Euro Global Rail vs Ryan Air or Easy Jet

It is probably not an either or question. There are not a lot of additional fees with rail pass -- just one -- reservation fees if you are using a train that requires reservations. That often can be avoided by using local and IC trains.

There are some other considerations when using the discount airlines. Some of the airlines have lots of extra fees -- check in fees, check luggage fees, very strict limits on luggage weight and carry on -- go over and more fees. Some discount airline use out of the way airports as much as 50 miles or more from the city they are flying to. Which means addition costs getting to and from the airport. So you need to be very clear about what you are comparing.

My bench mark is about six hours of train travel. If it is over that amount of time, I will consider air travel.

A Eurail global pass gives you a discount for the Eurostar (chunnel) train, but does not cover it.

However, Ryanair is not free of extra charges. Some of these are check-in and baggage check charges. Also, Ryan flies to very remote airports without rail service and it is slow and expensive to get there - find the cost of getting to Stanton (which they misleadingly call "London"). Ryan doesn't fly to anywhere in Switzerland. "Paris" is Beauvais, over an hour from Paris by bus. "Milan" is Bergamo.

Look before you leap.

Janette,

Sorry, but I have to give you a D- in European Geography.

Go to your room, you are grounded. No trip to Europe until you learn something about Europe.

11 farflung venues in 28 days. That's 2½ days per venue, and

the average travel time between venues (per ViaMichelin) is 5:50 (2:54 minutes Rome to Florence, 10:23 min Vienna to Rome). That's a full day. That leaves you with just 1½ dwell time per venue - a day of travel for only a day and a half per venue.

You are going to spend all of your time in transit.

You probably already have flight reservations in and out of London - a mistake in my estimation, but we'll work with it.

Forget Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona. Spend two weeks in London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Spend the second two weeks in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Switzerland, on the way back.

I think that that is still pushing it, a little.

Hi, Janette. I'd agree with Lee. That's waaaaay too many places; you'll spend most of your time tired, and traveling.

I'd suggest mabye: London, Paris, Amsterdam then hoping over to Vienna, Switzerland, and Milan. You'll be hitting them all, when the weather is beautiful.

Rome and Florence in August are be MISERABLY hot. We were there in May, and had to cut down our activities due to heat. I'd save them for another trip.

Brussels is very similar to Holland. If you go to Amsterdam, I'd save it for another day.

A combo of point to point rail, and 1 or 2 flights will probably serve you best. That train trip from Vienna - Switzerland - Milan that time of year alone is WORTH IT. :)

Let us know if you have other questions! Have a great trip! :)

Janette,

I have to agree with the others in that you have FAR TOO MANY destinations for a 28 day trip (especially considering you'll be travelling in August, PEAK travel season)!!!

I'd suggest arranging your Itinerary around places that are all geographically close. To begin with, that means dropping Barcelona. I'd also suggest dropping Brussels and Milan. Six or seven cities would be reasonable for that time frame, but be sure to allow adequate travel times between them.

I'd recommend allocating at least 4 or 5 days for "the big three" (London, Paris, Rome) as there's a LOT to see and do.

It would be much more efficient to use open-jaw flights, but I'm assuming from your wording that you've already purchased your tickets.

As the others have pointed out, the cheap prices listed by RyanAir are only part of the story. There will undoubtedly be several other charges, and you can count on paying an excess baggage charge if you exceed their very strict limits. In addition you'll have to budget both time and money to travel from the airports that are often used by RyanAir (such as Beauvais).

Good luck and happy travels!