Railpass help! Does my route require more $ and/or a reservation?

Without knowing your itinerary, it's difficult to put a number on it. However, in Germany, unless you try to ride an ICE Sprinter, which are rare, reservations will not be required. If you do want to reserve a seat for other trains, and I generally don't, reservations are available at the ticket counter for €4. The reservation fee would be in addition to the standard fare, anyway. In Italy, the fastest express trains (EuroStar, Frecciarossa) require a supplement with a rail pass (because they are considered premium trains, for which the Rail Pass does not completely cover the ticket). The cost of a supplement is about €10 and, since all tickets on these trains include a reservation, you get a seat reservation automatically with the supplement. Slower ICs require a reservation, but no supplement. You can ride regional trains without paying extra.

Two things to note. First, you list Denmark, Germany and Italy. By Eurail rules, if you pass through a country not covered by your pass, you will pay extra to transit across that country. Denmark does share a border with Germany so you are OK there. But, you'll have to pay more to pass through Switzerland, France or Austria to get to Italy. In Italy, note that the new private rail lines (Italo and Thello) will not accept your pass. Several other private rail lines in Italy will also not accept your pass. Trenitalia, the largest railway will. But, as Lee indicates above, you will pay 10Euro extra for each high-speed that you will be on.

All trains in Italy except Regional require a seat reservation and range from 3 to 10E. Regional trains are opening seating and reservation cannot be made.

Michelle your post says you have priced and found the same prices. Please allow me to ask, where did you get your point to point prices? If it was RailEurope you may not have the full picture and can usually do better. If the chart in the books that tends to be a bit vague, a bit high and, because it is a chart, not very optimistic. To find more accurate point to point fares you need to go to each national railway, find their best fares and best discount fares and go from there. If your journey is basically a straight line I would be surprised if they wind up the same. If you are doing plenty journeys in Germany and Denmark, maybe a pass will pay off... Can you give us a bit more of your itinerary in a touch more detail?

Hi Nigel, We will ride the train twice in Denmark... from Copenhagen to Arhus, and back to Copenhagen. In Germany... leaning toward renting a car. Then an overnight train (City Night Line) from Munich to Florence. Then take the train from Florence to Cinque Terre and - possibly - back to Florence... although we may rent a car in Cinque Terre and go to Siena for a couple nights. Then the train from Florence to Rome. I realize that without a 'set itinerary' it's difficult to say for sure what is the best choice, economically. For now, we are leaning toward a car in Tuscany once we reach CT, but I have to research 'where to rent' and 'can I rent a car in one spot and drop in another for a reasonable price'. If you have any info on that, I would LOVE to hear it! Lastly, yes, I was getting my pricing from Raileurope.com. You mentioned going to each national company for better rates?

Yes, for the real best price for each route, you go to that country's national rail company site. For Denmark, it's DSB: http://www.dsb.dk/om-dsb/in-english/ For Italy, it's FS (click on British flag on the top of the page for English): http://www.trenitalia.com/. And for Germany, it's DB: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. This last is usually the easiest to use for researching schedules (it has them for all of Europe), but it won't show prices for trains outside of Germany. To see if there's a discount for advance purchase, try looking at trains for tomorrow vs trains for 2-3 months away. There are quirks to using each national rail site to actually make bookings (particularly Italy's). If you want to make a booking, ask here for more help. Given that you're only taking a few trains, I can't imagine a rail pass would pay off. Remember that in Italy, the prices shown on the website include the reservations when required.

Hi, How many days do you intend to use the the Pass? If you are going to use the Pass mainly for distance traveling in Germany and Denmark, get the Ger-Den Pass. Don't include Italy on the Pass. No need to list Austria either. When you're going from Germany to Italy, buy a ticket that covers the Austria portion and the Italian portion. I do not recommend relying on Rail Europe for train information.

Michelle, If you're planning to rent a car, don't forget the usual "caveats" regarding driving in Italy. Several recent posters here have received a "surprise" in the mail several months after returning home. If you need further details, post another note.

