Hey Everyone,
I will be using several trains on my upcoming trip to europe and I am trying to decide if I should get a eurail pass or just buy tickets when I get there. I will be going on train from Brussels to Amsterdam; Amsterdam to Paris; Paris to Normandy; Normandy back to Paris; and Paris to London. There may be one other train ride in France if we decide to go to Loire or the southern area but we have no specific plans for that at this time. Any suggestions?
Twenty years ago it was a nobrainer when a couple of trips paid for the pass. Now you need to do some very careful point to point additions and read the fine point of the pass. Most passes require additional fees for seat reservations reduces the saving. So fire up the adding machine.
And the addition of two multi-national rail companies along your route (Thalys and Eurostar) makes the comparison even more complex. Get a solid grasp of your intinerary, because the timing of your trips will also determine if a rail pass is beneficial. If all else fails, call the people at Rick's company and ask for advice. They can help you crunch the numbers.
Where in Normandy are you going to/from? I went from Paris to Bayeux, to Mont-Saint-Michel, and then back via Rennes... the Rennes-Paris route is the TGV high-speed train, which is much more expensive and as a result helped me that I had a pass to cover it. I will go with what the previous people have said and just try to price it out. The best way to do it is to go to http://www.raileurope.com and price out each trip... but then deduct about 1/3 from the price (unfortunately their mark-up varies greatly depending on each trip, but this will give you a rough idea) and then compare that price to the cost of getting a pass.
Don't forget that if you are travelling from Paris to London on the Eurostar, it is not included in any of the passes, but you get a very good preferred rate on the Eurostar if you have a rail pass.
Bob,
it depends how much a rail pass is. I never used one, but I looked at prices alst year. They were very expensive and those that were less expensive ( about $300) only allow you to travel to certain countries,usually 2.
I think someone on this board said he paid about $600. Those passes don't allow you to travel on the high speed trains like Eurostar etc. Paris to Londo on regular train is a long journey.
Have you thought about renting a car? In 2002 I rented a car from Amsterdam for $125/week, 18% VAT included. So far Amsterdam is the cheapest city to rent a car in.
Bob - At some point in time Tim or Lee will respond to your post they are very knowledgeable about train travel in Europe(he has helped me on several occasions).
Avoid Rail Europe web site at all costs. They tend to charge you about 25 - 30 % above the usual fare.
For your train travel in France go to http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/home/. When you make your initial reservation in the box for Select the country for receiving or collecting the tickets: Chose Great Britian.(doing this will not route you to the Rail Europe website). After you have made your reservation and paid for your tickets, all you have to do is bring the credit card you used for tickets and id to the train station and pick up your tickets with no problem.
Tim or Lee - was I fairly accurate with my explanation?
Joel - You get a gold star!
Bob - Since you will be traveling on several high-speed trains for which last-minute tickets can be fairly expensive, if you wait until you get to Europe to buy tickets, you will probably pay more than you would for a railpass, even adding in the reservation fees you'll have to pay for trains that require them. However, if you can commit to specific departure dates and times and book online well in advance--up to 90 days for Thalys trains (Brussels-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Paris) and for TGVs in France--and even longer for the Eurostar for Paris-London, you can get discount fares that will definitely be cheaper than a railpass. One other thing to be aware of is that for Brussels-Amsterdam the fare for IC (Inter City) trains is always the same no matter when you buy it and it is cheaper than the standard fare for Thalys trains on that route. However, booking well in advance at www.thalys.com can get you a really cheap ticket for both Brussels-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Paris. (Thalys is your only choice for Amsterdam-Paris.) Book Paris-London at www.eurostar.com. Book your trains within France at www.tgv-europe.com, using Great Britain as both your country of residence and the country in which you will retrieve your tickets. This will keep everything in English and keep you from being bumped to the Rail Europe site. Don't worry. As Joel indicated, you can pick up your tickets at any SNCF station or boutique in France by showing the credit card used when booking and showing the confirmation number you'll be sent by e-mail. If you get a PREM'S (discount) fare, you print the tickets yourself and take them with you.
Thank you all for the very detailed responses. This will be a big help!!
If you read past letters on this page and the archive section you will see the difference in prices that travelers find when deciding on point2point tickets or rail passes.
Every time I have compared costs for my itinerary, I have found p2p cheaper. The only way for you to know in your case is to add the costs of p2p tickets and compare with the cost of your rail pass.
Before you decide, read what other travelers say about this subject. You can do a search for "rail passes" in the search box at the upper right corner of this page.
