Eurail Pass for Study Aborad Students

Posted by June (Lyon, France) on 08/21/09 10:27 PM

Hi. I'm studying abroad in Lyon, France from Sept to Dec and within that time I can travel on the weekends mostly. I will be doing the bulk of my traveling within Spain, Italy, Germany, and France (major cities mostly). I qualify for all student and youth discounts. I'm not sure if I should buy a 3-country Eurail pass (or a different one) or go point-to-point.

I've read passes are useless in Italy so should I get a France-Spain-Germany pass or go point-to-point? I'd really appreciate your advice.

Update: I plan to visit the following cities:
in Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice and Naples.
in Spain: Barcelona, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada.
in France: Paris, Orleans, Nice.
in Germany: Munich, Bonn, Heidelberg

Also: Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Athens

Thanks again.

Posted by Chris

Puyallup, WA, USA

08/22/09 04:20 AM

881 posts

Hi, June.

The best advice is to price it out, by looking up the p2p and compare.

The student discounts are a BIG bonus for you when buying the passes - however you'll find the majority of people on here recommend p2p.

Also, remember the passes do have extra fees for night trains, reservations, fast trains, etc.

For the pass to be effective, it really has to fit a niche for you. Hope that helps!

Posted by Chris

Puyallup, WA, USA

08/22/09 04:21 AM

881 posts

PS - if it's just short trips, to major cities, and you're not going to pack a bag large enough to need checked, you could take really good advantage of some of the discount airlines. If the train is 5-6 hours or more, would save you some time too...

Posted by Tim

Minneapolis, MN, USA

08/22/09 07:32 AM

8700 posts

We can give you better advice on trains vs. planes and p2p tickets vs. a railpass if you tell us which cities you plan to visit for sure.

Posted by Tim

Minneapolis, MN, USA

08/23/09 02:59 PM

8700 posts

If you're going to be traveling mostly on weekends, just getting to several of your destinations and back to Lyon by train will use up most of the weekend and you'll have very little time for sightseeing. However, for some of your routes taking night trains will give you more sightseeing time. For train timetables go to www.bahn.de and click on the drop-down flag menu for English. After you get summary timetables, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points.

Flying on budget airlines may be a better choice for some of your routes. Go to www.skyscanner.net. The site will show you all your airline options, both budget and national carriers, and will indicate when you would have to take indirect routes.

Lyon isn't a major transportation hub so it will take a lot of time and effort to get to many of the places you wish to visit. After you've checked both train and plane timetables, I think you'll be forced to conclude that you'll need to cut out some of the cities on your list. Come back again and we'll help you pare it down.