Help with EuRail! Would appreciate your advice

With less than two months until your trip, I'd get on the phone to Rail Europe RIGHT NOW to start booking reservations (raileurope.com for contact numbers.) That's the only way you have any hope of making this journey work. You'll pay an arm and a leg for reservations/supplements, but it's probably your only hope. If you have exact travel dates nailed down, you might get some assistance with reservations (at a cheaper cost) at the German national rail website, bahn.de by calling the directly 011-49-1805-996-633. But don't be surprised if there are some trains where spots won't be available....national rail companies put limits on spots available to rail passholders. If no luck on some routes, Bahn (or people on this site) should be able to help you book point to point tickets.
You also might want to seriously consider reducing this itinerary....othewise, all you'll be seeing is the inside of trains and hotel rooms.

With all due respect to your sincere intentions of seeing Europe, I must say that this itinerary is ridiculous. 9 cities with large distances between them in 11 days. Sheesh.

It's always wise to plan a good trip and THEN figure out how to reach your destinations before buying a pass.

You've basically chosen to jump off the train, snap some pictures, and jump back on. With that in mind, I would suggest streamlining your trip so that you can see a trifle more. Cut Berlin, which takes 4 days or so. Cut Munich. Cut Austria.

Amsterdam: 2 nights - then take a straighter path toward Switzerland.

Bacharach on the Rhine: 1 night on the way south to "see Germany." On the way, stopover in Koblenz, stow bags, and catch a train to Braubach for a tour of Marksburg Castle: www.marksburg.de

Luzern: 2 nights (I'd do Interlaken instead - more spectacular side trips in the area)

Italy: 5 nights - make some choices about what you want to see. Rome itself requires at least 3 days' time. I'd opt for 2 nights in Venice and 2 in Florence and not bother with much in Rome.

You could do this itinerary if you are flexible with your time and went second class - I don't believe you need reservations unless you are doing high speed trains. Of course, with the distance between the cities if you didn't use highspeed it would take much longer and wouldn't be as doable.

Granted, it was 1997 but my husband and I did a similar thing - we had a pass and simply got on and off any train we wanted as long as we were in a second class cabin. We started in Amsterdam and went through eastern France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and all the way down to Rome - oh, and back to Amsterdam all in 15 days. We just hopped on and off wherever we felt like it and had no pre-planned reservations at hotels, just trusted we'd find a bed! (Which we alwasys did, and it was in August).

I think you can do it if you aren't worried about knowing where you'll sleep each night - to me (at the time) it was part of the adventure! Look through the Eurail schedules and maps and then just check with them if they have second class train options available for you... that would be my advice.

Either way, good luck and have a fabulous trip!

Thank you all! (an eye openner to say the least!)
OK, then my question is what can I do in the 10-days from Paris to Rome, wanting to spend 2 nights in Venice and 2 nights in Florence. When I arrive in Rome I'll have 4 days prior to cruise departure so What can I realistically do?
Should I go South from Paris to Lucern then to Salzburg, Vienna then on to Venice, Florence & Rome?
Thanks again for ALL YOUR HELP!

Jerry

As a guideline, here are the MINIMUM train times you can expect on your planned itinerary. Remember, these are from the time the train pulls out of one station and halts in another....never mind the time to pack and unpack, and get to and from the station.
Paris-Amsterdam 4 hrs
Amsterdam-Berlin 6 hrs
Berlin-Munich 6 hrs
Munich-Lucerne 5.5 hrs
Lucerne-Salzburg 6.5 hrs
Salzburg-Vienna 3 hrs
Vienna-Venice 8 hrs
Venice-Florence 2 hrs
Florence-Rome 1.5 hrs

OK, so with four days in Rome, you'll have time to see the sights there.
With 10 nights left, I'd spend 3 in Paris, 2 in Switzerland, 3 in Venice (you'll burn up most of a day travelling there from Lucerne), and 2 in Florence. Austria is a little too far out of the way to include on this trip...save it for your net journey.
FYI, you can check tgv-europe.com for Paris-Lucerne point to point tickets (the French national railway site...keep your home country set to Great Britain,) sbb.ch for tickets from Lucerne to Venice, and trenitalia.com for schedules from Venice onwards. Check the prices...there are still some deals available for the time you're travelling. Eurail passes can be refunded, for a handling fee...compare the cost of the point to point tickets to the cost of your pass, especially with a reduced schedule. You will probably find it's worth it to get the refund. And any tickets you purchase on the websites, or at the train station in Venice include any reservations that may be necessary.
You can't purchase tickets with an American credit card on the trenitalia site unfortunately, But the Venice-Florence-Rome leg has many trains/day....you can purchase those tickets when you arrive in Venice.

