My wife and I have never been to Europe, and this might be the only time, so we are going to be on trains a lot. After the 21 day best of Europe, we are going to spend 21 days in France, England, Scotland and Ireland. While we will stay for 2 nights here and there, we will be doing lots of train trips, i.e. Paris to Carcassonne to Chartres to Paris to London to Inverness to Stirling to Edinburgh to Chester ferry to Dublin, then bouncing around Ireland for 5 days. With the 25% off and being seniors, the 22 day continuous Eurail pass is about $20 per day each. I have done the math and this seems cheaper then booking tickets individually. Am I missing something? Is there other issues to consider? Thanks.
Posted by
Houston, Texas
1022 posts
Are you going to be traveling everyday? We have found that booking tickets as we go to be just as convenient and about the same price. If you are going to use the pass, make sure that you add any seat reservation fees etc that may be required.
Posted by
Lake District, England
8131 posts
It may only be $20 per day if used continously, but you aren't going to be travelling each day.
In Ireland there is an Irish Rail Explorer ticket- 5 days out of 15 for Euro 128. Whether that represents good value is debateable when across Ireland Advance Tickets are 20 Euro or less each. But it's an option.
https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/accordion/tourist-tickets/explorer
On the Eurostar you would have to get a seat reservation from out of a limited pass quota per train, so that may or may not be worth it. But booked well ahead the Eurostar is as low as £49.50 [looking in next March as an example].
For Chester to Dublin I would get a sail rail ticket for £44.70 (only £8.70 more than the ferry fare alone, ferry fares are not covered by Eurail)
Stirling to Edinburgh buy on the day is £11.70, Inverness to Stirling £20.90 Advance Train Specific Fare. Edinburgh to Chester can be as low as £30 Advance Train Specific Fares and London to Inverness £60 on the 1200 through train.
For the two of you buy a Two Together Railcard for £35 (after next March or £30 before then) and you save 34% off all those fares except the Sail Rail.
So that has probably muddied the waters on whether Eurail is the best solution or not.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Good information! I appreciate the comments. Thank you.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5865 posts
If you are planning to take the TGV; they have a limited number of seats for railpass holders. You need to pay an additional fee to make a seat reservation on these trains. This limits the flexibility of the pass since you need to reserve the high speed trains well in advance to guarantee a seat.
https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/trip-ideas/trains-europe/high-speed-trains/tgv