My Eurail Pass Adventure in Europe
For long-distance travel in Europe, I really love trains. They are so comfortable, with spacious seats, no need to worry about luggage check-in, and you can enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way. Plus, the main train stations are usually right in the city centre, unlike airports or bus terminals.
Because I travel by train a lot, I often use a Eurail Pass. On my recent trip, I used my Eurail Pass in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. If you've read my previous post, you'll know that these countries are where using a pass is flexible and potentially cheaper than buying individual tickets.
Is a Eurail Pass Right For You?
Generally, for these countries, you don't need to calculate too carefully. Just count the number of travel days you need and buy a pass that matches. I had 10 travel days, so I bought a 10-day pass for 400 euros, which works out to 40 euros per day. I knew the train journeys I wanted to take each day would definitely cost more than 40 euros. But if you have fewer travel days, say 4 days – where the pass costs more than 60 euros a day – you should consider it more carefully.
Whether or not you need to check individual ticket prices, you should still note down the journeys you plan to take. My tip is not to do mental math, it's easy to get mixed up!
If your itinerary includes many countries where using a pass isn't always convenient or beneficial, you can create a table to calculate it, like the example below.
After noting down all train journeys for each travel day and checking prices, I categorize them into three groups:
- Group 1: Should use a travel day (because individual tickets are very expensive).
- Group 2: Shouldn't use a travel day (because individual tickets are very cheap).
- Group 3: Might use a pass if it's convenient or if I have extra days.
Note that how you categorize each travel day depends on your personal factors. For example, whether you can buy tickets early or have to wait for a visa, whether you want the cheapest option or something slightly more expensive but more flexible, etc...
What About Train Reservations?
These trains still offer flexibility with a pass if they don't often sell out (like in Sweden).
The trains that are most likely to sell out are Eurostar, Thalys, and French TGV trains. With these, buying individual tickets early is usually cheaper.
In the example below, if on Day 1 you only travel from Paris to Basel, buying a single ticket might be better. However, since you're traveling to Interlaken on the same day, using a pass is definitely more worthwhile, even though you still need to book a reservation for the first leg. Another advantage of using a pass is that if you arrive in Basel and miss your connecting train, you can wait for the next one. Trains from Basel to other places in Switzerland are quite frequent.
Should You Book a Seat if it's Not Required?
For trains in Germany and Austria, because the reservation fee is quite cheap and easy to book on their website (not through Eurail), I always book seats on high-speed trains like IC, ICE, EC. It only costs a few extra euros but you have a guaranteed seat for the entire journey, so you don't have to worry about someone tapping you on the shoulder and saying, "This is my seat." ICE trains in Germany can be quite crowded. When checking train schedules on the German railway website, you can see which trains are busy and which are not.
On my recent trip, I travelled from Austria to Switzerland. Initially, I planned to take the 13:47 train but then changed my mind to the 15:47 train. If I hadn't used a pass and bought the ticket close to the travel date, it would have been quite expensive. Because I was using a pass, I only paid an extra 3 euros to rebook the seat for the later train. (A reservation wasn't required on this train, but I still booked one for the reason mentioned above.)
Flexibility Doesn't Mean No Planning!
Even if you don't need to book a seat and can hop on any train on your route, you still need to search beforehand to see how long the route takes, how many train changes are needed, how often trains run, and what time the last train of the day is – unless you're happy to stay an extra night in the old city.
If you only need to search for train schedules (without checking prices), you can use the website/app of the German railway or the Rail Planner app from Eurail.
To search for prices while planning, you can use ticket websites like The Trainline, Rail Europe, Omio... Note that these sites cannot search for routes they don't sell tickets for.
Some (but very few) private train companies are not affiliated with Eurail, so you can't use a pass, such as Italo in Italy, Ouigo in France...
Some trains from the city centre to the airport are covered by the pass (usually because they are regional or suburban trains). Airports I know where you can use the pass are in Oslo, Stockholm, Munich, Zurich, London Stansted, and London Gatwick. Note that in Oslo you can take regular trains but not the airport express train using the pass.
To find out which trains you can use with a pass, go to the Rail Planner app, open the Filters section and select "Eurail/InterRail Pass network only" then search again to only see trains covered by the pass.
To find out which trains require a reservation, search for the train in the Rail Planner app. If a reservation is required, it will say "Reservation required".
When searching for train schedules and ticket prices for trains in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland, I always use their websites or apps. In other countries, I use DB Navigator or Rail Planner to search for train schedules and The Trainline to search for prices. These are just my personal habits.
German Railway DB: bahn .com/en, DB Navigator app
Austrian Railway OBB: oebb .at/en/, OBB app
Swiss Railway SBB: sbb .ch/en/home.html, SBB Mobile app
Italian Railway TrenItalia: trenitalia .com/en.html, apparently there isn't an app for all of Italy but there is a Trenord app for the Lombardy region (TrenItalia owns half of Trenord)
Eurail Pass Benefits
I previously emphasised that this is a train pass, not for other modes of transport, and specifically not for public transport within a city (even though this system also has trains). The reason is that the urban transit system of a city is often managed by a different organisation, unrelated to intercity railways. Just like the buses in Kuala Lumpur have nothing to do with buses from KL to Penang.
However, a Eurail Pass also has several additional benefits. Previously, the list of these benefits was only about two A4 pages, but now, probably because there are more, they've created a portal where you can search for benefits by destination. These benefits can change at any time (added or removed), so remember to check before using them. I'll summarise the most attractive benefits here.
Switzerland:
- 50% discount on boat trips on the large lakes.
- Free on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz because the boats on these two lakes are operated by BLS, which is also a railway company. This is also the company that operates part of the Golden Pass Line that I wrote about previously.
- 50% discount on tickets to Rigi and Pilatus.
- 25% discount on tickets to some other mountains, mainly in the area around Lucerne and Interlaken.
Germany:
Rhine River cruises with K-D: 20% discount.
Austria:
10% discount for Salzburg City Card.
Norway:
30% discount on tickets for the famous Flam Railway line.
S-Bahn (suburban train) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland:
Some airport trains I mentioned above are free because they are suburban trains (usually trains from the city centre to the suburbs/outskirts). To be sure which trains are covered, just check on the Rail Planner app.
You also get discounted tickets for some sea ferries around Europe. I'll link the list of ferry companies with discounts below.
I spent three evenings writing the previous post and two evenings writing this one (yesterday I was working tirelessly from 9 pm to 2 am!). I hope it will be helpful to someone.
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