A 26 year old and 25 year old traveling together EuRail Pass?

aubrey,

No, having a first class Railpass doesn't mean you will be separated. Your friend can simply join you in second class, although that may elicit a strange look from the Conductor on occasion. A few points to note regarding travelling with a Railpass.....

• Note that Passes do NOT include the seat reservation fees that are compulsory on the higher speed trains in countries like France and Italy. You'll have to pay "out-of-pocket" for those. Especially in Italy, do NOT be caught without a valid reservation on a train where these are compulsory, or you'll face hefty fines starting at about €50 PP, which will be collected on the spot!
• Also note that in France, Passholder reservations are limited, so when they quota is sold out for a particular train you won't be able to buy reservations (even if there are still seats available). If that happens, your choices will be to travel on a different train, or just buy a ticket at regular price and not use the Railpass.

Hopefully Laura will spot this post as she's the expert on Railpasses. If you haven't bought your Railpasses yet, note that you can buy them from this website.

If you want to travel together on a Global Saver Pass, you'll need to both get the 1st class. When you price it out, you'll find if you get separate passes, one 1st class and one youth 2nd class, you'll pay $1660 and your companion will pay $1080. That's $2740 total, and you will travel in 2nd class if you want to sit together. Or you could get the 1st class Saver for $2824 and you both travel 1st class. That's only $84 more.

How much travel do you foresee? If you travel every 3rd day (assume you don't want to spend the entire time watching Europe pass by through a train car window), that will be 20 travel days on a 60 day trip. That comes to an average of $141 per travel day for 2, or 112 euro. There are ways to travel cheaper than that, like advance purchase nonrefundable tickets, or regional day passes, or low cost Italian regional trains. So 56 euro a day 1st class is not outrageous, there are cheaper ways to go. Even full fare Italian high speed trains can be had for less 2nd class. 45 euro Venice-Florence or 43 euro Florence-Rome. You can travel the entire state of Bavaria all day for 27 euro total for 2, 2nd class regional trains.

So you might want to research it a bit. Eurail Pass info here.

If the money matters you will do the maths on whether you even need passes. See the bold print @
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#Should

As hinted above, don't assume that a rail pass is the way to go. These days, point to point tickets are the way to save money; a walk up ticket would likely also be cheaper than a pass. 1st class in many countries is no better than 2nd. Go to the maninseat61 website mentioned above and read.

Most traveling pairs would choose the Global Saverpass format, since the cost for two to travel in 1st class together is very similar to the total costs for separate 1st- and 2nd-class passes, as Sam described. Whether that works for you depends partly on how long you would travel separately at the end. One person can take the Saverpass and use it for the last few days, while the other flies home, etc., but the other person no longer has a ticket. Although prices have gone down and a few reservation details have changed since it was last updated, our Rail Guide in PDF format has a useful price list to help you compare the options on one page.

Visiting 10 different countries tends to mean at least 10 pretty long trips, often costing $100 or more per leg. See Rick's ticket cost maps to compare regular, 2nd-class ticket prices. Advance reservations can cut these rates, but are usually not refundable or changeable. In some countries, the rail pass allows you lots of hop-on flexibility, but that's not the case in an area like France, where pass holders need advance reservations for most popular routes.

When you have a pretty firm travel plan, then it will be easier to do the math to compare your trip costs. Although staying 3 or 4 nights in large cities is a good idea, I bet that your average stay-per-stop will be closer to 2 nights. It does make a difference whether you expect to use trains 20 days out of your 60-day stay, or 30, or more. You might also look at www.skyscanner.com and decide to fly a couple of your longer legs. If you only need a pass to cover your 15 longest trips within 2 months, then that type of Global Saverpass costs $975 per person, about 30% less than the 2-month consecutive.

Go ahead with your trip planning and narrowing. For now, travel time between destinations is perhaps a more planning issue important than cost. You cannot buy a rail pass more than 6 months before you'll start using it, so you can look again at pass offers in early spring.

Hi,

This applies to taking trains in Germany and Austria: The 26 year old buys a 1st class Adult Pass and the 25 year old buys the Youth Pass 2nd class but that doesn't mean absolutely that the 1st class Passholder has to sit in 1st class. He just has that luxury if he chooses that. You are not separated if you both sit in 2nd class. The 25 year old is required to do that, whereas the 26 year can choose to sit in either class.

True, the Saver Pass, which I've used before, requires you to be together when the controller comes around checking tickets. When I bought a 1st class Adult Pass, it was used to sit in either 1st or 2nd class on the ICE trains, depending on my mood at the time. It's not mandatory for a 1st Passholder to sit in just 1st class. If your itinerary calls for doing a lot zig zag train travel, get the Pass.

@ Fred, Yes, but as has been pointed out, you can not get a "combi" Saver Pass (one traveler is 1st and the other in 2nd). The prices difference between the 1st cl Saver Pass, and separate 1st cl and 2nd cl Youth is tiny (3% of the total price).

Thanks for pointing out the difference of 3%. On a long trip like theirs, I certainly would not quibble over 3%. Some B&Bs in London told me at check-in that if I paid with a credit card instead of cash, they would add a surcharge of 3% just allowing me the convenience of using a credit card to pay. I turned down their offer.

The OP can choose to get two separate Passes. I'm aware that any Saver Pass is only valid in one class, 1st or 2nd.