Eastern Europe next fall.

Perhaps will cost you less money to go point-to-point. I know railpasses can be more than 600 Euros, depending on how many countries you wish to visit.

Agree that point-to-point may be the best these days. It certainly was two years ago when we traveled in Italy.

If you have the Rick Steves' guidebooks for the areas you are traveling (or get them from your local library, dare I say on this website!), he often has very helpful comparison information there for judging between the two options and also provides the best websites from which you can obtain the fare and schedule information for the countries you are visiting.

Just realized that the Deutsche Bahn website covers all of Europe. If you look at the Travel Tips section of this website, it explains how to navigate the site. Hopefully, this will provide some helpful cost information.

I would love to hear what you end up deciding, because we are thinking of a similar trip next fall.

The rail pass would need to cover about 6 countries for your itinerary, and that could be expensive. The Railpasses tab above has tools to help you evaluate whether a pass or tickets is better.

I recommend point to point tickets. I find rail passes to only be worthwhile if you are covering very long distances or staying for a month or longer.

Polish rail is really cheap, and Czech rail isn't that much more. I'd just buy point to point.

Jim,

For a small number of trips, you're probably better with P-P tickets. Eastern Europe is generally less expensive than the other countries.

Have you looked at the RS Eastern European 17 day tour? Might be one option to consider, especially as they take care of all the transportation.

Cheers!