Eurorail Global Pass

You will need reservations on the faster trains. These can be bought (usually 3 Eu or 10 Eu, in my experience) close to the time of travel, USUALLY, unless it is a holiday or weekend. The slower trains often don't require reservations. I've been on over-crowded trains only in Italy. Read the literature that comes with your pass. Also, there is lots of info on this website under Railpasses.

"you can reserve seats in advance for a fee, but we would prefer not to constantly do this." Michael, Its not so much if you prefer to reserve seats but if you are required to do so. On regional trains you are neither required to do so nor may you. It varies by country, if you tell us where you are going we can tell what you will run into, but in most places you are required to buy a reservation for the faster trains. If you are required to have one and all you have is your rail pass you will be treated as if you have no ticket. It is only rarely on this helpline that once people have done the math they stick with a pass instead of point to point tickets. As a hint, you must be considering many quite long distance trips to make it worth while.

I am having the same issue. I purchased a very expensive ticket to compliement my thirty-three day trip, and I can not figure out how much to budget for reservation fees. Honestly, I am a bit peeved that I have to dish out even more money for transportation. How much will reservation fees be for the following countries: London to Brussels: Brussels to Amsterdam: Amsterdam to Berlin: Berlin to Heidelberg: Heidelberg to Munich: Munich to Bavaria: Bavaria to Interlaken: Interlaken to Venice: Venice to Florence: Florence to Rome: Rome to Pompeii: Pompeii to Paris:
Paris to Madrid: I am flexible on my schedule, and I want to complete this trip as economical as possible. Any help will be greatly apprecaited!!

Lets keep this real simple. If the schedule indicates an R, that means that a seat reservation is required NOT OPTIONAL required. In the past only the high speeds/premium trains required reservation with other trains being a mixed of reserved and open seats. Now, I think it is safe to say that all trains are requiring seat reservations except for the regional or local trains where you cannot make a reservation. The premium trains are most expensive around 10E for a seat and the ICs, and lesser trains may be as low as 3E. It varies by country and class of train. AND be absolutely certain you know what is required because if you just jump on a train without the reservation, the fine will be substantial. As for Shawn, just budget 10E per train or just ride the regionals. And now you may understand why we constantly advice people to do the homework prior to buying the pass.

Shawn, These routes: Berlin-Heidelberg, Heidelberg-Munich, Amsterdam-Berlin...you don't need to reserve. I would use a Pass for these routes and take the ICE. I've taken Berlin-Frankfurt with a Pass..no need to reserve on the ICE, just hop on. I assume you're going by day from Amsterdam Centraal-Berlin Hbf...no mandatory reservation. Take the departure with Duisburg as transfer point. I'd like to do that route. Munich to where in Bavaria? Regensburg, Füssen, Passau, etc.? This leg you want to get a point to point ticket. No use wasting a day on the Pass for a short distance riding a local train. Paris-Madrid...you have to reserve, it's a TGV train.