Hello, I'm going to be traveling in the following way by train: Rome->Cinque Terre Cinque Terre->Interlaken Interlaken->Munich
With one or two day trips. Is the 2nd class youth select pass the best value for me?
Posted by
Reston, Virginia
403 posts
Maybe, maybe not. You have to compare the prices of point-to-point tickets for the journeys you plan to the cost of the pass to find out. Passes are no longer automatically cheaper than p to p tickets. Plus, don't forget that any high-speed trains you travel on are likely to require reservations and possibly a supplement added to the pass cost.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23343 posts
Without doing the homework, my initial response is no -- p2p, especially with advance purchase discounts in Italy, will be cheap.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19117 posts
No, not if you are willing to commit early enough to a train specific Europa-Spezial ticket from Interlaken Ost to Munich. You can find p2p fares on the German Rail website, at Italian Rail (www.trenitalia.com), and Swiss Rail (www.sbb.ch). There is no "Cinque Terre" station. Use Vernazza. The fare from Vernazza to Interlaken is Vernazza to Brig on Trenitalia and Brig to Interlaken on SBB. One of the problems with the Select rail pass is that it is a minimum of 5 days.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Usually, you will pay more for the pass plus the supplemental fees as they apply than you will by buying point-to-point tickets. As Lee points out, you can get a great deal on your Interlaken/Munich ticket by buying early online. Also, some of the trains you will be on in Italy will be the inexpensive Regionale or IC trains. It's not worth buying a pass for these inexpensive trains. Note that you will have one ticket for each train you will be on. Many runs, especially your run from the CT to Interlaken, have multiple train changes. Again, you get one ticket for each train you are on. For the nicer trains in each country, you will pay a supplemental fee of some type for each train.