Just purchased rail pass, did i make a mistake?

i forgot to mention above that from bayeux to tours i will have car rented, and im flying from paris to madrid, also flying from morocco back to barcelona,
so in addition to the rail passes i have several flights and a week or so of car rental

I'll let you make that judgment. Check French prices at http://www.voyages-sncf.com...Belgian-Amsterdam costs at Belgian rail, http://www.b-rail.be/main/E...Spanish routes at http://www.renfe.es and Italian prices at http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html. You might try a travel agent in Melbourne to see what they'll charge for reservations on the Thalys and TGV trains you want to take. You can also book them through RailEurope in Australia, but you'll pay more...http://www.raileurope.com.au/australia/index.htm. You can try to get reservations as soon as you arrive in each country...head for the first train station to make them.

Click on the Railpasses tab at the top of the page you're reading now. Here's the URL for the page in that section that deals with reservations: www.ricksteves.com/rail/usepass.htm#sup. There is a link on that page which will give you a guide to reservation and supplement costs.

Kims advice is the best, don't do this to yourself. If passes are non refundalbe then this is like picking a sore.

You have freedom and flexibilty , enjoy that and never mind the what ifs.

Vikkie...you may still want to do the comparisons...so you'll know for your next trip.

Rail passes save a lot of time and can save plenty of money. Even if its close - you have the luxury of "freedom" to do what/when/where you want (just check certain lines & times with heavy commuter times or RSVP req.) As others said - do the research if you want - but you bought them and you can move on to the next. When you get to Europe the dollar/euro rate may have gone up more and the local costs may be even higher - so dont worry... travel happy!

Rail Europe gives refunds to unused, un-validated passes minus a 15% cancellation fee.

As the previous posters have said, compute the point-to-point costs - whether you are returning the pass or not.

I wouldn't sweat it, some of those longer train days offer such a savings that it makes it worth it. Sure you could have saved a couple of bucks by going to the counter on a few of those but you will save a lot of time when you are rushing from one train to the other. In the end you may find that it saves you hours of waiting around. Also you can take advantage of high speed trains (make a reservation) which become too costly in a point to point scenario(make a reservation). Just think you maybe have added another vacation day worth of time!

I agree with the others that just say go with it. You are doing alot of travel, and generally long treks pay for the pass. Couple observations though: You list more than 10 segments, I am assuming you planned these into your 10 days, If not, just pay cash for the shortest hops. Also be aware that some trains require an "up-charge" and a reservation fee in addition to the pass. For example, Rome-Naples has a high speed train that requires additional charges, but you can also take IC and Regional trains that require no, or fewer, charges; with the downside being added time. Spend some time looking at the rules and details of the pass in the guide sent with the passes. It will save some grief and surprises.

thankyou all for taking the time to reply
ive decided im keeping the passes.
i looked into www.raileurope.com.au , i cant belive the prices of reserving trains, bloody expensive,
ill also look at other sites to see if i can get them cheaper, for eg, according to www.raileurope.com.au its gonna cost me $50 each reservation fee to get from brugge to paris, even with a rail pass. what a rip off, in your opinions should i just arrange it when in europe, ie as soon as i arrive in brugge book/reserve my brugge -paris ticket and so on? i assume it would be alot less in europe- i cant understand the point of rail passes if they slub you an extra $50 ,
thanks again

vikkie, If you take a Thalys train from Brugge, you pay a passholder's fare, a lot more than a simple reservation. But if you take regional trains from Brugge to Lille and the TGV from there to Paris, the only reservation fee you'll need to pay is 3-4 euro for the TGV. Go to www.bahn.de for detailed timetables. First enter Brugge and Paris. After you get summary timetables, enter Lille in the "via" box. Then click on "Details for all" to see the connecting points.

My wife and I purchased a 5 day flex pass last August and made use of it. We found that first class tickets (which we had) and additional charges for reservations was not necessary. We were OK with the RailPass, but the additional charges of first class and reservations were totally unnecessary. We traveled through Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and the second class cars had plenty of vacancies. We traveled late July and first two weeks of August. Dorsey

Thankyou all so much for the replies
i hope this isnt a stupid question but for reservations as i have a rail pass (adult 1st class)
does that mean i have to reserve a 1 st class seat?
i guess it would but just want to make sure
as i only bought the 1 st class as i had no choice
(im over 26) but when i looked up train reservation fees/supplement costs the 1st class was significantly more than the 2nd class reservation fee. i honestly prefer 2nd class if i am allowed to do this, i dont want to spend double just to be in first class, so i guess what i am asking is
"can i reserve a 2 nd class seat when travelling with a 1st class railpass, thankyou again
Vikkie :)