Hi all, could you please help me to understand what are the benefits of a pass (e.g. 7 days use over 1 month) if I'd mainly plan to travel by train overnight from one city to another by mainly booking sleeping cabines (2 adults + 1 kid)? Indeed we'd plan to make very limited use of standard daily train transports. Is a pass convenient in this case? Many thanks! Steve
Is it convenient to buy a pass for booking (mainly) night sleeping cabines?
+8Where and when will you be travelling?
You’ll need to pay for the sleeping accommodation. Prices for a reservation are shown here: https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
Certainly on some routes, the cost of a reservation is pretty close to the cheapest standalone tickets. But if all the cheap tickets are gone, then a rail pass gets more valuable.
You can compare the price of the passes + reservations with the price for regular tickets. One bonus is that the kid gets a free rail pass if under 12 (but still needs to buy reservations).
But you lose one of the major benefits of having a pass: flexibility. If most of your journeys are by sleeper which you have to reserve, then you can’t be flexible any more.
In several countries the age limit for children is 14, 15 or even 16 so depending on the age of the child it is not necessarily a bonus with the free children's pass for children under 12.
Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
+8In several countries the age limit for children is 14, 15 or even 16 so depending on the age of the child it is not necessarily a bonus with the free children's pass for children under 12.
Good point!
Seat61 has a good page with a table of child ages in different countries. https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel-with-children.htm
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