I’m traveling with my niece throughout Europe in late May-middle of June. I’m trying to determine which is more cost effective for us, either buying a Eurail pass and making seat reservations or buying tickets directly.
I’m looking at purchasing the Global Eurail Pass with 5 days of travel, first-class, one adult pass and one youth pass. In determining what is most cost effective, I’ve been doing what has been suggested, which is comparing Eurail passes with reservation fees against prices for directly purchased tickets, and doing like for like comparisons (same dates, routes).
I keep hearing how inexpensive train travel is in Europe, and how it is often better economically to buy tickets directly, however, when I price it out, Eurail seems to be far cheaper (almost $1000 cheaper) for our plans. Is this because I want to travel in first-class? Is it because one of us is a youth Eurail pass? Is it due to where we are traveling (France to Switzerland to Italy). Is it due to all of these? Does it sound like I’m making an error somewhere? Any feedback on this is appreciated.