I am going crazy trying to figure out if I should get a eurail select pass or not (4 countries and 10 travel days). I am under 25 and traveling to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Tours, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Nice, Vernazza, Venice, Florence, and Rome in Sept/Oct. With the pass I am planning on making day trips along the way...like stopping in Blois, Genoa, Verona, Pisa, and Siena on my travel days. I looked on raileurope to see the prices of city to city tix to compare but i think those are not very accurate.
I have also been trying to see how much I would have to pay for reservations trying to take as many regional trains as i can but once I get to Italy I cannot find any regional trains just high speed--is it just too far in advance and they have not posted all the train schedules?? Which brings me to another question...how do I get to verona from vernazza..i found a train from genoa that changes in milan and then goes to verona..my plans are to get to verona early afternoon to explore before heading to venice in the night. Is there a train that goes from vernazza to genoa at the crack of dawn? Hmmm..let me stop taking before I write an essay.. Thanks! Hope u can help :D
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Anneris, you don't need a railpass for Italy. Many of the runs that you describe above will be on local Regionale (R) trains. Some fares above are below 15Euro. No reservations are permitted. You get on and find your own seat. You will have high-speeds on the runs involving Verona, Venice, Florence and Rome. If you have a Eurail pass, Trenitalia will charge you a 15E-20E reservation fee each time that you step onto a Eurostar high-speed. That's why the pass doesn't work well there. Your supplental fee will almost equal the cost of a P2P fare for the same high-speed journey. For your trips to Pisa/Florence or Pisa/CT or Florence/Siena, you will be on Regional trains. Fares will be about 12Euro. Your pass will work on these trains but with the fares so low, why do you need a pass.
RailEurope's P2P fares are a lot higher. For Italy, you can go to www.trenitalia.com and select the English page. Put in your cities and dates and you will see all of the trains and fares. At this time, Trenitalia has not updated their schedules so don't put in a date past 6/12. Yes, its only a week away but that's Trenitalia. You'll see all of the trains on 6/12. When the schedules are updated, they won't change much, if at all.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
If you plan to go directly from Barcelona to Nice without stopping over anywhere, I suggest that you fly Vueling. It's a really long haul by train.