Hey guys, I really need your help!
I’m gonna travel to Europe this summer and the Eurail Pass it’s the best cost benefit option to travel.
But I’m worried I won’t be able to go some places. Can someone please tell me if my trip is possible?
Málaga (spain) → Barcelona (spain) → Paris (france) → Amestrdam (Netherlands) → Rome (italy)
All of this in 29 days, staying like 4 days in each country!
Can someone tell me if it’s possible?
Sure this is possible. Check timetables via e.g. the DB planner, although be warned that Spanish railways don't disclose their timetables a long time in advance.
Amsterdam - Rome is a bit long to cover in 1 day (although it is possible) so you may want to break your journey somewhere. or you could take a night train, e.g. Amsterdam - Zürich and then onwards to Rome (2 travel days). Or travel by day to Munich and then the night train to Rome (1 travel day).
So what do you recommend, when in Spain?
Go to the station 24h before departure to check the time?
And does the Pass is for every train station in Europe?
No, definitely do not leave it until the day before, all of those journeys will involve reservation compulsory trains, if they sell out you will not be able to travel.
Unless you are happy to use some much slower regional/commuter links all of those journeys will involve booking fees in addition to a Eurail pass. If those are the only significant rail travel you will do in that period it may well be cheaper (and easier) to buy separate tickets for each leg.
So what do you recommend, when in Spain?
Go to the station 24h before departure to check the time?
No, use e.g. www.raileurope.com to check Spanish timetables. Or the RENFE website, but that is awful. And don't check more than 60 days in advance.
Most trains in Spain require a reservation; check this post about how to book and this page for booking the (expensive) reservations for the high speed trains between Spain and France.
And does the Pass is for every train station in Europe?
Coverage is not about stations but about railway companies (more details on the country pages). But in the end, some stations are not served by a participating railway company.
Frankly, FLY. Probably even cheaper if you plan long before and use the low-cost airls. These sectors are all too long to really benefit much from trains except Par->Ams. In low season a flite as such like Mlg→ Ams cost less as only the EXTRA supplmts on a railpass.
Easyjet, RYANair (very bad airline, very cheap, DO study exactly on how to do it), TransAvia.
A railpass is of use if you want to do multiple stops in between these large cities.
how can i make sure that by buying the global pass (2 months) i can reach every destination, besides reservation that we might have to pay (no problem). but what routes will my global pass not cover in my itinerary, how can i check that somewhere. thank you for your help
itinerary:
Lyon - Geneva - Lausanne - Luzern - Bern - Zurich - Salzburg - Munich - Nuremberg - Dresden - Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Graz - Verona - Milan - Turin - Genova - Marseille - Barcelona
All routes are possible. You can download the Railplanner app and check there.
For making your detailed planning please always double check with the timetable of the national railways. Please read more below.
Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days.
Planning
The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries.
Reservations
The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website. You can look at the guide in the link:
https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105
If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.
Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.
Activation of pass
During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.
It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.
Activation of travel day
The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass and create the ticket (QR code), until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.
Thanks, AnnB very help, appreciate it, now i can start to work on it.
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