Global Pass additional costs

you mean 2020, right?

What countries are you visiting? The fees vary depending on the train system. Generally the pass gives somewhat greater convenience but not always cheaper.

You can find the information on reservations (how to make them and the costs) at https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/about-reservations When you go to the page, click on Trains You Need Seat Reservations For." Further down on the page that I linked to you will see "About Reservation Fees" and in the paragraph below that you will see an active link named "See Full List of Reservation Fees Here."

Actually, we are going in July 2021. I still haven't set an Itinerary. I'm trying to price everything out still. We are definitely going to Krakow (my daughter wants to go to Auschwitz), and London. I'm just trying to decide where to go along the journey. I'm thinking 3 - 4 weeks.

Bear in mind that the passes, and what you get with them, and new restrictions change every year. So do the prices. Maybe not a lot, but sometimes quite a significant change. You will need to revise your plans from year to year.

Plan loosely now, tighten up a bit next year, and then check again before committing.

It is worth also keeping up with what The Man in Seat 61 says about passes and how to use them and purchasing criteria.

The whole page at https://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm is worth a read - it won't take too long and you will be well educated at the end....

"Bear in mind that the passes, and what you get with them, and new restrictions change every year. So do the prices. Maybe not a lot, but sometimes quite a significant change. You will need to revise your plans from year to year."

This year brought some significant changes(Britain added to Eurail, 7pm rule changed), but I think it's safe to assume if a certain train category needs a supplement/reservation it's going to be needed in the future as well(price may go up a bit) and if a train category doesn't need reservation that's going to stay like that in the future.

I think it's a good idea to start planning as soon as possible, in fact I practise what I call continous travel planning and I can only recommend this to every traveller. If I read about a place that is catching my attention I see where it is, how can I get there, etc, and when I actaully travel there I have a pretty good overview of my options and don't have to start planning from zero.

Cindy, I'd say that planning the itinerary should come way before trying to price out rail travel. Very broad numbers can hold the place in your budget but your final purchase should be tailored to the actual trip. Offers and prices are bound to change over the next year or two and at the same time, no one train ride will be so unaffordable that it should change your destination plan, especially if booking ahead. About six months in advance of travel is the earliest I'd be looking at these details.

There are usually ways around the websites that help you find out the extra fees, however, unless you are wanting a sleeper car experience or are planning a lot of stops, i wouldnt recommend it. I go to europe a lot to visit family, my son is also in collage in milan. We always hit up a city or two while there besides milan. We go in three week intervals. Last time, we took the train to Rome for five days while he had class, it was barely enough to enjoy the city, then the next week we took the tgv to paris for a week and half which was perfect and flew home. Cindy, i want you to have a lovely time. I would recommend Picking Three or Four cities, as you said you wanted to do 3 to 4 weeks. You mentioned Krakow and London. Flying into london is cheep from JFK. I Book southwest to NYC and then book a second reservation with Delta, United, BA, etc...saves a ton. I get an overnight in NYC and i love to take that morning flight out of jfk to london, and it arrives same day in the late evening. Doing this i get over jet lag quickly. I Spend a few days doing london and visiting my sister, but you may want to stay four or five days to get the highlights. I then either do a Ryan Air or a train, eurostar is nice but so is tgv, depends on where im going, and take a four hour ride someplace. Paris is two hours on the train and other areas are also fast. I think krakow is a day, but you see nice country side. You could stop in brussels or in amsterdam, those are just a few hours on the high speed from london. and its cheep. Like fifty bucks per person at the highest. Sometimes more if you are going far. Now little secret,,, skip krakow for your first euro trip. Better to just take the train to paris. Spend a few days there, then take the train to germany. Now Germany is where you will benefit from the pass. Frankfert for a few days, then work your way to munich. Lots of lovely day trips on local trains from munich including Dachau camp. Its less touristy, less busy, and you still get the same feel as aschwitz. Its sad. Salsburg is on a short train from munich too. I know this is a long post, i plan iteneraries a lot for my friends and family. I love doing it. I would say if you are doing high speed trains, budget 50 a person beween major cities, unless big distance like paris to milan, then budget 75 per ride. If you want to hit up smaller cities, get the pass. The extras are not that much but do add up quickly, like an extra twenty or so dollars if you want a high speed, or a sleeper car (which are horrible and i hate them but they are handy sometimes in eastern europe) maybe 15 bucks. Sorry for the long post, im just very passionate about this. Feel free to respond and we can dialogue about this sometime.

Thanks for all of the tips!

This trip is a gift to my daughter who really wants to go to Auschwitz in Poland, so I don't intend to change that. It is also my first trip to Europe (except for Russia, which is very different) and I doubt I will be back so I want to take advantage of it. We have a temporary itinerary now. London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow, Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Paris and then London to Dublin. know it's a lot but I'm okay with only spending a day or 2 in each city (except London and Paris).

I'm pre-planning because I am a middle school teacher and I need to workout how much I can save and how much I need to work in the summers and after school to make this happen. Also, I know it's early but I can learn when the best times to buy tickets will be by observing how prices work this year and next.

It's currently rare for any advance-discount train tickets to go on sale more than 6 months ahead, and 4 months is more common, although some Eurostar tickets may be available as far as 9 months out (nonrefundable).

A Eurail Global Pass probably will be a good choice for the type of route you're planning, although trains to and from Paris will require reservations, or the same if you take Eurostar or Eurostar plus Thalys from London to Amsterdam, or if you want a sleeper on an overnight train, such as Krakow-Vienna or Prague-Zurich.

There may be legs that you wish to fly to save both time and money over some longer train connections. E.g., London-Amsterdam on EasyJet is usually cheap or you might choose a flight over a night train; see also www.skyscanner.com. I would avoid going through London twice, unless there's a special reason, so maybe you fly to Dublin from somewhere on the Continent. In that case, you could put Paris earlier in the trip, such as London-Paris-Amsterdam-Berlin-Krakow-Prague-Vienna-Zurich-more of Switzerland and fly to Dublin.

Rail passes can be purchased up to 11 months ahead of the travel start plan, but since some are non-refundable, you'd want to be pretty sure of the plan to jump on any possible special offers that early (and also might want to add a Rail Protection Plan in that case).