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Hi,

my son, 19,  booked flights from canada to London for travel after his first year university summer term , which is ending august 19. So he has about 10 days to travel before new semester starts. Should I buy him a Eurail pass for 10 days? Which country should be on his list for a first time young explorer? Will someone here recommend safe hostel websites ?

We don’t do the travel planning for you here, you can basically go anywhere.

Some advice:

  • If you have only 10 days to effectively travel, you should go for a pass with less travel days.
  • 10 travel days means that you can effectively take trains on 10 days in two months.
  • A 4 or 5 days pass will do if you only have 10 days for your holiday- as you also want to visit something properly of course, and don’t want to see Europe from the inside of a train.

You can easily spend multiple days in one bigger city, without using trains. Busses, trams, metro,… are not included in the pass.

Starting in London complicates things, as the only rail connection is with Eurostar (to Paris or Lille/Brussels/Rotterdam/Amsterdam) needing an expensive seat reservation that can sell out weeks in advance.

First check (and get) a Eurostar availability here: https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish before deciding to go elsewhere.

If it would be fully booked on those moments where you would like to go to the Continent (Belgium or France), best just travel in England, Scotland or Wales. Plenty of things to visit there.

Check this page too: https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-a-eurail-pass.htm

My general advice for every overseas tourist: don’t plan too much in a too short period of time.

Ten days to go to from London, to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Switzerland, Firenze, Rome, is absolute madness as you won’t see anything but the utmost clichés and won’t be able to visit things properly and it’ll be very expensive in seat reservations.

Less is more if you wnat to properly visit a country/some countries.

 


Thank you so much! That helps me a lot. I’m sending your advice to my son.


Hi there,

one more question, Do I need a Eurail pass or interail pass for booking a ticket from London to Brussels? The cost shown on website, around 38 euros , is the total cost for a pass or for reservations only? 


Hi there,

one more question, Do I need a Eurail pass or interail pass for booking a ticket from London to Brussels? The cost shown on website, around 38 euros , is the total cost for a pass or for reservations only? 

 

The link @BrendanDB gave is only for booking reservations for people with passes. It is in addition to the cost of the pass.


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