Do the Rail Passes allow you to travel on just about any train to just about anywhere within your chosen country? We want the convenience of going to smaller villages from our accomodations and the flexibility of jumping off and on again at will. We'll be traveling in Italy during the month of January.
Hi Christine. The big factor that prevents a rail pass from being the most convenient and going where ever you want has to do with reservations. If a route requires a reservation, typically you'll need to pay that in advance before you take the train. So, unfortunately there isn't really an easy answer for this. In Italy, all high speed trains require a reservations and most IC trains as well. The regional trains don't typically require reservations though (i.e. small town tuscany, etc). Keep in mind that many of the tickets between these small towns are already inexpensive so using a rail pass is not necessarily the best value on the small towns.
My best suggestion would be to simply add the cost of the individual tickets and compare that to the cost of the rail pass to see which is cheapest. Bottom line...you have to do the math. To see which routes require reservations, look on www.bahn.com. Ticket costs can be found through www.trenitalia.com and www.raileurope.com. as well.
I hope this helps some.
In Italy railpasses are a waste of money because point to point tix are relatively cheap.
I would say use Trenitalia for individual fare prices in Italy. Those are the prices the railroad charges. RailEurope is a reseller and adds their own administrative fee and profit.
I've not checked Italian Rail prices recently, but in Germany, you can get lower prices directly from the Bahn (either online or at the station) than you can from RailEurope.
Abe, summed it pretty well except that ALL trains in Italy, except the Regionale, require a seat reservation prior to boarding the train even with a pass. Reservations run about ten euro per leg. You can buy at the station just prior to boarding but it is another hassle along the way. With Regionale tickets you could buy a ticket from A to D and jump off and on at B and C as long as the trip is completed within 5 hours from the time of validation (date/time stamp) on the ticket. However, there is no advantage to early purchase of Regionale tickets because they are never discounted and the price is always the same so just buy them as you need them. Regionale tickets are inexpensive in Italy.
Another thing to be careful of is that "smaller villages" may not have usable public transportation at all. You need to do some more research about the public transportation network in the region you plan to explore to see whether you'll need a car.
France is even worse than Italy for pass holders. France severely limits the number of seats available to pass holders, so even when there are plenty of seats available on the train, you may not be able to use the pass because none of the available seats can be purchased by pass holders. In this situation, you either have to change your travel schedule or buy a full-fare ticket.
Most veteran travelers avoid Rail Europe. Go to www.seat61.com for train and ferry assistance, tips, and how to get cheap fares. Rail Europe doesn't have the full schedules and you can get cheaper fares elsewhere. Let the man in seat 61 be your guide.
Advance purchase tickets on the fast trains in Italy start at €9 per ticket.
Passholder reservations cost €10, plus you have the cost of the pass per day.
Almost always pass holders lose out financially. If money is no object, pass holders still lose out because you have to stop to get the reservation. If you are going to have to stop anyway, just get a ticket (which includes a reservation) and be done with it.
I can't remember the last time a passholder came on here and said how much time, money and effort they saved using the pass in Italy.
If you are going to other countries, Christine, different results may apply.
Do you know yet what the legs are of your journey? If you share, there are people here who can give really specific advice, custom made for you.
Some of us live or have lived in Italy, some are regular visitors, some are train nuts.
Have at it...
chrisitne,
You won't be able to jump on and jump off trains which require compulsory reservations such as the Freccia high speed trains. Reservations are specific to train, date and departure time and can only be used on the one train listed on the reservation. Once you jump off the train, you'd have to buy another reservation for the next train. If you're caught without a valid reservation, you'll face hefty fines of about €50 PP plus the cost of the reservation, and the fines will be collected on the spot.
You could use the Rail Pass for Regionale trains (which don't have compulsory reservations), but you'd probably find that the cost of the Pass was higher than just buying P-P tickets (which are relatively cheap in Italy).
As the others have mentioned, Rail Passes are rarely a cost effective method for travel in Italy.
Thank you all so very much for the input, tips and informative suggestions. I feel like I now have a fair concept of train travel in Italy and will NOT be buying rail passes but will purchase SOME tickets in advance (after the December route updates) and purchase as we go (which is part of the fun, anyway, right?). After exploring sites like seat61, I think the train travel in January is going to be offering some of the best travel experiences of our trip. We've already purchased tickets on bahn for Germany (at Christmastime!) and look forward to completing our itinerary in Italy after the New Year. I really appreciate all your insights and will be a frequent traveler to this site. As they say, just planning and dreaming of travel releases endorphins so y'all are my drug of choice right now. :)
and there is no cure :)