Salvage Euro trip and possible refund of Global eurail ticket.

Booking on your own is often much more difficult... if you don't like that then the tour may be the way to go. It's hard to say... personally I would look into a flight from Paris to Madrid and just skip that night train (but then again I am not a night train fan)
I did Madrid to Paris a few years ago for around $150 well worth IMHO.

Sorry, George. I've read your post 3 times, and I've read the answer by Carol, and I don't understand your question. Are you saying that you did manage to book the night train or you were unable to? Are you doing the "Best of Europe" tour with ETBD/RS? Or that you are contemplating doing so? What needs to be salvaged? Why are you using German railways to book a sleeper from France to Spain? Do you hold a 3 month railpass? Are you aware of all the extra charges for using it, that are discussed frequently here at the Helpline? What is it that you would like us (me) to answer?

The way I read it.. 1. He is attempting to do the tour as outlineed in Rick's book. 2. He tried to book train and it's difficult so it didn't get done
3. He's thinking of returning the pass and just paying Rick's company to do the "planning' by taking the tour. We wlll see if I am right :)

To Carol with Thanks. To Nigel are you aware of recently NEWER charges? Do you know where to book New Reservations online? My question was with these new charges, perhaps, we should take a loss on our global rail pass.

George, I've found that Rick's "suggested Itineraries" tend to be a bit ambitious, and I suspect they haven't been revised in quite some time (therefore they don't include regulation changes as you've found). I agree with a previous suggestion that you might consider using budget airlines rather than night trains for longer travel legs. Regarding the decision between the Railpass or taking one of the ETBD Tours, I'd suggest considering the tour if your budget will allow. Not only will you have an incredibly good time, but it will also provide some skills for travelling on your own in future. I'll be signing up for my sixth RS tour very soon and really looking forward to it! Happy travels!

To Ken; been awhile since we went to Europe, but we still like the freedom to travel on our own time that is why we are still deciding our final path. Thanks again to Carol, and Nigel as well.

I think perhaps what you are finding is that the Eurorail pass is not an economical value anymore. It rarely is now. If possible, refund the pass and fly from Paris-Madrid. Airfares within Europe are pretty cheap if you look around. The train routes between the two cities are still not great and have few options and overnight trains are expensive. That is changing but your best bet is to fly.

We too have found in recent years that the Eurail pass was no longer the bargain that it was a decade or so ago. In 2010 we did a lot of our own rail travel planning and used the advice from this site (http://www.seat61.com/) to navigate the often hard-to-figure bookings in Spain and France. Even if you opt for a tour (or decide to fly budget) you may find "The Man in Seat Sixty-One" an interesting read.

Several years ago, after purchasing three train passes, I realized that all the trains we were planning on taking in Italy required seat reservations and, therefore, would cost considerable more money. When you purchase the tickets in country at the train station, the seat reservations are included. We returned the passes and took the 15% hit. Lesson learned.