Should we get Eurail tickets?
July 15, 2024 8:22 AM Subscribe
Have you used Eurail tickets recently? How prevalent was the need to get paid reservations? Was it overall a good experience / value?
Fully agree. Man in seat 61 is a treasure.
Anyhow, in general I would say it depends. We often use them if we are traveling for 4 or more days in a given time period as it is likely cheaper than booking the train tickets individually. We do usually get seat reservations, but that's more for convenience on our part; it's nice to just have a seat to sit down in and not worry about finding one.
So it depends a bit on:
* How many people are traveling? How much luggage do you have?
* How many days do you expect to travel?
* How spontaneous do you expect to want to be?
* Exactly what routes? Some routes require them (e.g. eurostar) and some routes are perfectly fine without.
For us, when we use them, it has always been a good value.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:17 AM on July 15
Anyhow, in general I would say it depends. We often use them if we are traveling for 4 or more days in a given time period as it is likely cheaper than booking the train tickets individually. We do usually get seat reservations, but that's more for convenience on our part; it's nice to just have a seat to sit down in and not worry about finding one.
So it depends a bit on:
* How many people are traveling? How much luggage do you have?
* How many days do you expect to travel?
* How spontaneous do you expect to want to be?
* Exactly what routes? Some routes require them (e.g. eurostar) and some routes are perfectly fine without.
For us, when we use them, it has always been a good value.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:17 AM on July 15
Response by poster: How many people are traveling?
3. 2 adults, 1 16yo.
How much luggage do you have?
Not a lot. 1 Largesih backpack or smallish suitcase per person.
* How many days do you expect to travel?
5 week trip, maybe 10-15 travel days.
* How spontaneous do you expect to want to be?
About 30%. We have definite goals, places, etc., but are open to changing/extending.
* Exactly what routes? Some routes require them (e.g. eurostar) and some routes are perfectly fine without.
Probably Madrid-Farnkfurt-Berlin, Istanbul-Sarajevo (if possible), Sarajevo-Croatia-Italy. Maybe Paris? Not in a huge rush to get anywhere.
posted by signal at 9:31 AM on July 15
3. 2 adults, 1 16yo.
How much luggage do you have?
Not a lot. 1 Largesih backpack or smallish suitcase per person.
* How many days do you expect to travel?
5 week trip, maybe 10-15 travel days.
* How spontaneous do you expect to want to be?
About 30%. We have definite goals, places, etc., but are open to changing/extending.
* Exactly what routes? Some routes require them (e.g. eurostar) and some routes are perfectly fine without.
Probably Madrid-Farnkfurt-Berlin, Istanbul-Sarajevo (if possible), Sarajevo-Croatia-Italy. Maybe Paris? Not in a huge rush to get anywhere.
posted by signal at 9:31 AM on July 15
I would definitely go with interrail then. The balkans are a bit tricky as I recall (we planned a similar trip for this year but did not end up going), so read up from seat 61 on that.
Anyhow, it's hard to imagine that you would get a better deal by not doing interrail. So go for it! If you want flexibility, simply book the seats on those legs that you require them. You can likely even do that the day before your travel, leaving you with a lot of flexibility anyhow.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:58 AM on July 15
Anyhow, it's hard to imagine that you would get a better deal by not doing interrail. So go for it! If you want flexibility, simply book the seats on those legs that you require them. You can likely even do that the day before your travel, leaving you with a lot of flexibility anyhow.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:58 AM on July 15
Yeah, Interrail seems the answer. If you're one or two days short on the pass you might want to plan it such that you buy tickets in the eastern part of Europe. Much, much cheaper than in the western part.
posted by Kosmob0t at 10:05 AM on July 15
posted by Kosmob0t at 10:05 AM on July 15
Just to point out Eurail and Interrail are different things. Iirc you have to be resident in Europe too get Interrail.
I did Interrail recently and some countries insist on seat reservations for all travellers on particular lines. ICE trains particularly I think (but not all of them). Plus you need to pay extra for couchettes, sleeping compartments etc if you plan any overnight trips.
posted by biffa at 2:07 PM on July 15
I did Interrail recently and some countries insist on seat reservations for all travellers on particular lines. ICE trains particularly I think (but not all of them). Plus you need to pay extra for couchettes, sleeping compartments etc if you plan any overnight trips.
posted by biffa at 2:07 PM on July 15
Response by poster: Right, that's why I'm asking about Eurail.
posted by signal at 5:12 PM on July 15
posted by signal at 5:12 PM on July 15
Best answer: Eurail passes have had more limited utility to me as time has gone on, because I have found that using the apps and websites of the various national rail providers, supplemented by the information from Seat 61 offers here on which of those apps and sites to use to book tickets and why those choices are very important in terms of money spent and actual ability to collect your tickets, is almost always enough to get me to a lower price, better availability, or more flexibility on a long trip like yours.
Here is an excerpt from the Seat 61 page I linked above illustrating the issue:
Each European country has its own national train operator with its own ticketing system and website. There are private operators too. Most operators offer cheap budget-airline-style fares if you book ahead, but you can only buy them from their own website or from an agency linked to that ticketing system.
Take Prague to Budapest for example: I tell you to book at the Czech Railways website as this sells advance-purchase tickets from just €21, international credit cards accepted, no booking fee, you print your own ticket. You can even choose your seat from a seating plan!
No other website offers these €21 Prague-Budapest fares, but several well-known ticketing sites will sell you a ticket for a whopping €90+ using an almost-obsolete inter-operator system called TCV, a conventional ticket which must be posted to you at extra cost (so over €100, ouch!). Can you now see why it matters where you buy?
