Railpass things that are free not to pass on?

Why are you not able to advise where you are going and what these 'frees' are so they can be commented on?

Could you tell us where you will be going, and what the free things are? Then we could give you better answers.

Assumes we are mind readers and know all. Curious, what did you pay for a 15 day pass?

Hi, When you receive the Global Pass in the mail, the accompanying material includes a "Traveler's Guide." The Pass gives you discounts but hardly anything free. One free feature is that you can ride the S-Bahn free in German cities. That's the feature I use in Hamburg and Berlin after arriving since the Pass is valid for the rest of that day; any other time just get a S-Bahn ticket. Are you sure you need a Global Pass? I would have gotten a ten day three country Select pass.

"Frank" Sorry I did not expect people to be mind readers. But I did expect people that commented on a 15 Day Global Continous Pass to know what it was. I think we paid $572.00 for each. The 3 country pass would not have worked as we are traveling in The Netherlands, Brussels, Luxemburg, Germany, Austia, Switzerland and Hungury. One of the free items was the ferry from Cochem(Mosel) to Koblenz, then from Koblenz up to Koln then back down to Mienz. This a hop on and hop off ferry from what I read. Since is a global pass I was hoping poeple with expiernce with them would be able to tell me what was worth taking the dicounts for like the senic trains in Switzerland. There are many listed on the pages and brouchers, but I was wanting some input if the other were worth the money in the first place. I am sorry as I should have stated earlier what countries we were traveling thru.

TIM, we know what the pass is. But other than the ferry, you still have given us no idea of which of the "many" things listed you might be particularly interested in. It's hard to say what might be worth seeing/doing if we don't what you might want to do.

You may find that the majority of the experience travelers on this site have min experiences with passes especially the big ones. Most have found that it is hard to find a rail pass that is cost effective for most trips especially when you add in the extras fees to use the pass.

The "ferry" from Cochem to Koblenz, then to Koeln or Mainz are boats run by the K-D line (www.k-d.de). Look at the schedule. Yes, you can hop off and get back on again, but it's not hop on, hop off in the sense of a bus that comes by every 15 min. For example, there are only three boats a day from Koblenz to Bingen and fewer all the way to Mainz. Hop off one time and you might be there for three hours and only have one hop left (if any). However, the trains run up both sides of the Rhein at least once an hour. They are far more suitable for HOHO. Also, the boat is not really free. You can only ride it for free on a day that uses the rail pass. OK, so it is essentially free with a continuous pass, but otherwise, it uses a day of the pass.

Thanks Lee I was not aware that there were so few boats. I did see that there was a train that runs along the river route. That seems to be a good option. I have taken a tour down the Rhien before. But it still should be good for letting th wife see the beuty of the river then take the train if neccesssary.

Hi, Even with the itinerary listed, I would have still chosen a Pass with Germany, Switzerland, and Austria listed. For the rest of the flanking countries (Benelux and Hungary), I would use point to point tickets. But that's me. Having Benelux listed on the Pass is worthless. If you should take a Thalys train, (which I avoid), a reservation is mandatory, and, most importantly, don't be surprised if the clerk says you need to buy another ticket to cross Belgium on this Thalys route, even though the country already listed as part of the Pass. The Belgian train personnel on the platform are far more interested in seeing your reservation for the car and seat numbers on the Thalys route and ticket, if that's the case, than in your Pass.

My concern is not the "free" stuff it is the amount of traveling you will be doing just to get from place to place. You have said you will be in 7 countries in 15 days, that's 2 per country, with one for traveling between each time - when will you have time to see anything? If routing from Netherlands (Amsterdam? - who knows - you didn't say) to Germany (souther) (perhaps Bayern? - you didn't say) routing via Brussels and Luxembourg is by far the long way around. Others have asked for specifics - without them it is very hard for us to be able to help with specific answers.