Rail Europe Global pass and other tips

[neihn]

Folks,

I am planing a 4 weeks Europe trip in April 2019, this is our first trip to Europe. We plan to travel by train (although, rental car is also cross our minds). We will arrive to Frankfurt Germany (see a few friends and family in Germany) and plan to visit several countries (Czechia, Austria, Switzeland, France, Belgium, Netherlands)

I wonder if you experienced folks could give us some tips regarding traveling by train (ie getting 10 or 15 days pass, when to book your pass? 2 or 3 months in advance?).

We also plan to use airbnb, if we travel by train, any tips for getting to the airbnb location from the train station (uber, taxi, metro, or just book the airbnb near the station)

Thanks.

PS This is not a 'blow your dough' trip

 

[audreyh1]

The pass in general is not that great a deal anymore. Some countries like France have major restrictions - require reservations on high speed trains between cities but don’t make many seats available for passholders. A pass does not guarantee a seat on a train, and you may still need to pay to make a reservation.

I recommend reading The Man in Seat 61 web site to get the latest tips on Europe rail booking and travel.

We book major connections requiring reservations well in advance when you can get discounted fares, great deals sometimes, and for local (close) travel not requiring reservations we just get them last minute as there is rarely a discount. Varies by country of course. Makes it complicated.

 

[braumeister]

The best source for information on train travel in Europe is The Man in Seat Sixty-One.

Spend some time there and you should get all your questions answered.

 

[audreyh1]

At destinations we like to stay near where we plan to spend most of our time and can walk to key sites.

There is almost always local public transportation from a train station to city center and other areas. If it’s convenient we may take it, but from train to lodging we often take a taxi because it’s much easier if you have luggage.

 

[Red Badger]

We just finished a 3 week tour of Europe. Seat 61 is a great source for info. We opted for point to point tix instead of any passes. We also elected 1st class in all cases. The coach seats are fine, but comes with families, high school kids,etc. First class is pretty much adults only - we liked that.

And yeah, like flights in the US, train ticket prices in Europe rise as the dates get close. We didn't like having to lock down travel dates weeks in advance. But, that's just what we did.

We had great results using Airbnb, but "check in" is different than hotel. It's often more like an appointment with the host.

We opted for taxis, Uber, and private hire cars as DW has some mobility issues. Where applicable, we used hop on - hop off for sightseeing. In London and Paris, boats were an awesome conveyance.

Also, we booked all trains with the carrier (Eurostar, Thalys, etc) and avoided Eurail, Railpass, etc.

Happy travels!

 

[Bamaman]

On another note, you might want to reconsider your planned countries. 6 countries will be next to impossible to see in 4 weeks. Great European cities are worthy of a minimum of 4 days. First and last days of your trip are wasted. And every time you move to another city, the day is too wasted. You might want to study closely and set priorities for your routing.

 

[RunningBum]

My son and I did a 3 week trip 9 years ago. We did a Eurail pass, which I think made sense at the time and we liked the convenience, but it sounds like it doesn't work as well now. 6 countries, btw, very doable depending on what type of traveler you are. We liked to see the highlights and move on, figuring we could always come back another trip if we wanted to see more. A lot like doing a cruise. Many times we only had an hour or two travel between cities, and at least back then the trains were so reliable and no security so we could arrive at the station 10-15 minutes before departure, losing only a little of the day for travel. There were a couple of longer "repositioning" train rides but we did one of those overnight and one early morning.

We always stayed within walking distance of the train station--15 minutes or less. We traveled light, everything in backpacks, so it was easy for us. Our rationale is that in most everywhere we went, the sights were either around the town center near the train station, or we could take public transportation from there to see it. A little more expensive but we didn't have to burn commute time getting to the sights, plus on travel days we could leave our bags and do some touring and come back for them before boarding the train.

 

[Nemo2]

To save time, energy, and money - here's all you need to know:

 

[neihn]

I would like to thank all of you for your tips. We will definitely

- look at The Man in seat 61.
- book train with the carrier
- consider to cut down number of countries.
- travel light and stay close to the train station
- Boat in Paris. Sounds like a lot of fun.

What about travel maps? do you use Rick Stevens countries/cities maps? or just google maps.

Cities we would like to visit:
Salzburg, Vienna - Austria
Lucerne, Zurich, Geneva - Switzerland
Paris, Orleans, Normandy - France
Brussel, Louvain - Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich - Germany
Prague - Czechia

Looks like my next step is working on the route for those cities then start to book Airbnb for lodging then trains.

