When should i purchase my eurail pass?

They need to be bought before you go to Europe.

If you decide on getting one, one of the advantages, incentives to getting rail pass is that you can order it on-line 11 months in advance of your projected departure, then you have another 2 months to use it up. I bought my pass last Nov, have had to postpone already my summer trip twice due to family considerations, I have until Oct to activate the Pass, but it looks as though I 'll be able to go by mid-July, right at peak-peak season, at which time I'll activate the Pass giving me 2 months (60 days) to use it up from the date of activation Activation means the date is stamped onto your pass in the space provided.

You get the pass in the mail, it's paper protected by an envelope stapled on the Pass, it's not plastic, not laminated along with an informational booklet, which I suggest you read carefully. The last few times I ordered it on-line, the Pass arrived with a week of placing the order, normal shipping. No way am I going to pay extra just to expedite its arrival...I wait instead.

You could "protect" the Pass by putting transparent scotch tape over the potentially weak spots, eg, over the staple front or back so it doesn't come lose through "wear and tear." The train controller doesn't care, they're looking at other things pertaining to the Pass.

I use the Pass for traveling in Germany, a lot of zig zag traveling, and between Germany and Austria on the night train connections, used to do it in France too but ended that practice.

I would rather receive the Pass at home, put the order in now, you'll receive it before June is out. it's exactly 7 days, I record the dates, the date of arrival too.

roman,

As you've determined that you need a pass, I assume you're aware that rail passes do not cover the compulsory reservation fees on the high speed trains. Even with a rail pass, those without a valid reservation for the train they're riding on will be subject to hefty fees, which are often collected on the spot.

What is your itinerary?

Hi Emily
My itinerary is July 2-10 France. We'll be using Paris is central place to travel day trips to Saint Michael, Versailles, Giverny.
July 10 travel via train to Barcelona, stay until July 14th. I don't anticipating doing any day trips from Barcelona
July 14 to San Sebastain, stay until July18th. Plan to do day trip to Bilbo
Fly from Bilboa to Porto, Portugal stay there July 18th-23rd. Then train to Lisbon. fly home on July 30th.

If you checked prices on Rail Europe, they have a mark up. Checking the French National rail, SNCF, gives the accurate price, though you are traveling during high tourist season, so the lowest rates may be gone. Mandatory seat reservations in France for passholders, which are limited, may be gone, too.
You can take local transportation to Versaille, thé RER. Giverny is a fixed price régional train, called a TER.
I'm very interested in knowing, using each country's National train website for tickets, not Rail Europe, how much less expensive is a pass, before seat reservations?

At this moment there's a 45.30 euro promo fare (per person) available for the 7:30 AM Barcelona-San Sebastian train on July 14. That includes the seat-reservation fee. I found the price on the Renfe website.

You need to be aware of the following, IMHO:

If your plans are set, you need to make any required reservations on or before immediately!

My least favorite parts of using a Eurail Pass were the frantic search for the place in the station where we could have the pass validated; having to keep track of the pass; writing in our travel plans for each day of use; and also keeping track of the individual train reservations. Point to point tickets would have been easier to manage.

Before you buy, compare point to point train ticket prices on a website - like loco2.com - that doesn't also sell Eurail passes. I know Eurail Passes are a better deal than they have been in the past, but you still might be better off buying point to point tickets.

What I do in Germany is to go any line in the station's Reisezentrum or if it's one where you have to pull a number, eg. in Frankfurt, I wait and go the count to where my number is directed. That's when I have it validated and buy any reservations I planned to get, be it for ICE day trains or night trains.

Do you mean Mont St Michel? Correct name is important when researching transportation options.

Susan
i meant Mont Saint-Michel

Just don’t want you to have any problems when researching transportation or directions if driving... : )

Following up on what Susan wrote, I once was looking for directions to Mont St-Michel and spelled it differently -- the directions were for a much longer drive, in the wrong direction.

Rail Europe recently reduced the "padding" on their exchange rate, so ticket prices should be pretty similar to other sources, especially with the deepest advance-purchase discounts already likely to be sold out.

In France and in Spain, the pass doesn't add much hop-on convenience, since longer-distance trains require paid reservations. You might want to add a few of these reservations to the same booking with the rail pass, especially from Paris to Barcelona (I see that it is available). Portuguese reservations for their faster AP and IC trains have to be made in stations there locally.

A Eurail pass does not cover local RER trains between Paris and Versailles and doesn't cover the local bus or slower train service between San Sebastian and Bilbao. I'm counting about 5 possible pass travel days, like this: Paris-MSM roundtrip in one day (or two?), Paris-Giverny roundtrip in one day (need not reserve), Paris-Barcelona, Barcelona-Bilbao, and Porto-Lisbon.