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Train Pass or Fail?

Oy. having a little trouble sorting out the choices for Railpasses. Perhaps if there were just a few more choices! If traveling between Vienna, Austria and only within Italy, for a period of 5 weeks, what pass is suggested? Would two passes, one for Austria and one for Italy be the strategy, or better to opt for one Flexi, Multiple-Choice pass (between 3 countries), since I don't see an option for two. My head hurts...

Posted by
521 posts

Do you know which trips you are going to be taking? Unfortunately, the best thing to do is price out the different trips and see which option would be better. Pretty well everyone on this site will tell you that passes in Italy are not worth it, but one for Austria might be worth it, depending on the amount of travel that you will be doing.

You can price them out on the Austrian rail site and the Trenitalia website and then compare the costs to passes.

Posted by
683 posts

For almost any purpose, point-to-point tix are a better option. Buy them there, from ticket machines unless you need counter help from an agent. Most stations in larger cities will also have a rail office that sells tix and provides help.

Posted by
2 posts

Roger all. Buy them there seems to be the conventional wisdom. Yay! Thanks.

Posted by
6898 posts

You don't need a railpass for Italy. It's more expensive than P2P. Italy charges a large extra fee for riding the Eurostars.

Posted by
19274 posts

Just be a little careful about your choice of trains if you use a railpass. Some (a few, not most) connections from Austria to Italy pass through Slovenia. Most connections go from Salzburg to Innsbruck via Germany. Many of these trains are "corridor" trains, Austrian ECs that go without stopping from Salzburg to Kufstein, and don't require Germany as a country on your rail pass, but some trains stop in Germany and require Germany on your rail pass.