Is it better to get a Eurail Select pass for 4 countries or two double-country passes. We're going to France and Italy and Switzerland and Germany. I see that I can get much better rates on tourist trains and buses with Swiss pass than Eurail. We plan to be in France 3-4 days (Paris, possibly Lyons or Nimes), Northern Italy 2 (Turin or Cinque Terre), Switzerland 2-3 (Jungfrau area), Germany 2-4 days (Neuschwanstein, Rothenberg, Romantic Rd., Frankfurt). We're going mid-July so I need to order the passes SOON!
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Ottawa, Ontario,, Canada
521 posts
Hi Becky,
The best thing to do is price out the cost of individual tickets versus getting passes as a pass gets better value as you make more trips in a single day, and if you travel long distances.
Although you have noticed the Swiss pass, remember you cannot get the benefits of the Swiss pass in a two-country (or multi-country) pass. Additionally, trips in Italy are usually much cheaper to just buy point-to-point tickets rather than having a pass. You might find that it is cheapest to go with a Swiss Pass, a France-Germany pass, and point-to-point tickets in Italy... but again, this all depends on the exact train trips you will be taking.
Remember too that if you are travelling by train across a border, you need either one pass that covers both of those countries, or a pass for each country. If you are crossing the France/Germany border, and have one pass that covers both countries, you are using up one travel day. If, on the other hand, you have a France pass and a Germany pass, you will use up one day of EACH pass, making it much more expensive. The last option is to use one pass for one country, and buy a separate ticket that covers the portion of the trip not already covered by a pass.
To find prices, you will need to go to the website of the country from which you will be originating your trip in.
For German trains, use the Deutsche Bahn website.
For trips originating in Italy, use the Trenitalia website.
For France, use tgv-europe.com, and select "Great Britain" as your country (otherwise you will be directed to a third-party website which charges more).
For Switzerland, use the Swiss Rail website.