EuroRail Travel

The Eurail pass won't cover your travel from London to Paris, but you might get a discount (passholder fare) by showing it. The rest of you travel is FR, CH, IT - three countries. The least expensive 3 country S_lect Saver pass is 5 days for $390 (€575 for two). Add to that any surcharges for premium trains. It's only 1st class; as Rick says, "forced luxury". Paris to Beaune to Bern to Vernazza to Rome is a fair amount of travel; you might be able to spend €288 on 2nd class point-point tickets. If you can get discount tickets from Paris to Bern, maybe not. Do the math.

It is not easy. In the old days it was no brainer that a pass saved money. No so today. With advance purchase discounts and the extras fees for reservations tacked onto rail pass, it requires some homework to determine if the pass saves you money. You will have price out each leg of your trip as p2p using some of the national rail sites. Don't use Rail Europe because their tickets are marked up and discounts are not available from them. For example I don't there is a rail pass that covers the Eurostar from London to Paris. I could be in error on this point.

Beaune to Bern is 80 CHF regular price; one might do better with advance purchase discounts on TGV but I didn't check. From Bern to Milan, you can get an advance-purchase fare of 25 to 30 CHF (actually Zurich to Milan) by buying well in advance on the Swiss train site. You can find the price from Milan to Monterosso al Mare on the Trenitalia site---we did that last summer and I don't remember the price but it wasn't much. Add a couple of euros to get to Vernazza on the local train. Do the math but I don't see how it will add up to $390.

thanks for all the advise. we are thinking the EuroRail pass will give us some flexibility of travel (where, how long), it seems buying p2p may save some perhaps some money, but then locks us into a rigid travel plan. I plan to use the metro to get around major cities, and hopefully avoid car rentals. Next question is hotels, for the major cities i plan to stay not far from train station for ease of getting in/out. do you recommend any hotel sites?

Your abbreviations are interesting. I've never seen Switzerland abbreviated SZ before, nor Italy IL. Is it so much more difficult to spell them out? By the way, by Bern do you mean the Berner Oberland area, or do you actually mean Bern? Nice enough, I've been there several times, but its not the mountains. You only have 2 weeks, so I make that 6 places in 14 days, or 2 and a third days per place, not counting many, many hours on trains. Pardon me sticking my nose in, but have you considered making the trip a bit straighter or leaving out something so that the others are a bit more enjoyable?

Jim, One important point to note with Railpasses, is that these do not include the reservation fees that are compulsory on some trains, usually the fast trains such as the TGV in France. You'll have to pay separately "out of pocket" for those. Especially in Italy, you don't want to be caught without a valid reservation, as you'll be fined on the spot and it won't be cheap! Could you clarify the length of your trip? If you're planning to visit six locations in about a two week time frame, I have to agree with Nigel that you might consider dropping one or more of the cities you listed. That will only provide about 2.5 days per stop, and no allowances for travel times. You might find it helpful to read the "Railpasses" section on this website, as there's a section describing "How to use your Railpass". You can also download the free PDF Rail Guide if you wish. You can purchase Railpasses directly from this website - click the "Railpasses" tab at the top of the page. As the others have said, you'll need to "do the math" to determine whether a Railpass or P-P tickets will be most cost effective. Regarding Hotels in each city, I'd recommend checking your local Library or book stores to see if they have copies of Rick's Guidebooks. They contain great Hotel listings for each of the cities you'll be visiting, along with E-mail and other information. In addition they also have great sightseeing and transportation tips for each city. You could also have a look at Trip Advisor but the information there is not as detailed in terms of identifying Hotels that are close to the stations (Rick's books come with simple Maps that show the locations well). Happy travels!

A pass will not give you as much flexibility as you might imagine. The days when you could hop on anybtrain with your Eurail pass. Unless you stick to the slow regional trains (and waste the First Class designation of your pass), many of the trains you will be taking require reservations. These are limited in number for pass holders. If you try to maximize your flexibility by waiting to the last minute to make your reservations, you could be shut out of the trains you want. As far as hotels near the station: in Paris you will most likely arrive at one station and leave from another. Same with London if you take the Heathrow Express in from the airport. In Vernazza the train station is near the top of the town, and most people like to get away from the noise and gain closer views of the water. It might work in Bern, though; the Swiss are good at making the areas around their train stations attractive and well supplied with good hotels.