a bit more thought to the return city since they really want to venture down to Rome. It's a long way back to Amsterdam from Rome. I have spent several hours trying to figure out the best rail option and don't feel like I have come to any solid conclusion on the best option, passes or point to point.

Itinerary may look something like this: London, Brussels, Paris, Munich, Rome. Vernazza, maybe somewhere in Switzerland to break up the trip back to Amsterdam. Maybe time to stop in Cologne. They are young and want to see a lot while they are there, thus the number of cities. Any suggestions on train options. Read somewhere that passes may not be needed in Italy? Some passes have surcharges or limited seat availability? Thanks

Posted by
17228 posts

Why don't they fly a budget airline ( EasyJet) from London to Rome and work their way back to Amsterdam?

And yes there will be surcharges to use a Railpass on some trains. They should study the costs and rules carefully before buying one.

Posted by
20947 posts

Sounds to me like they are simply doing the RS best of Europe in 21 Days tour, just starting in London and ending in Amsterdam. I'd skip Brussels. London, Paris, Lauterbrunnen, Vernazza, Florence, Rome, Venice, Munich, Cologne, Amsterdam. 3 nights in London, then 2 nights everywhere else. That's how Rick got his start. You can throw in a night train or two, like Venice-Munich. or Munich-Amsterdam to save a bit of time.

To be thorough, price the itinerary using Eurorail Pass, and point to point. You can start with advance purchase nonrefundable tickets for London-Paris, Paris-Switzerland, then full price tickets in Italy and Germany. If you want night trains, buy them in advance as well. Keep a bit of flexibility for Italy as tickets aren't too expensive and there are options using cheaper Regionale trains.

Posted by
7 posts

Thanks for the idea of the flight. I don't think I would have thought of that. I appreciate your comments.

Posted by
1717 posts

Hello mcclainrj,
(Edit)
I like the suggestion by Lola. Search for an affordable airline flight : London area to Rome. If they will be over there at Britain and Europe a total of 21 whole days, I suggest : delete Munich from the trip itinerary. They could ride in railroad trains from Rome to the other places in the itinerary , including Lauterbrunnen (near Interlaken) in Switzerland, ending at Amsterdam. Thus, they would go to a total of six (6) countries. The railroad train ride from Rome to Vernazza would be the coastal route, via Pisa and La Spezia. If they can not find an affordable airline flight from London area to Rome, search for a Ryan Airlines flight from an airport in the "London" area to the airport of Florence in Italy, and they could ride in a railroad train from Florence to Rome.
The travel route in the entire trip could be
London : be there 3 whole days.
(fly to) Rome : be there 2 whole days.
Vernazza : be there 2 whole days.
Lauterbrunnen (trains, via Milan, Lucerne, Interlaken) : be there 2 whole days.
Paris : be there 3 whole days.
Brussels : be there one whole day.
Amsterdam : be there 2 whole days.

(Edit) I looked at the flight schedules of Ryan Air. It has an airplane flying from Stanstead airport of "London" to the airport of Pisa in ITALY. I thought that airplane goes to the airport of Florence before it goes to Pisa. The airplane departs from Stanstead airport at 8:30 a.m. The lowest price that I saw, for a one way flight for one person is 41.99 Great Britain Pounds.

Posted by
16895 posts

Rail passes do not cover the Eurostar train between London and either Brussels or Paris; those tickets are for sale now and should be booked early for best price.

Read about pass holder seat reservations. Reservations are expensive for the Thalys train, which has a monopoly on the direct Brussels-Paris route; that is another route for which I would buy a separate ticket now. Seat reservations from Paris to Munich or Paris to Strasbourg (toward Switzerland, cheaper than the train to Basel) are less expensive but still limited and best to reserve soon; you can add them into the same order with a rail pass, for instance. France does not allow you to be very flexible with a rail pass, but their other travel areas won't have that problem.

To save time, it certainly makes sense to meander south by train and then take a budget flight from Rome to Amsterdam. If you do that, then they might be able to choose a smaller rail pass, such as a Select pass for 5 travel days in 4 neighboring countries - such as France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy (but not Benelux or Austria) - at $311 per youth in 2nd class or 6 days at $340. To cover more travel in between, the Eurail Global pass (for 28 countries) currently has a special offer of 17 consecutive days on the continent for $436.

Posted by
5697 posts

Suggestion -- outsource some of this research to the 21-year-olds so if they have to make changes mid-trip they will have had some hands-on experience reading timetables and making travel decisions.

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