Please Help a couple of Aussie Travellers

Do you have an idea of where you want to visit? A pass can be useful if you're doing a lot of traveling, depending on which countries you visit, and it's sometimes good for spontaneous travel - again depending on country. 

But don't forget you can also buy tickets for each journey cheaply in advance, or as you go along.

There are 2 options - you can opt for pay as you go, either buying advance budget tickets (available from almost all operators across Europe) or get a Eurail Global pass which gives unlimited rail travel on almost all trains in Europe operated by the national operators and some privately owned companies such as Eurostar.

As Australia residents you get unlimited rail travel in all the countries including the UK, if your relatives in Scotland are joining you they require an Interrail pass (Identical but only allows up to 2 days travel in the UK).

Both Eurail and Interrail Global passes allow the same unlimited travel outside the UK.

There is no restriction on how you use these passes in that each train journey is simply added to your pass as you travel and does not link with any other before or after so you can fly in and train back, you can break journeys wherever and however you want and so on.

There are 2 types of pass, a flexi pass and a continuous pass.

A Flexi pass allows you a specific number of travel days within a fixed period (e.g. 7 days in a month). A month works as from the first date travelled (Say 16 March) until the same date minus one of the next month (15th April). Once you have used the scheduled number of travel days the pass in no longer valid - it cannot be extended, so a 10 day in 2 months would actually give you a max of 10 travel days to use in your 6 weeks (To me that would be a suitable  choice). However there is also a 15 day in 2 months which is not much more expensive and would give you freedom to do both UK and European excursions.

A continuous pass is simply that you can use it in an unlimited way on ANY and ALL days in the period purchased. 

Flexi passes are priced a bit lower than continuous passes so those with a fixed itinerary can save over those who have a dynamic approach to travelling (i.e more interested in backpacking and trying to see 20 cities in 20 days). So a continuous pass for 2 months would cost about 750 euro and a 10 days in 2 months pass would be about 420 euro. (15 days in 2 months is about 520 euro). You need to confirm these prices as Eurail will give you prices in Aus$

 https://www.eurail.com/en/eurail-passes/global-pass

Bear in mind a continuous Eurail pass could be used by yourselves for extensive travel in the UK as well as excursions to the European mainland, which can be very expensive for fully flexible travel on peak time trains - a full priced return journey to London can easily exceed 300 euro (even more first class). Your UK relatives and you could travel a lot cheaper of course with advance fares, but that becomes quite challenging if you want to change your itinerary.

One other consideration is the cost of reservations on most high speed trains across Europe (The UK and Germany are currently free for reservations with a Global Pass). These are generally between 3 and 10 euros per seat but certain cross border trains can be quite expensive. (Eurostar and Thalys plus French cross border TGVs are examples).

Bear in mind most of Europe has exceptional regional train networks that have no reservations and ideal for a slower style of travel.

Obviously only you can decide but just ask if you need any further info.

There are multiple daily trains between Venice and Rome yes. You could stop in Bologna or Florence along the way but you need reservations on the high-speed trains.

There are no international trains to/from Greece.

The easiest option would be to go to Patras by train + bus (all included) and then take an overnight ferry to Ancona and then travel to Venice.

https://www.seat61.com will give you great advice. Please use that website as much as you want.

Currently Greece to Italy is extremely difficult by train (if even possible). You should either fly or Ferry from Greece to Italy.

As I detailed in my previous post, once you are using a Global pass you are in total control of how and when you travel, You simply add your planned train to your pass and it creates a travel ticket and you use it. If you decide to stop and catch a later train you simply delete the unused train ticket and add the new one. (Plus getting a reservation if required).

Ok perfect thank you. My other question is say we wanted to go to Munich for the weekend from my partners family in Scotland is that possible by train or again better to just fly from day Aberdeen to Munich ?

Munich from Aberdeen would take you a night and a full day. You could get the Caledonian Sleeper down to London, then pick up a Eurostar, and be in Munich at 1913 that evening.

Or travel to London and Brussels during the day, then an overnight train from Brussels to Munich.

https://www.seat61.com/Germany.htm#london-to-stuttgart-and-munich-by-train

It’s not something I’d do for a weekend, but it might be enjoyable for a slightly longer trip - maybe spending a day or two en-route somewhere, then flying back?

Correction. It would be London to Brussels to Cologne, then sleeper from Cologne. And you wouldn't be able to get down from Aberdeen in time to make the 1301 Eurostar to Brussels.

However, this route does work in the Northbound direction. Overnight train from Munich gets you into Cologne before 7am, for connections arriving in London just after 2pm.