Thanks again everyone, I value your advice, so here is my "new" question:
By the time I leave Paris on 9/12, I would have already spent 4-days there. I need to leave for Rome and be there no later than 9/22 so what would ANYONE suggest I do? which route to take to maximize the already purchased Global Saver Pass for my wife and I? The pass is good for 1st class since we are in our 50/60's and the pass, which just arrived is good for 15 consecutive days from activation day. I feel stupid asking so much, but please forgive me, it is our 1st time in Europe...

Jerry

Jerry,

You do have a sense of adventure. I say cut Switzerland, take a night train for Berlin and Amsterdam and possibily(night) Berlin and Munich, even do Berlin and Vienna (night) but do cover yourselves with a separate ticket if the route you choose goes through the Czech Rep., which I avoid when going between Vienna and Berlin.

You didn't mention that you (obviously) have never been to Europe before. It's a common first-timer syndrome to expect to see too much in too little time.

In 2007, for my ninth trip, I spent 13 night in Bavaria in 10 places, but I had already honed my travel skills. I had learned to pack light and efficiently, everything in my pack was organized in bundles by type, so packing to leave (10 out of 13 days) was just a matter of throwing the bundles into my bag and going. But I only spent a few hours a day traveling from town to town. Most of my days were spent sightseeing in intermediate town. Most of your days are going to be spent seeing the inside of trains.

As Norm pointed out, you'll be spending over 40 hours on 9 travel days, 4½ hours per day, in trains, plus time checking out/in. When do you plan to see anything, or is your objective just to impress you friends with the name places you been to (but not really seen).

Conventional wisdom, whatever that is, is that you should spend at least 3 days in each venue. In 10 days, that leaves you only 3 places. You've already said you have to see Venice, Florence, and Rome. OK, so push is a little, go to Luzern, Venice, Florence, and Rome.

Take a little less stressful itinerary, enjoy your travel, feel that you have seen something of where you have been. Then come back again and see Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg. and Munich. And, IMO, spend more than 10 days doing it.

Norm writes, "Eurail passes can be refunded, for a handling fee...compare the cost of the point to point tickets to the cost of your pass, especially with a reduced schedule. You will probably find it's worth it to get the refund."

I completely second Norm's advice. You probably paid $550 each for a 10-day saver pass for two. That's too much pass for a stay of 11 days. Contact your seller and return the pass for a partial refund. Some sellers will give you a full refund if you buy other products (passes or tickets) from them. Revise your trip so that you visit no more than 3 or 4 of these major destinations within your 11 days. Then look into the cost of tickets for those legs. Here's a good source if you want advance-sale bargains into or out of Germany, or just want to check regular prices:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Examples of fares I found there on a sample date in September:

Amsterdam to Berlin: 49 Euros

Berlin to Munich: 29 Euros

That's barely $100 and about half your distance to Rome.

The purpose of your trip is to see life on the ground in Europe, not the inside of a train, and you'll probably achieve that if you limit the number of places you visit.

Jerry...given that you have 10 days to get from Paris to Rome, stopping en route in Venice and Florence...I agree with those posters who suggested dropping Berlin and other remote destinations. A direct night train from Paris to Venice would save time, but --if you are like me--cost a night's sleep.
Of course you may have special reasons for choosing the cities you listed, but if it were my trip (which is isn't), I would consider longer stays in fewer cities with more daytrips (which your pass would cover). Keep in mind that seats aboard high speed trains such as TGVs require reservations--not just a pass.
What about something like this...9/12 Paris to Berne by TGV and on to Interlaken. Base in the Interlaken area for 2 days. On 9/15, Train from Interlaken to Milan. Stay in Milan 9/15 and 9/16, with a day trip to the Lake Como region. On 9/17 go to Venice and stay 2 nights. Possible day trips to Verona or perhaps other towns of the Veneto. On 9/19 go to Florence and stay 3 nights. On 9/22 train from Florence to Rome. Think of this as similar to starting at Crater Lake and having Tucson as your destination ....going to Chicago or St Louis would be fun, but awfully out of the way. Remember that just because a trip CAN be done in the time available does not mean it necessarily SHOULD be done...sometimes less is more. Best of luck with your planning!

If you are determined to include Rome, Florence, and even Venice, then Switzerland and even Salzburg have to be cut. If you do that and take at least 2 night trains, ie., Amsterdam-Berlin and Berlin-Vienna, you just might have enough time; to get as much value out of your Pass, forego reserving a couchette or a sleeper, just pay for a seat reservation in a Sitzwagen compartment. If the locals can do that, so can you.

Next, it also depends how much time you intend to spend in Rome. Maybe you should consider cutting either Venice or Florence.