Ticket delivery matters too. For example, you can book Vienna to Venice at Trenitalia.com, but tickets have to be collected from a ticket machine in Italy, no good if you're starting in Vienna. Thetrainline.com links to the Austrian Railways system & does e-tickets in either direction.
You’ll have to assess, then, whether a full-fare, no-discounts price, which may be what you are seeing if trying to compare with what it would cost with a Eurail pass but are booking too far in advance or on the wrong site, is actually the best fare possible to compare with the value you place on using up a pass day if you have a pass which only entitles you to a certain number of days, or whether you can book the same journey (or a better one, on a first-class fully-refundable fare!) with the rail company itself for far less.
Because it’s getting easier all the time to book direct with the rail companies themselves, I’ve never found it worth getting the unlimited Eurail pass, but this is essentially only true for me because my rail trips in Europe usually fall into two categories: either trips for which I know the exact date quite far in advance and pay far less than the cost of a pass day and reservation fee would be, like a 2022 Florence to Naples trip I made for €29 in Frecciarossa business class booked via the Trenitalia app, or much more leisurely trips on local and regional trains in central and eastern Europe and the Balkans, where train tickets are comparatively cheap and perhaps not bookable online at all.
One additional factor to consider for your particular trip is that Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently not linked by direct rail service with any of its neighbors. This means you may find that because two of the international legs you planned on taking — Istanbul to Sarajevo and Sarajevo to somewhere in Croatia — are impossible, a Eurail pass makes less sense.
You may also find some additional help in deciding on whether a Eurail pass would work for you by looking at guides designed to help travellers on longer trips like yours make the railway portions of their itineraries genuinely enjoyable. Europe By Rail has a number of route maps that lay out itineraries you could pick and choose from, like this one linking Barcelona to Geneva, a possible leg of your Madrid to Frankfurt journey, entirely by regional and local trains. There’s a nice description of the sometimes-one-euro Avignon to Portbou part of this trip here at The Guardian, as one of their brilliant “Rail journey of the month” articles, another source of ideas.
Finally, Deutsche Bahn’s extremely powerful pan-European timetable tool, the European Railway Atlas and European Rail Timetable publications may prove useful reference resources for identifying possible lower-hassle, lower-cost, slow-travel routes, like making a journey to Prague via Cheb (described at Seat 61 here).
Have a wonderful time!
posted by mdonley at 11:40 PM on July 15 [3 favorites]
Here is an excerpt from the Seat 61 page I linked above illustrating the issue:
Each European country has its own national train operator with its own ticketing system and website. There are private operators too. Most operators offer cheap budget-airline-style fares if you book ahead, but you can only buy them from their own website or from an agency linked to that ticketing system.
Take Prague to Budapest for example: I tell you to book at the Czech Railways website as this sells advance-purchase tickets from just €21, international credit cards accepted, no booking fee, you print your own ticket. You can even choose your seat from a seating plan!
No other website offers these €21 Prague-Budapest fares, but several well-known ticketing sites will sell you a ticket for a whopping €90+ using an almost-obsolete inter-operator system called TCV, a conventional ticket which must be posted to you at extra cost (so over €100, ouch!). Can you now see why it matters where you buy?
Ticket delivery matters too. For example, you can book Vienna to Venice at Trenitalia.com, but tickets have to be collected from a ticket machine in Italy, no good if you're starting in Vienna. Thetrainline.com links to the Austrian Railways system & does e-tickets in either direction.
You’ll have to assess, then, whether a full-fare, no-discounts price, which may be what you are seeing if trying to compare with what it would cost with a Eurail pass but are booking too far in advance or on the wrong site, is actually the best fare possible to compare with the value you place on using up a pass day if you have a pass which only entitles you to a certain number of days, or whether you can book the same journey (or a better one, on a first-class fully-refundable fare!) with the rail company itself for far less.
Because it’s getting easier all the time to book direct with the rail companies themselves, I’ve never found it worth getting the unlimited Eurail pass, but this is essentially only true for me because my rail trips in Europe usually fall into two categories: either trips for which I know the exact date quite far in advance and pay far less than the cost of a pass day and reservation fee would be, like a 2022 Florence to Naples trip I made for €29 in Frecciarossa business class booked via the Trenitalia app, or much more leisurely trips on local and regional trains in central and eastern Europe and the Balkans, where train tickets are comparatively cheap and perhaps not bookable online at all.
One additional factor to consider for your particular trip is that Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently not linked by direct rail service with any of its neighbors. This means you may find that because two of the international legs you planned on taking — Istanbul to Sarajevo and Sarajevo to somewhere in Croatia — are impossible, a Eurail pass makes less sense.
You may also find some additional help in deciding on whether a Eurail pass would work for you by looking at guides designed to help travellers on longer trips like yours make the railway portions of their itineraries genuinely enjoyable. Europe By Rail has a number of route maps that lay out itineraries you could pick and choose from, like this one linking Barcelona to Geneva, a possible leg of your Madrid to Frankfurt journey, entirely by regional and local trains. There’s a nice description of the sometimes-one-euro Avignon to Portbou part of this trip here at The Guardian, as one of their brilliant “Rail journey of the month” articles, another source of ideas.
Finally, Deutsche Bahn’s extremely powerful pan-European timetable tool, the European Railway Atlas and European Rail Timetable publications may prove useful reference resources for identifying possible lower-hassle, lower-cost, slow-travel routes, like making a journey to Prague via Cheb (described at Seat 61 here).
Have a wonderful time!
posted by mdonley at 11:40 PM on July 15 [3 favorites]
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