Individual Rail passes vs. Eurail

The question is unanswerable without knowing your itinerary, and even then, you have to crunch the numbers... but in general, rail passes rarely save travelers money these days. "my goal is to travel to as many European countries as possible. " A bit of caution here. Most of us on this website would recommend not attempting a whirl-wind tour. You end up spending too much valuable time and money in transit. And, otherwise wonderful cities, churches, and museums start to blur together. For example, I didn't care much for Munich the first time I visited... mainly because I had just visited St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Warsaw, Krakow and Prague and by that time, I was sick of large cities. I've since gone back a few times and loved it. Plenty of other regular posters will surely soon chime in with their planning recommendations, so I'll hand this thread off to them...

many (most) of the people who post on this website are all about seeing Europe on a tight budget - and I commend them for that. But sometimes, if the traveler values flexibility and extemporaneous traveling as much as saving money, the Eurail pass has advantages. If you can "do" Europe within a not-that-small budget and want the advantages of going when/where you want to the "Pass" is an invaluable tool. We've been there twice in the past 3 years, both times with a 7- or 10- day pass, and we would not trade the options we got and the experiences we had due to the pass for any dollar savings received from tickets purchased in advance.

J.D., One important point to mention regarding Railpasses, is that these do not include reservation fees that are compulsory on some trains. You'll have to pay separately for those if you're using "premium" trains. When travelling with a Railpass, it's vital to do some research on each rail trip, to determine which ones require reservations and which don't. Generally speaking, the "fast" trains such as the EuroStar Italia, TGV and Thalys always require reservations, while slower regional trains don't. Especially in Italy, you don't want to be caught without the appropriate reservation if required, as you'll be fined on the spot (and it won't be cheap!). Using the "spontaneous approach" with Railpasses isn't quite the same as it used to be. I've found that the best method if travelling with a Railpass is to use the Pass for the longer and more expensive routes, and use P-P tickets for shorter and cheaper routes. Cheers!

" But sometimes, if the traveler values flexibility and extemporaneous traveling as much as saving money, the Eurail pass has advantages." I'm going to disagree here, because you can always buy tickets for any train at the station at any time. And even in this situation, unless you're taking a long-distance high-speed train, the daily cost for the rail pass (which mandates 1st class travel) is likely to exceed the cost of the 2nd class ticket (caveat, I've never been to Italy or Spain and I have no idea how the rails work in these countries).

However, if you're making last-minute changes you don't always have the time to get off the train, stand in line to purchase a ticket, and then be ready to hop the train that you've just chosen as your next ride. You can definitely save money on p-t-p tickets but the time needed to buy them on the spot often eliminates the possibility of boarding the next train. It's a personal preference - money savings vs time savings.

"but the time needed to buy them on the spot often eliminates the possibility of boarding the next train. " I've never waited longer than 12 minutes to buy a ticket, and it takes about 3 minutes to buy from the automated kiosks. And for the most part in countries with dense rail networks, the next train is seldom more than a 30 minute wait... unless you consider some of the long distance sprinter trains, for which you need a reservation anyway with a rail pass... But really, who is going to change their plans at the last minute and decide to visit, let's say, Brussels instead of Munich from Frankfurt, and then know exactly which track to move to without having to check the arrival board?

J.D., Going for a whole month could be done on using a rail pass, six weeks would even be better. I can only say about the Pass in Germany and Austria...doing it on the cheap in those countries. Don't know about Spain/Italy. For the short trips, day trips,.. buy the point-point tickets. Avoid riding on a Thalys train, you'll get charged extra, better to detour in Germany so as to avoid going through Belgium, even if your Pass includes Benelux. Always take the ICE trains for the long rides over 4-5 hrs. Daytime you can just hop on as long as the trip is within Austria/Germany, no need to pay extra for a reservation since it's not mandatory as it is on a Thalys and TGV. If you stand, you stand...it won't be for the entire ride. For the night train, from Munich-Kiel or Amsterdam, Munich-Paris, don't get a sleeper or couchette. Paying for that luxury will cut into your Pass savings, sleep upright in the Sitzwagen. Munich-Paris, day or night, the reservation is mandatory. If you're going from Paris-Bayeux, get a point-point ticket. Buying a point-point ticket from DB machine in Ger. can be done with a US credit card. The receipt will show the last 4 digits of the card used, did that last summer for Berlin-Magdeburg. But this is not case in Paris if you want to get a point-point from a SNCF machine using a US credit card. About standing in line: do that the night before you intend to take that day trip or early that morning , say 7 am, ...I stay close to train station. Try to avoid buying point-point with a reservation near or on 14 July...chances are that it will be booked, asit happened to me a few years back to take a day trip from Metz to Thionville (Diedenhofen) on 14 July....all booked. But you'll be back by then. Save being in paris on 14 July for the next trip!!

Kristy, My message didn't go through. Sorry, here it is. Some years back, 2003 or 2001, I was in Viersen (lower Rhine area) waiting for a train to take me to Aachen where I could transfer to Paris. I had a 4 country Pass, Benulux was one of the four, was told by the clerk for DB that in spite of that, I needed to buy another ticket to cover the Belgian part of the route, ie., I'm paying twice for the same route, went back and forth on this in German (language was not an issue here), no use arguing, bought that ticket using my Visa; at the Belgian-Ger, border Belgian controller comes on, sees my Pass and wants to see that other ticket too bought from DB in Viersen!! That lady was telling me the truth after all. Now, when going from Ger. to Paris, I avoid going through Bel., the northern route. If you're in Ger anyway, get to Frankfurt, reserve a seat on the ICE for Paris Est, much more comfortable than the TGV and Thalys. Hope this helps

It looks like the route from Aachen to Paris is via Thalys. You would have had to pay a supplement (reservation) to ride that train. Maybe that's what she meant.