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How best to explore on non-travel days?

  • 14 October 2022
  • 7 replies
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I’m trying to figure out which Eurail pass to buy by figuring out how many travel days I’ll actually be using.

So my question is, on days we’re in a city (say Copenhagen) and want to explore, is it best to use the Eurail pass to get around (and count that as a ‘travel day’) or to get around via bus, walking, bike, etc?

Or would it really depend on the city? We plan to visit Scandinavia and the Baltic before heading south through Poland, Czechia and Germany.

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Best answer by Al_G 14 October 2022, 20:05

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Userlevel 7
Badge +3

In a city it will almost never be worth it to use a day of a flexi-pass,

 

In the majority of cities there will be some form of transport day ticket for train/metro/tram/bus or whichever is used there. Bike hire schemes are also available in many places.

 

You will need to search for the transport body of the cities you are visiting for the details, even within a country the types of tickets offered can differ greatly.

Also look for tickets aimed at locals as well as tourists, some places have good value tourist tickets, others are very expensive compared to regular offers aimed at residents.

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Whilst there is no simple answer, you might like to consider a continuous pass if you want to travel by train whilst based in a city. For example we stayed in Nuremberg for 3 days and travelled each day to nearby towns. Other suitable cities might be Berlin, Vienna and even Cologne. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

What Yorkie says is for trips OUT of those cities-as a 1st time comer I assume you will want to see the local attractions first. As above: about any city will offer day or 24-hr tickets for local transit, most cities, certainly the touristy ones, will also offer a (nameof city) card-costing (much) more but offering als perhaps much more-entries to museums, attractions, or just discounts. THere is no universal rule for that. Consult a general touristy forum like tripadvisor as it will have much mire info and reports/advice about that. Most such cities will also have some kind of HOHO=hopon/hopoff touristy circular bus (often a doubledeck), taking away the for USA often utter confsuing job of finding out what line/tram goes to where.

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

What Yorkie says is for trips OUT of those cities-as a 1st time comer I assume you will want to see the local attractions first. As above: about any city will offer day or 24-hr tickets for local transit, most cities, certainly the touristy ones, will also offer a (nameof city) card-costing (much) more but offering als perhaps much more-entries to museums, attractions, or just discounts. THere is no universal rule for that. Consult a general touristy forum like tripadvisor as it will have much mire info and reports/advice about that. Most such cities will also have some kind of HOHO=hopon/hopoff touristy circular bus (often a doubledeck), taking away the for USA often utter confsuing job of finding out what line/tram goes to where.

Mcadv is correct, I was referring to using a city as a base to explore a region. Where there is a realistic hub you can stay in one place and using a continuous pass come and go on any trains as you please. Then you don't have luggage, can stay as long as you please in a town before returning and move on. The difference in price between a continuous pass for 15 days and a flexible ticket for say 7 days in a month is relatively small when total price of holiday is considered. 

This allows an extra 8 days acces to trains, even for local journeys.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

For travels within a city there are very few possibilities where you can use the Eurail pass as public transportation like metro, tram and buses normally not are included in the pass. The exception being the S-Bahn in Berlin, Zürich and maybe some more cities. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

For travels within a city there are very few possibilities where you can use the Eurail pass as public transportation like metro, tram and buses normally not are included in the pass. The exception being the S-Bahn in Berlin, Zürich and maybe some more cities. 

 

Even on a continuous interrail there are days where buying a local day ticket makes most sense.

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

For travels within a city there are very few possibilities where you can use the Eurail pass as public transportation like metro, tram and buses normally not are included in the pass. The exception being the S-Bahn in Berlin, Zürich and maybe some more cities. 

 

Even on a continuous interrail there are days where buying a local day ticket makes most sense.

Such as?

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