I am traveling through seven countries in Western Europe in September and am trying to decide whether a railpass will save me any money. It seems the reservations on some night trains will still cost around $100 per person (this is for 2nd class T4 compartment on the Rail Europe site). I thought purchasing a railpass would make a bigger difference in the ticket reservation price. I had used the Rick Steve's cost estimator maps and had decided it would be effective to purchase a railpass, but now it seems like it's wasted money. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
The "reservation" cost on a night train is the cost of the sleeping accommodations. A railpass does not save you anything; it only pays for the rail portion of the fare. There are less expensive places to reserve accommodations than from RailEurope (like Euraide.com or the country's own national rail company).
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32352 posts
arsd,
For a comprehensive list of reservation fees for various European trains, go to the "Railpasses" section on this website.
Click on the first section, "How Railpasses Work" and then in the first section click on the "Train Reservations" link. Scroll down to the "Train Reservations" section and on the right side look for a link that says "reservation fee list". If you print that chart, it will be good reference in planning the costs of your rail trips.
Happy travels!
Posted by
Houston, Texas, USA
3 posts
Don't know if your travel plans include Italy. We just returned from a trip there. Not all trains require reservations -- we figured that out at the train station. However, those trains usually take a lot longer to get from point A to point B. If your short on time the expense of the reservation is worth it.
To be honest, we may not purchase a rail pass in the future. I found the reservations expensive. If you do decided to go with the rail pass I would echo the other comment that recommended contacting euraide.com. I found them to be very helpful.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
In Italy, "reservations" for the Italian EuroStar are required and are really a supplement for what they feel is a premium train. The supplement is often ~50% of the full fare.. That makes the railpass almost not worth it. With paying the supplement you do get a reservated seat.
Intercity trains, on the other hand, have optional seat reservation for a few Euro but you don't have to have them on most trains.
On some popular routes, there are hourly ES* trains but ICs are very infrequent.