I am Firsttech Federal Credit Union member, I vaguely recall that their credit or debit card are great for Europe (chip + pin). Should I care? How about cash? Do you bring cash USD/Euro with you?

We are currently using att wireless - I plan to switch to T-Mobile 55 soon.

 

[audreyh1]

Man in seat 61 says best way to buy train tickets for each country. Many times we have used a third party for tickets although I had good luck booking directly online with DBahn.com . For France captaintrain.com was good.

That’s a lot of cities!

I always have Euros left over from previous trips to bring. It’s quite expensive to get Euros in the US, but you might still want a few to have something. ATMs after arriving are the best way, especially if your have an ATM Card that charges no foreign transaction fees. We use a lot of cash in Europe so we opened a Schwab investor checking account to get their ATM card, and got a gold check ATM card from Fidelity. These cards don’t charge foreign transaction fees on ATM withdrawals plus reimburse any fees charged by the ATM.

The FirstTech credit card works great. Most chip credit cards work just fine in Europe even with the annoyance of signing receipts. Ticket machines is where people sometimes run into trouble without a chip and pin credit card, or a debit card with chip.

I generally use Google Maps. They are pretty good with public transportation and can even handle train routing, but you have to double check with the train company or third party train ticket provider. Google Maps doesn’t always see all the options.

 

[RunningBum]

Nine years ago we didn't have a plan for using smart phones, otherwise we'd have probably used Google maps. As I recall, we used Rick Steves maps and certainly his guidebooks.

You want to look for credit cards that don't charge a foreign transaction fee, and cheap fees for ATM cards. Many hostels and B&Bs are cash only so we were constantly grabbing cash.

Couple comments on itinerary, especially since yours covers much of what ours did...look into Hallstatt Austria, near Salzburg on the way from Vienna or Prague. Drop dead gorgeous lakeside town up against a mountain, if that's your kind of thing. I prefer smaller places to cities and this was perfect.

In Hamburg, Miniatur Wunderland may have been my favorite stop on the trip. Largest model train setup in the world, AFAIK. 8 or 9 large rooms, each a different setting. More than just trains running, the model settings are really, really well done. We went out of the way to see it, but I see Hamburg already on your list.

One other note, I found the Swiss cities to be nice, but pretty sterile and uninteresting. And expensive. Your tastes may be different.

 

[RunningBum]

Looks like my next step is working on the route for those cities then start to book Airbnb for lodging then trains.

Agree. But pay attention to train access between cities for routes. Since you're doing mainly major cities, it's probably pretty easy. We had some smaller destinations and had to do a bit more planning to figure out the best order to do things, and what might be too out of the way. Tracks are pretty extensive in Europe but not quite as flexible between places as driving by car, especially in the Alps.

 

[Freedom56]

Folks,

I am planing a 4 weeks Europe trip in April 2019, this is our first trip to Europe. We plan to travel by train (although, rental car is also cross our minds). We will arrive to Frankfurt Germany (see a few friends and family in Germany) and plan to visit several countries (Czechia, Austria, Switzeland, France, Belgium, Netherlands)

I wonder if you experienced folks could give us some tips regarding traveling by train (ie getting 10 or 15 days pass, when to book your pass? 2 or 3 months in advance?).

We also plan to use airbnb, if we travel by train, any tips for getting to the airbnb location from the train station (uber, taxi, metro, or just book the airbnb near the station)

Thanks.

PS This is not a 'blow your dough' trip

We live in Switzerland 2-3 months per year and have a car over there and often take road trips to France, Italy, Germany, and Austria. We have used the train multiple times over the last 30 years and know very well how to use them and how to get the best ticket prices. The best way to travel to multiple destination throughout Europe is by car. If you want to cover a lot of distance and don't want to be driving 8-12 hours straight, use Easjet and rental cars. A car gives you the most flexibility. You don't have to worry about transporting your luggage from the train station to the hotel. You can stay at many business hotels and with free parking that are very nice. You can stop whenever you feel like. Plus you can explore sites where public transportation will not take you.

Driving in Europe is easy except maybe in Naples Italy and the UK takes a bit of getting used to. You can download maps to your phone and navigate or use a GPS. You can get good rental car deals from Paris or Amsterdam or Nice. For a 4 week trip, a car will save you money and give you a more flexible travel schedule. A lot of people say that they like taking a train through Switzerland, France, and Italy. Well you miss 90% of the experience when you do that. There are some incredible vistas in Switzerland, France, and Italy on the roads that you will completely miss when you take a train.

