Eurail Pass Question

Posted by Jamie (Fairfield, CA, USA) on 04/25/09 01:44 AM

So I'm planning to buy a 5 country pass(Italy, France, Germany, Benelux and Czech Republic) and that's all the countries I need it for but I do plan to take an overnight train from Munich, Germany to Venice, Italy. I know this will pass through Austria. I was reading on the 'plan your trip' section about this exact example:

* Crossing Austria on the Munich-Venice route costs about $40 additional in second class, making it worthwhile to add Austria to your pass.
I would add Austria to my pass but I already have 5 countries so I can't. So I don't mind paying the extra $40 to take this train but I was just wondering how I would go about doing this? When and where do I pay the extra fee to pass through an additional country?

Posted by Larry

Elk Grove, CA, USA

04/25/09 06:39 AM

6898 posts

Just a thought that you don't need a railpass for Italy just to go to Venice. You could trade Italy for Austria.

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

04/25/09 07:15 AM

19274 posts

You could buy a ticket from DB at the station in Munich before you leave for Venice.

If you bought the ticket online you might need it for that CNL train from its last stop in Germany, Rosenheim, to its first stop in Italy, Verona. Or, you might be able to buy online an open ticket for any non-ICE express train from Rosenheim to Fortezza.

If you want the ticket in advance, you should probably call German Rail, in Germany, 49 1805 99 66 33.

Kate, do you remember the names of the endpoints of your ticket? The DB website say the GERMAN RAIL PASS is valid to Salzburg and Basel (probably Basel Bad Bhf), but it doesn't say it is valid to Kufstein, Austria, which is considered a border station for the Bayern-Ticket, and the Eurail website doesn't indicate that the pass for Germany is even valid to Salzburg or Basel.

Posted by Kate

Winnipeg

04/25/09 07:17 AM

590 posts

We were in the same situation as you last year. We took the day train from Munich to Venice on our rail pass that didn't cover Austria. We bought a ticket to cover the Austrian section the day before in Munich. We had no problems obtaining the ticket as the clerk spoke perfect English. It may be helpful to write down the border towns in Austria that you will have to pay for. You can get this info on the DB website. That way in the situation that you don't get an English speaking clerk youcan show them the portion of the trip that you need to buy a ticket for.