help with eurail passes

Posted by Natalie (Thunder bay, On, Canada) on 06/12/08 03:16 PM

hi, i am currently planning a trip to europe for next spring and i have been trying to study whether or not to buy the select super saver pass for the eurail or buy p2p tickets. what are some of your suggestions?

a little info on our destinations include paris-florence, florence-siena-pisa, rome, pompeii-naples-sorrento, venice, venice-munich, munich-badenbaden-other places in germany.

i have tried to read alot of the other posts on here but when they dont relate to our trip its alot harder to understand. is there special fares you have to pay, what are "supplements" and is the TGV train from paris to italy (florence or rome) included in this trip? are smaller trip available with this pass such as from florence into small towns in tuscany (pisa, siena) or pompeii. thanks for any insight you may have

Posted by Tim

Minneapolis, MN, USA

06/12/08 03:43 PM

8700 posts

A railpass is good on all national rail trains in a country or countries covered by the pass. Supplements include seat reservations on trains that require them (like TGVs) and sleeping accommodations on night trains. A pass is not good on private trains (like the Circumvesuviana from Naples to Sorrento).

Click on the Railpasses tab at the top of the page you're reading now and study everything you find there. Study the Railpasses section at www.seat.61.com. Then come back here and ask more questions, if necessary.

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

06/12/08 04:16 PM

19274 posts

It will help in your comparison if you create a matrix where each row is a day, or leg, of travel, and the columns are "P2P" and "rail pass". Put the cost of supplements in the pass column, add them up, and add the cost of the pass. Compare that to the sum of the P2P tickets.

As for P2P tickets, I found Dauer-Spezial tickets for €39 pP for Munich to Baden-Baden. There might be fares as low as €29, but they were sold out for the day I checked, about July 11. The Dauer-Special applies to the fastest express trains. If you are willing to go by regional train, you could this for a €19 Bayern-Ticket-Single (one person) and a €19 Baden-Württemberg-Ticket-Single, €38 total. The Bayern- and Ba-Wü-Tickets never sell out and no advance purchase is necessary; they are always available on the day of travel. If there are two of you, you could split a €27 Bayern-Ticket and a €27 Baden-Württemberg-Ticket, €54 total, €27 per person.

Be aware that in Italy, the fastest Eurostar Italian trains carry a €15 supplement for rail pass holders. The P2P fare is often not much more than that.

What is you "additional" travel in Germany? There are often special fares available for P2P travel that can save over a railpass.

Posted by Natalie OP

Thunder bay, On, Canada

06/12/08 04:38 PM

48 posts

umm well we havent started much of our research in germany yet. we are leaving venice into germany and munich is a must. any suggestions? we dont want to stray too far from munich or frankfurt because we will be flying out of there. we have 3 or 4 days in germany.