 

[RunningBum]

As far as the rail pass goes, if you're willing to set an agenda and buy the tickets in advance, you can easily total those up and compare to a pass. The only tricky part is figuring what you might have to add for reservations to a pass. The only time we had to get them was for the high speed train to Paris, but I regretted one other full semi long trip where we had to stand for much of it. Otherwise we always found a seat.

With as many places as you are looking at, the pass may be the better deal. If you decide to pare it down and spend more time in fewer places, probably not. A one month pass costs nearly the same as 15 days over 2 months so I'd probably go with the former, unless you think a lower day pass works better. If a pass works at all.

 

[Fedup]

We walk almost everywhere in Europe except in the countryside where it’s not the best way to see them. Even in Switzerland we didn’t get a pass for 15 days, we were sure we would be using it everyday. Local transportation is much cheaper. We ended up with 1/3 the cost of pass for 15 days. Research early because some places don’t have Uber. That’s probably when we do taxi.

 

[cathy63]

What about travel maps? do you use Rick Stevens countries/cities maps? or just google maps.

I usually get a variety of books. I use Amazon Prime Reading and my local public libraries to borrow Lonely Planet, Frommers, Fodors, Rick Steves, whatever they have. I don't read them all cover-to-cover or anything, just skim and use them to get an overview of possible itineraries. I have found that I like the Rick Steves books best and I end up buying those so I can tear out the relevant pages for wherever we are and carry them with us.

I have a regular cell plan (Google Fi) that works in Europe, so I just use Google Maps for walking and public transit directions. In Switzerland last month, I also downloaded the app for the SBB train system and it was really great because as we were traveling, it would show what platform we were arriving at and what platform the next train would leave from without us having to go find a departures board and figure it out.

Looks like my next step is working on the route for those cities then start to book Airbnb for lodging then trains.

For places where you'll only be there a few days, consider whether a hotel might work better than AirBnB. So far in our travels I've found that an AirBnB in a city center for a few nights costs about the same as a hotel with breakfast in the same area. AirBnB is great when you want to stay a little further out with a rental car, or if you're there for a week or more, but for us it hasn't been cost effective for the shorter stays in the cities.

I am Firsttech Federal Credit Union member, I vaguely recall that their credit or debit card are great for Europe (chip + pin). Should I care? How about cash? Do you bring cash USD/Euro with you?

We bring whatever euros we have from previous visits, but also stop at the airport on arrival and use an ATM to get cash. Do know what your transaction and daily limits are for your debit card though. They might be different overseas. My debit card got rejected a couple of times in Switzerland before I figured out that I was just asking for too much cash.

For credit cards, we haven't had any problem using a chip and signature visa card with a PIN backup. I've only needed the PIN once. I try to buy rail tickets from people instead of unattended machines though.

The one thing I did have to do was register my card for "Verified by Visa" secure checkout so I could book online in advance through the European websites. Whenever I make a purchase at a site that uses this type of security, I have to enter a separate password that's linked to my card. Some Euro sites won't take your card for online purchases without this security layer, but they will take the same card when you're there in person.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

We did a train heavy Europe trip May to June this year Spain, France, GErmany, Sweden, Denmark. It was strike season in France so having tickets is useless if the trains aren't going. We were really boxed in and had to stay in Spain longer than planned bc nothing was going into France and all the buses were booked. Rental cars out of Spain were too expensive to contemplate crossing a country border. Ended up waiting it out in a hotwire hotel. Very hopeless feeling when the train station hands you 50 bucks in cash refund and wishes you good luck with your life. We used Airbnb but I specifically booked apartments I could tell from the reviews were very close walking distance to stations. We had to take a taxi twice and not speaking the language an app called mytaxi was a blessing bc you put in your starting point, your destination, and it brought the cab to you. No need to even talk to the cabbie. In Germany where the trains were supposed to work like clockwork, we had a train so delayed we missed the connection and had a very tough time getting put on another train. Same trip heading up to Sweden via Denmark they cancelled several other trains and a train attendant (flight attendant equiv) told essentially this train that's the wrong number on the wrong track is the only thing going to Copenhagen tonight. Get on it or don't. It was SO FULL I bluffed our way into first class for the peace and quiet. Announcements only in Danish, no English luckily everyone spoke English so the guy across the aisle translated for us. Adventure yes. Not to be done with large suitcases. We had a backpack each. I had a purse, husband carried a tiny travel backpack on front. Would not have been a pretty situation with rolling luggage constantly up and down flights of stairs into and out of stations. We did not book a rail pass but we booked individual legs on loco or 2loco. something like that. All prebooked a couple months prior. Luckily the Airbnb owner was flexible and didn't charge us for the nights missed due to train strikes. Had he charged, my travel insurance would have covered. They covered the difference in fare during the delay.

