Should I return my Eurail pass? Guidance for solo, first time backpacker

There are two fairly distinct schools of thought on passes. Me - personally I love the flexibility and don't mind paying for it. We traveled on one for a month and NEVER HAD to make reservations. There were a couple of trips that took us longer (used regional trains) because of that but that was in France & Belgium. If your mom will will be with you there then make your pass reservations when you purchase her point to point ticket. The other place I hear needs reservations is Italy but I can find trains in Italy that do not require reservations as well.

The DB site is the best for finding trains & schedules. I use that and a map to find my routes.

What we love is the ability to stay somewhere an extra night if we want or leave early if wanted. We can also change our minds on where we are going...there have been times we would show up at the train station and see what train was leaving in the next 15 minutes and get on it.

If you are staying in hostels you will likely meet up with fellow travelers - chances are you may want to divert your plan at some point.

Travelcat, before you spend any more time trying to figure out whether you'd be better off returning the pass for a refund, be sure that is an actual possibility. The last time I checked, refunds were not allowed on passes that include extra (free) days. There may be a similar prohibition on refunds for passes purchased at a discount.

As per the previous response, not all trains require reservations. When you're deciding what train to take, always look at the trip duration, not just the departure time. Sometimes you'll find that the slow/cheap/unreserved train doesn't really take much more time than the fast train. So you'll sometimes have a money-saving choice. You're moving around a lot, and I don't know how many of your trips will be practical via unreserved trains (few travelers would choose a 6-hour train instead of a 2-1/2-hour train to avoid a reservation fee), but probably some will be. On trips with unreserved trains as an option, the pass will allow you to hop off the train if you come to a place that looks interesting, then continue your trip on a later train.

And having the pass allows you to avoid the very high walk-up fares charged in some countries. You can be a spur-of-the-moment traveler in most countries without paying a fare penalty. Just be cautious about travel around weekends and holidays, since reserved trains occasionally do sell out.

You haven't mentioned France. That seems like the trickiest country for using a rail pass, because SNCF has a seat quota for users of rail passes. It is possible to find oneself in the position of not being able to buy a reservation on the desired train even though seats are available. And those French reservations can be very costly.

Although rail passes are typically refundable 80%, some sale passes are not, so check the fine print. The fact that you still plan to visit more than a dozen destinations over two months says to me that you likely will make good use of the value paid (of about $770).

I would not expect you to pay "considerably more," for required seat assignments, but a small percentage more. Among your destinations, a few route reservations are more expensive, such as Brussels-Paris by Thalys and Paris-Basel by TGV Lyria. It's cheaper to reserve a domestic Paris-Strasbourg TGV if you don't mind one extra connection on your travel day to Muerren. This is not a big slow-down; it does come up in schedule options without making a special search. Most daytime trains within Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and destinations further east don't require reservations.

Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. It's pretty accurate to show you which legs of a trip are "subject to compulsory reservation" when you view the details (with connection points). For some reason, it's not currently showing those notes for the faster trains in Italy but they do require a seat assignment at some point before boarding (Frecce/Eurostar such as Florence-Rome for €10 and EuroCity or InterCity for €5). And for some other reason, passholders are asked to make reservations between Vienna and Budapest, even though RailJet trains don't otherwise require them.

Yes, your mother coming and buying a different type of ticket does complicate the issue. If she were only traveling in 2 countries, she could buy a 2nd class pass, but 3 countries would push her to buy a 1st-class version, she wouldn't get any partner discount, and she probably only needs 4 days of train travel. Without any pass, she won't get any discounts on the Swiss mountain lifts, but do remember to show your pass to get your 25% discounts when you buy tickets from Interlaken up the valley.

The good news is that you only have this problem on 4 of your longer travel days. One way around this would be to book by phone with Rail Europe for the Paris-Strasbourg reserved train. The phone agent can manually try to seat you together with your two ticket types, although there are fees for phone service. Or, you can book them online for a bit less and just take pot-luck for where the seat assignments land. You are free to walk around the train, sit in an unused seat, or to ask someone to switch. It's also possible that www.trainline.eu would have a function for requesting seats near each other.

