Deciding which Eurail pass to purchase - 1 or 2 month continuous ...or other?

I think you need to list for us the cities where you plan to stay, if not also the ones to which you plan day trips. This is not a simple question. You may find some of your destinations are more easily reached by buses (or not at all by trains), especially in Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. You're covering a huge expanse of territory there, and some of the longer legs--I'm guessing, since I don't know exactly where you're stopping--might be less expensive to fly if you snag decent fares.

mallory,

You may have already researched this, but a few points to mention.....

• Some trains in Italy have compulsory seat reservations, and if travelling with a Railpass you'll have to purchase those separately. The reservations are specific to train, date and departure time, so can only be used on the one train listed on the reservation. Even with a Railpass, if you're found without a valid reservation on a train where this is required, you'll face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! One other point to note is that you won't be able to use the Railpass on Italo trains or some other private rail networks.
• Some trains in France also require reservations, but there's a quota for those and once they're sold out for a particular train, you won't be able to travel on that train even with your Railpasses. You'll have to either take another train that still has pass holder reservations available, or just buy regular tickets.
• If you're planning to visit Dubrovnik, you won't be able to get there by train.

One other point to mention about Italy. Tickets are relatively cheap there, so you may find that the "cost per day" of a Railpass is higher than if you had bought local tickets (especially on Regionale trains). For those willing to commit to a specific departure, tickets can also be very inexpensive on the high speed trains when purchased well in advance (and the tickets will include the compulsory reservations). The Super Economy tickets especially have significant discounts.

The trains which require reservations in both countries are usually the fast trains such as the Freccia in Italy or the TGV in France. You'll need to research each of your rail trips to determine which type of trains will be used on each route you're travelling, and buy reservations when necessary. As I recall you'll also need reservations on the high speed AVE trains in Spain.

You may find it helpful to make a call to the RS Rail department as I'm sure they'll be able to offer the best information on where having a Pass will be most beneficial.

You are looking at somewhere north of $1700. That is a lot to shell out for the "freedom" of a Eurail pass.
Are you planning on getting hotel/apartment reservations for all of your stops? If so, you know you have to get between these cities on certain days, therefore can book advance purchase nonrefundable tickets for big savings. With 14 long trips, you are averaging about $125 per trip, or 110 euro. You can often find tickets for half of this by getting nonrefundable tickets.
You will still need to purchase reservations for high speed trains in Spain, France, and Italy. Sometimes that is nearly the same as a nonrefundable ticket price.
So it is not easy to say which pass or even if a pass is right for you.

One thing I should mention, is that we don't plan to travel much around France. We plan to fly from Barcelona to Paris, spend a few days in Paris then fly from Paris to Milan.

So will not need France included at all. Train tickets in Italy, even spur of the moment are pretty cheap. Slovenia and Croatia more so. I don't know about Spain or Portugal.

No trains in France makes it extremely unlikely that a rail pass would pay off. I'd hate to see you waste hundreds of dollars.

I hope you've laid out a rough day-by-day schedule and started looking at the time required for your travel legs to be sure you can accomplish what you hope to in the time you have allotted. It sounds as if you're planning just 2 nights at most stops, which means basically one day by the time you factor in the train/bus trips and switching hotels.

Rome2Rio is a good initial source for transit time between cities.

A great discussion of the issues involved in rail passes vs. last minute tickets vs. advance discount tickets is from the rail guru The Man In Seat 61: http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#Should%20you%20buy%20a%20railpass%20or%20pay-as-you-go

Buying day trip tickets is easy, and usually cheap (unless you're taking a fast train on a day trip - then a last minute ticket can be expensive). So, don't get a rail pass for day trips - get one if you're taking enough long trips to make it worthwhile, and need the flexibility of not having advance purchase discount tickets (which are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, or significantly restrict those actions).

A very important point made by several posters above is that you may not be taking as many trains as you think. Portugal has good service on the Lisbon-Coimbra-Porto corridor, and along the Algarve, but for some other places bus is better. In Croatia, trains only go south along the coast to Split; from Split to Dubrovnik and points in between, you take a bus (or ferries to the islands).

Ken's point about convenience is important too; for Italy, a pass doesn't save much hassle. When you have a pass, you still have to buy a reservation to take a fast train. When you buy a ticket for a fast train (advance or last minute, discount or full price), the reservation is included. And while regional trains in Italy don't need (or even have) reservations, they are also cheap, and so it's not worth buying a pass, or using a pass day, for them.

I think acraven, Ken, Sam, and Harold have just saved mallory.briney about a thousand dollars. That's one reason this Forum works well. Be sure to get those tickets right away when they come on line for sale.

Thanks for all the advice and the helpful resources, it looks like a pass might not be right for us after all!

I would not be leaning toward the Global Continuous Pass, especially since you're not using it in France. A "four-country" Select pass for Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Slo/Cro would span a two-month window and cover, for instance, 11 train travel days for $513 per person in 1st class (with the current extra day offer), plus $10-20 for each longer-distance seat reservation in Spain or Italy.

You can compare more buy-at-station ticket prices on our maps. The longer and more expensive the trip, the more likely that you could benefit from an advance-purchase discount. You can consider those for longer routes in Spain and Italy (the same trains that would take seat reservations with a pass), but don't bother at your other destinations.

But Laura, savvy travelers do not buy tickets at the window. Educated and resourceful travelers buy in advance, online. That map is honestly useless.

It's not useless, Emily, and may help Mallory.Briney to feel comfortable with deciding against a rail pass for this trip, if that's the choice. There is more than one way to be a savvy traveler. There are plenty of people who don't want to lock in each departure time in advance. Others have already missed better advance discounts before they even get around to thinking about it. For this traveler's routes in Portugal, Slovenia, and Croatia, I doubt that they particularly want or need to book ahead. An expensive train from Barcelona to Madrid or Madrid to Sevilla is a better candidate for advance booking and viewing the full fare is a reminder of that. Italy could go either way, partly depending on the route.

The map is handy for pointing out those shorter/cheaper trips that could be left to the day-of for flexibility -- I have built a few into my next trip, although the long/expensive rides are all pre-booked. Good place to start looking at comparative prices.

Hi,

For those countries listed as your itinerary, I would not buy a Pass. I'm a Pass user, use the ten day within 2 months Pass, bought my Pass the last week in Dec 2015 so that I got the extra travel day, ie 11 days /2months, last day to have it activated is June 30, then I have 2 months to use it up. The price $445, the same Pass now is $475.last time I checked in late Feb. Since I fly out the last week in May, the Pass fits exactly with the travel plans for 33 days.

If you are planning on long train rides, (the 14 rides?), doing zig zag traveling as I do, then get the ten day Pass, also use point to point tickets. Depending on when you book you should get the extra day. Certain rides, depending, and it's a big depending I use discount tickets. Keep in mind that when you do that you're sacrificing flexibility for savings. You lock yourself in to a specific train at a specific departure time. What happens if your "specific" train is taken out, isn't running as in Zug fällt aus? What I saw last summer in Germany, that could also happen, depends on your luck. You weigh the savings, are they worth sacrificing the flexibility...so it depends. The regional train in France, Croatia, Slovenia don't use/accept reservations, everyone just piles on, seat or seat.

In the case of "Zug faellt aus", DB will get you on the next train to your destination even if you have a Sparpreis ticket. Same applies elsewhere.