I've seen several people inquiring about these passes and from the many responses, it seems these aren't the deal they once were. So, out of pure curiosity, what is the benefit of such a pass nowadays?
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14737 posts
I think it depends on what countries a person is wanting to visit. To me a lot of people seem to have "heard" tales of people traveling Europe on a Eurail Pass which was fine in the 70's but the world has changed a LOT LOT LOT since then, lol. Some may even have traveled on them just out of college and don't realize they are not a bargain unless there are specific circumstances. In those days you also used to just rock up to a train station, go to the Traveler Information desk and be connected with a nearby B&B for a night's lodging. Now most people book on the internet and Traveler Information desks are now closed or have sharply reduced hours.
The website for the Man in Seat 61 is really comprehensive on whether these would match someone's trip.
Posted by
Los Angeles
4853 posts
In each of Rick's guidebooks there is a lengthy section discussing railpasses for that country. Nowadays they don't usually make sense, but sometimes they do (e.g., CH).
Between his guidance and M61, you can figure out what makes sense for your own particular circumstances.
Executive summary - they don't make sense like they used to.
Posted by
Greater Sacramento
604 posts
The price per day plummets a lot if you get a two month or more pass. But that still implies a lot of train travel to make it work. And then factor in the back door costs of big reservation fees in Italy France and Spain for express trains.
Posted by
Fort Myers, FL
1881 posts
Eurail Pass is one of the biggest debates on this forum. Generally, buying single tickets will be cheaper. How much? You have to plan and price your trips out before deciding. The Pass is much easier to use than buying single tickets, but if you are counting Euros, the Pass may not be the best investment. If a couple hundred dollars for ease of use doesn't bother you, buy the Pass. You'll never know until do the math.
Posted by
Wengen
2495 posts
To give you a bit of background let me introduce you to tow acronyms: IRT and NRT. These acronyms you often encounter when digging to the details of European railway ticketing (which the OCD train geek that lives in my head loves to do...)
IRT: Integrated Reservation Ticket. These are tickets where the ticket comes automatically with a seat reservation.
NRT: Non Reserved Ticket. Tickets that do not automatically include a reservation.
NRT tickets are "for a route" (even if you can get discounts if you commit to a certain departure time), IRT tickets are for a train.
NRT are: Pretty much all trains in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, and many other countries, regional and suburban trains in France and Italy, and suburban trains in Spain.
IRT are: High speed and long distance trains in France and Italy and Scandinavia, and pretty much all trains in Spain...
You can see that on www.bahn.de, where you can look up trains all over Europe. If you see a mention that a train has compulsory reservation it uses IRT ticketing.
What does that have to do with a pass? Well, on a route where a pass is valid, it can replace an NRT. So in that case you can, with your pass, just hop on. On long distance services in Germany or Austria I would still reserve a seat, but you can do that easily on line or at the station.
However where a train uses IRT you still will need to get a reservation. And herein lies the rub: This is not always easy, and it is often expensive. The cost for a reservation on an Eurostar from Paris to Brussels is 28,- euro, where the cheapest ticket is 32, euro. So the pass can save you a whole 4 euro here :-)
Often (Italy, Spain) the only place where you can reliably get a reservation will be at the station.
What does this mean for deciding on getting a pass or not.
One advantage of the pass is that the price is always the same (bar a few promotions), so you do not need to buy it a long time in advance. So this brings you to the scenario where a pass makes sense: Last minute long distance train travel. I often travel from Switzerland to Belgium by train, and a 1st class 4 days in a month Interrail/Eurail pass is cheaper than standard fare return ticket. So I just get that. Full flexility. No issues if I decide to stay a few days longer. Good value.
So a pass you buy for flexibility. If you are the kind of person that does not have everything planned in advance when they leave. If you travel outside the main season you can still get accommodation last minute. So for some travelers just buying a return ticket to Europe and getting an Eurail Pass is all the advance planning they do. And that can work. It is not the cheapest way to travel, but it is how I actually travel.
But a lot of people plan everything in advance in detail, booking all accommodation and travel before they leave home. If that is your travel style, then the Eurail Pass is probably not for you.
Posted by
Southeast US
11 posts
As others have said, basically it depends. We just got back from 3+ weeks in France, UK, Belgium. For our itinerary, I added up the cost of point-to-point tickets and compared it with the costs of pass + mandatory seat reservations. For us and our travel dates, we came out ~$100 ahead per person with the 10-day in 2 months rail pass. Not a make-or-break you difference, but I'd rather save it than not!