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Railpasses- help!

Posted by (San Ramon, CA, United States) on

I feel things have gotten more complicated with rail passes since the last time I was in Europe, so I coming to you all with a lot of hope...

We are going to Europe for 2 weeks In April and visiting Spain, France, and Italy. According to Eurail to buy the Selectpass Saver for 3 countries it is $814 + reservation fees. If I do point-to-point tickets it is $680 (for the 2 of us assumingly). Because the days we are traveling are either overnight or longer trips, I would prefer to buy them ahead of time although I am flexible to buying them there if need be.
The schedules on Eurail (Rail europe) vary slightly from DB Bahn website, which is confusing to me; there are also more options on DB Bahn website, but you can't purchase from there, only once we are in Europe.

What are people's thoughts/comments about this, both with buying point-to-point in the US and the variance in the two websites? Thanks so much!

Posted by
19240 posts

First, it is not "DB Bahn". "DB" and "Bahn" are two names for the same thing. They put them both on the webpage title, but it is like if someone put both Robt. and Bob in the phone book, since people know him by both. That doesn't mean his name is "Robert Bob". And RailEurope is NOT Eurail. Eurail is a corporation put together in Europe to package and market rail passes. RailEurope is a travel agency owned by French Rail. Prices of point-point tickets on RailEurope are higher than prices at the counter in Europe.

End of sermons. Amen.

I would expect the schedules from DB to be more accurate, as they are linked into the database for actual schedules all over Europe. They should be up-to-date. RailEurope's might be accurate for the last time they were updated. RailEurope, although associated with (owned by) French Rail is an American company.

Where did you get your point-point prices? If they were from RailEurope, you can be sure that prices in Europe will be lower.

I would try to arrange reservations for overnight train, because these do sell out. For $50, Euraide (www.euraide.com) will acquire them for you in Europe, at European prices, and send them over here. Day trains can probably be purchased over there, either at the station the day of travel, or shortly after you arrive. But, if you are paying the one time charge to Euraide anyway, see if they can get the daytime tickets for you, too.

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