Mom can buy her Swiss tickets in Basel if she doesn't plan to get any type of Swiss Travel Pass; or she might get a Half-Fare Card which also starts working from Basel. For your departure from Switzerland, train station staff there can book the next leg of Italian trains and required reservations. For your travel in Italy, if you book ahead at www.trenitalia.com, there is a way to request seats together, or again in a train station or travel agency would not be hard.

Planning out two months of travel is a project but you just have to take it one step at a time.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful and detailed responses! I've never planned a trip this huge before so hearing some reassurance and simple guidelines is a huge help.

From what you've all said, I think I'm going to stick with my rail pass and make most of my reservations when I arrive in Europe. With regard to my mother, isn't it cheaper for non-passholders to purchase tickets as far in advance as possible? You were talking about booking the next leg of her travel while in the previous country, which threw me for a bit of a loop. And would you recommend getting a Swiss pass for her? We haven't quite finalized what our activities in the Berner Oberland will be quite yet, so I'm guessing that might dictate whether or not it's worthwhile.

It really depends on the route how much cheaper point to point tickets will be in advance. Price it out both ways using fictitious dates for the same day/days in advance travel and then you can decide which way to go. The more time you spend on the different rail sites the more comfortable you will become with checking schedules.

Hi,

With two months traveling time, I would keep that Pass esp since you got it at a 20% reduction. With that travel time I can make that Pass work, and certainly you can too, it depends on one's travel style and squeezing out more time.

If the cities listed above are in the order you intend to see them, there are two night train routes, Berlin to Munich via Hannover, and Budapest to Prague. Your reasoning in terms of ease and flexibility are totally valid. Taking the two night train routes will certainly help if you don't get a couchette or sleeper, both of which are extra on top of the Pass. There are young women backpacker tourists of other nationalities who take night trains sitting in compartments or the general seating area. True, I've rarely seen Americans, so what? I use a Pass, a two country one, 2nd class, 11 days/2 mos and use point to point tickets, since I got the extra travel day, starting in mid-May.

Hi,

Regarding you concern on mandatory reservations, the regional train in all countries do not require you to have a reservation. In Austria, Czech Rep, Hungary and Germany you don't need a reservation to board. Say, you are taking a train from Germany to Vienna, no reservation is mandatory In Austria your pass is valid on the Westbahn trains, if you decide to use it, otherwise buy the Westbahn ticket after you board from the conductor, which is cheaper than an Austrian Railways (OeBB) ticket.

If you don't mind sticking mostly to slower regional trains, I'd say keep the pass. You will still be able to go to the places you were planning to go to when you bought it and thought it was a good deal, it just might take a little longer than you had planned. Some countries like France and Italy exact a surcharge for the fastest trains and limit the pass holder users on them, but the regional trains should always be accessible. In Germany, none of the trains require reservations, and if you think you might want a reservation on a longer trip where you don't want to risk standing, reservations are only 4,50€/seat more.

You won't be limited to only slower, regional trains but they can be a good choice between Belgium and the Netherlands, to avoid a reserved Thalys train. Thalys basically has a monopoly between Brussels and Paris (if you're taking that route).

Faster trains in Italy have no artificial limit on the number of pass holders who can reserve places. The Italian tickets are not terribly expensive, even at full fare, and part of your connections to/from the Cinque Terre will naturally be by regional trains that don't have either reservations or advance discounts. Therefore I suggested booking your Swiss departure there for the ease of letting someone else put the pieces together. Swiss trains also don't tend to have advance discounts.

If you're ready, your mom can book online for an advance discount between Florence and Rome, but she may only save 15 euros in Standard class. Deeper discounts are already sold out for some May departures, having gone on sale in January.

France's fast TGV trains can have artificial limits for pass holders, and Mom will save more by booking that ticket ahead, so book that one as soon as you're committed to a date. These also go on sale 3-4 months out.

The choice of a Swiss Travel Pass for your mom partly depends on how long you'll be there. The cheapest versions with maximum coverage are for 3 or 4 consecutive days. However the one-month Half Fare Card for tourists at $126 is an easier decision - a small investment that is bound to save her money, assuming you'll take some mountain lifts in addition to your main rail travel days Basel - Muerren - Italian border.