 

[Fedup]

We avoided the train in France in June due to possible strike, but alas we were caught with the strike by the air traffic controller. On the day we were supposed to fly to Florence at 6am, no plane came in the night before so we couldn’t take off either. We had to stay one day back in Marseille, lost our hotel deposit in Florence, called British Airways to get us out ASAP and we flew to Rome instead. Why Rome? We met up with our daughter and her friend. Then in Italy, on the day my daughter was supposed to fly out, there was possible air traffic controller strike again. So bottom line is these things do happen, plan some slacks in your schedule.

 

[braumeister]

Another nice thing about train travel is that if you're going between cities you can sometimes get off at an intermediate city for a look around. Many stations have lockers where you can leave your suitcase (providing it's not too big) while you visit. Then get back on the next train and continue.

 

[brett]

The only pass we used was in Italy. It was a kilomentric pass. It was inexpensive and sometimes the ticket agent would forget to subtract our km from the pass. Don't know if they still have it.

We found rail travel in Italy to be very good and relatively inexpensive on a point to point basis. Trenitalia train fares are based on the type of train and class of coach. Plus they have discounts for early purchase etc. We found point to point trains in Hungary and Czech Republic to be less expensive than other western countries. We did three point to point trips in Austria. We saved quite a bit by buyin the tickets in advance. Austrian rail also has combo tickets. You can buy a Wachau Valley package that includes a one way rail ticket with a return by river boat and train plus entrance to a museum.

In the UK we used redspottedhanky.com. Not certain if they cover europe.

maninseat61.com is a great resource.

In some instances we found that discount air was much better than train in terms of both cost and speed. But, we only travel with carry on so we never have to pay any of the over inflated checked baggage charges.

 

[RunningBum]

Just for the heck of it, on a rainy day here I did a quick price check on our itinerary, comparing tickets bought separately vs. a 15 day pass. Not an exact match because I couldn't book for late May, when we actually went and tickets are probably more expensive than booking for Nov 1. Also I took the cheapest 2nd class fare, when the rail pass gave me first class. In some cases there were only one or two trains with really cheap fares, that may or may not have worked for us. And of course I'd lose flexibility, which we definitely took advantage of, both in swapping the Swiss Alps due to bad weather for Strasbourg, Paris and Hamburg, and time of day when we wanted to cut short or extend our stay in a city by any part of a day. But I also only shopped one site, as opposed to looking around like the Seat61 guy says. Not as easy as it sounds though. The SBB site, for example, does not have an English option. I also notice you can get a nearly 10% discount booking the pass now for longer passes than what I had booked.

Within those limits, the Eurail pass came out ahead by about $100.

We were frequent travelers though. After the initial 3 days in Prague before we started our pass, I believe we took 13 train rides plus 2 days on Rhine boats, also included. On some days certain times were considerably cheaper, and I used those fares without seeing if they would really fit an itinerary well.

I don't think you should automatically get a pass, but it might turn out to be a better deal especially if you want flexibility.

 

[flintnational]

We were in Europe with a rail pass for the month of September. We love the trains and I wanted to see the countryside. But, as others have said, trains can be expensive and flights may be less. IIRC, we got a 4 country pass but it did not save us much money and we then had to pay additional fees and book reservations once in country. If you travel by rail, pack light. We each had a carry on suitcase and a duffle bag that fit on top.

Depending on the station, we walked, took a taxi, used uber or rode the metro to our AirBnB. The AirBnB allowed us to wash clothes and pack light.

 

[cathy63]

The SBB site, for example, does not have an English option.

Yes, it does: https://www.sbb.ch/en. There's a very tiny link in the footer that lets you switch languages.

I spent a lot of time using it over the summer while planning our Switzerland/Austria trip and I have concluded that Swiss trains are probably the easiest ones in the world to actually ride, but the most difficult ones to choose tickets and passes on.

 

[Freedom56]

With SBB you can get a day pass without the half fare card for as low as 52 CHF or $53.
Normally they are 88 to 102 CHF each. You have to search for those deals. They usually come up 1 week prior to the valid date. This allows you to travel anywhere in Switzerland (including the boats to France) on their transportation system for one day. In our case, since we have a home there, each community is allocated a limited number of day passes at a cost of 40 CHF or about $41 per person. That's a pretty good deal compared to point to point tickets.

 

[Fedup]

There seems to be a local fare too. I know a Swiss local tried her best to help my husband and I buy the local bus for 50% off. It’s not in English, only in German. Maybe it was for senior. But it was sweet that she tried to communicate with us in very limited English.