We just returned from the reverse trip. We purchased the full 23 country ticket for 15 days.  Our last six we met with family and drove so we used the first 15 through to get to Denmark. The first piece of bad advice on here is buying at point of sale.  You lose time, flexibility, will probably pay second class to try save money ( and still won't), and it isn't worth the hassle.  A pass, whatever you choose, is your absolute best option. There are 4 or 5 county passes.   They are a good option if staying a month or two and only few days of rail travel between.   The price between the "4 country 8 or 10 days used in two months" v "23 country for 15 consecutive days pass" isn't much either.   FYI. Our 15 day pass was about 1300.  We ran the point of sale tab up as we went and the cost would have been over double. If you are over 25 then you must buy first class.  It's worth getting anyway.  Often the second class are crowded, little or no AC. There is one other factor.  Often you have limited transfer time, things happen fast.  It can be stressful purchasing the rail ticket at the terminal, when the train is leaving in minutes.  A pass beats that. The high speed rail between Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome is the only way to go.   For these, you pay an added reservation charge of about 10 Euros per person.  That can be done at the machine, but it is tricky.  You need enter your pass number, and it didn't accept the whole ticket number.  We beat that by entering all but the first number.  Then you pay the reservation fee only. The reservation fee is simply a surcharge.  Like others, we found you don't need to purchase it until just before the train leaves.  I.E. not the day before. A sleeper, overnight car is tricky.  They may be available.  A private berth is expensive, a couchette bunk is worth it tho.  You need book that well ahead.

OK - not knowing travel dates, etc., I checked some prices. The range represents advance-purchase to full-fare: €48 - Copen > Arhus €48 - Arhus > Copen €99-264 Mun > Florence €16-21 Florence > CT
€18 CT > Siena €24-50 Siena> Rome That's €253 - €449. A 3-country, 6-day SAVER pass is $420, PLUS reservations (incl €140 supp for night train - that could cost only €99 without using a pass...!). You could pay €99 for the sleeper and get the 5-day SAVER pass for $381. Not knowing specific dates makes this almost a moot exercise, though. The prices could go up or down, depending on the number of travelers, actual final itinerary, your personal comfort level, etc.

I'm afraid I have to correct some of Steve's advice here: "The first piece of bad advice on here is buying at point of sale. You lose time, flexibility, will probably pay second class to try save money ( and still won't), and it isn't worth the hassle. A pass, whatever you choose, is your absolute best option." This is just categorically untrue. While I do agree that buying a regular ticket at the time of travel is pretty much always the worst option if you're taking high speed trains, the choice is not between "Railpass OR buy at time of departure". The cheapest way to travel is to buy discount-priced tickets as far ahead of time as possible. The downside is that you lose flexibility, as the discount tickets are for a specific train at a specific time. But the discount ticket prices will always be cheaper than a day of Railpass travel unless maybe you're using a Youth pass. "If you are over 25 then you must buy first class. It's worth getting anyway. Often the second class are crowded, little or no AC." This really depends on where you are in Europe. In Germany 2nd class is not that much different from 1st class and most people agree that it's not worth the extra money for 1st. Italy may be different. The vast majority of train users on this board travel 2nd class, though. "Like others, we found you don't need to purchase it until just before the train leaves. I.E. not the day before."
This also depends where you are. In Italy it may be fine. It's not the case in France at all on high speed trains.

Anyway, Michelle, for your situation, I don't think a Railpass makes sense, at least not for Italy. But it really comes down to money, time, and flexibility and what you value more. In countries that do not charge you a supplement for high-speed trains when you use a Railpass, a Railpass can be a good option for maximum flexibility. You literally can just go to the station when you feel like it and get on virtually any train that goes to your destination (except for the ICE Sprinter in Germany). There's something awesome about that. And assuming your party is over 25, you automatically get 1st class which means you will pretty much always be able to find a seat without a reservation. But as I said before, an adult Railpass of any kind is not going to be cheaper per day for just about any route compared to buying a discount ticket online in advance through that country's national rail line. So you have to decide if you value flexibility more than saving money there. But the point is, I can see the point of Railpasses in countries like Germany, if flexibility, speed of travel, and being in 1st class is important to you. In countries like France and Italy, Railpasses make no sense anymore, because of the high fees of seat reservation/supplements required on high speed trains. You lose the flexibility of the pass by being forced to make reservations, which do sell out, and in 1st class can be high, particularly for trains that do border crossings. But if you buy point-to-point tickets in advance for high speed trains in those countries, the reservation fee is included, no extra time at the station is wasted, you print out your ticket at home and bring it with you. It's easy and you have to be locked into a specific train anyway, so why not do it that way?