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Eurail Global Pass Confusion

  • 17 January 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 235 views
H

Hi All,

My boyfriend and I will be traveling throughout Europe for two months in April and May. We will be going from Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Belgium, Amsterdam, Germany, Prague, Switzerland, and Italy. We were looking at getting the 15 day 2 month pass from moving from city to city, and then any small day trips just pay out of pocket. While doing more research we are confused. For example if we get the pass, we can jump on any train to lets say Barcelona to Paris for free with the pass? But there might be reservation fees? and luggage fees?

OR will we also be paying the difference in ticket price that the pass doesn’t cover? For example the pass would be $422 for 15 days = $28.13 per ride. Looking at a ticket to Barcelona to Paris it’s around $60 so will I pay for a reservation fee, luggage fee, and $31.87 to cover the difference? 

I know this is long, I just wanted to be really thorough, we are starting to budget more for this trip and want to make sure we understand if the Eurail would be saving us money. Thanks for any help.

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Best answer by rvdborgt 18 January 2022, 00:01

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R
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Luggage is not extra, as long as you can carry it yourself.

Reservations are extra and some are mandatory, especially long distance trains in Spain, France and Italy and international trains from/to those countries. Some have limited seats availability for pass holders.

An overview of reservation fees can be found here:

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/about-reservations/reservation-fees

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
M
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

This is-sorry to say-about one of the trips with most problems re supplement and REServations to make- Espana and then FRance are so often mentioned as being nr 1 and 2 for worst offenders in this case. PLUS that trains are sometimes very sparse too-f.e. the dreaded ´connection´ from Lisbo to Madrid-perhaps reconsider, buy a pass with less days and buy/book local bus or train tickets for these sectors.

Never ever board a train without the needed extra tickets re this (not all trains want this, but those that do not are purely locals-which you intend to pay as sidetrip anyway)-you will be treated as fare-dodgers and may be kicked off  or have to pay substantial fines.

Oh-this is EUR-really noone here bothers about $$ nor about am/pm-its EURO and 24 hr clock! Other countries-other habits they say.

Its indeed an advantage of this pass that -potentially, if used smartly and with knowledge of the railsystem- substantial discounts can be had compared to full fare-or less if compared to cheaper advance fares. Even more so if you are still junior or senior and can get the discount passes

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