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Point to point or rail passes?

This summer we are heading off to Western Turkey, Greece (maybe) and the following other countries/cities: Berlin, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, and Hungary. Which passes would give us the best bang for our buck? Two adults and a 14 yr old youth are traveling.

Posted by
23650 posts

This is discussed endlessly. Just do a little searching on this site for hundreds of responses. And the conclusion is always the same -- DO YOUR HOMEWORK !! You have to price point to point before you can determine if a rail pass saves money. At one time a rail pass was a no brainer but now with supplemental fees for seat reservations and advance purchase discounts for p2p tickets it is very complicated and needs to reviewed carefully.

Posted by
6 posts

Great. Thanks Frank. We have been doing our research on this and it looks like the prices are fairly similar re: p2p vs passes. Two years ago we were backpacking in Western Europe with a train pass. Half way through the trip, through a mishap in Geneva, our rail pass was left at the counter so we had to continue our trip by purchasing p2p tickets. We found from this mishap that the p2p tickets were a far better deal the the railpass. Hence our reluctance to purchase another pass this time.

Again, thanks for this information, any other tips and/or advance is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Meadow

Posted by
1615 posts

I'm taking some liberty with a couple of generalizations here - If traveling in Eastern Europe and Italy, rail passes are not worth your while. They are probably a good deal in some of the Western European countries where fares are expensive and only if you can't avail of the deeply discounted advanced purchase fares.

Given the countries you listed, you may have pricey fares in Germany and Austria. But even here, if you know your dates and have done your research you can get the cheap fares. In conclusion, you are probably going to be better off buying ptp tickets.

Posted by
6 posts

Great. Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and information.