At the train stations there are lovely little machines that will provide your options in English. You can make and pay for reservations there (be sure not to buy a ticket, since your Eurail pass is the “ticket” part of “ticket and reservation”). Or you can go to the ticket counter, which is also pretty easy.
Before you use the pass for the first time, you need to have it validated at the ticket counter, or you will incur a fine.
If you’re traveling with a Flexipass (say, 4 days travel within 2 weeks), you must date the day of travel in the space provided on your pass before you get on any trains that day, or, again, incur a fine.
The trains can be a little complicated, but they’re efficient, generally clean, and have great views. Nice to Pisa via Ventimiglia was fantastic.
You were supposed to be able to buy the pass only in your country of residence, which for me was Germany. We all heard that you could go to Luxemburg and, the rules notwithstanding, they’d let you buy the pass there. That sounded ideal because the pass was only good for a 50% discount in the country of issue, and Luxemburg is tiny.
It didn’t work, and I had to ride back over to Trier to buy my rail pass; but at least I got a chuckle out of some of the town names, like Igel - “Hedgehog” and Wasserbillig - Watercheap.
I backpacked through Europe in law school. I remember the Eurail being cheaper if you bought it in the US rather than in Europe (and getting a cheaper discount if you were a student). Perhaps, you could convince a travel agent that you’re a student, or under a certain age? Anyway, like others have stated, it depends on how you use it. I used it a lot and it was very convenient.
May I revive this zombie to see if people have up to date opinions on Eurail passes for North American students? Our niece wants to go to Europe this summer. Thanks.
The general advice hasn’t changed: the pass can be a good deal or a bad deal, depending on where and how much you want to travel. It’s a supremely wise idea to compare the costs in advance by planning your trip (even if it’s just a sample itinerary) and visiting the websites of the relevant national rail operators to check ticket prices.
I wanted to add that if she wants to come to the UK, she should do it at the start or end (or both) of her trip. London to Paris is easy on Eurostar and can be quite cheap at the less popular times.
I know this is a zombie but according to Wikipedia it’s “National Rail”: (spoilered for length):
[spoiler]National Rail (NR) in the United Kingdom is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of the island of Great Britain as well as the Isle of Wight that run the passenger services previously provided by the British Railways Board, from 1965 using the brand name British Rail. Northern Ireland, which is linked to the Republic of Ireland, has a different system. National Rail generally does not include services that do not have a BR history; this distinction is important because National Rail services share a ticketing structure and inter-availability that do not necessarily extend to other services. The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are trademarks of the Secretary of State for Transport.[1]
The National Rail (NR) logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, available on its website.[2] “In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation’s neglected railway industry”.[3] The NR title is sometimes described as a “brand”.[4] As it was used by British Rail, the single operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity; and it avoids the need to replace signage.[/spoiler]
I thought about getting one for my most recent trip to Europe, but no-frills plane flights in Europe are so cheap and fast that it didn’t make sense in my case. By contrast, when I visited Japan, the Japan rail pass was definitely worth every penny.
It depends on where you’re flying. Many major cities (Frankfurt, for example) are not well served by low-cost airlines. And taking the train is often more convenient than flying, since train stations are usually located in city centres, and there’s no need to arrive hours early to check in.
I used on in 1986, which was a long time ago, but did find it useful. It was even more useful for a guy I met who was using the trains for a hotel. He spent every night on the train, spending one day in northern Europe, the next day in southern Europe, then North, then South etc.
The advent of newer high speed rail , variable ticket pricing, and low cost air travel has pretty much eliminated the classic backpacker with a Eurail pass type of trip. It’s usually far more economical to put together point to point rail tickets and low cost carrier flights, especially with the elimination of so many night trains.
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I don’t know if these are relatively new, but they work for us: you can get a pass for X travel days within 2 months (we went for 6 travel days). This is cheaper than, say, a 14-day full pass and you don’t have to travel so much to make it worthwhile. (My first trip to Europe is this coming April).
However, in order to prevent fraud, they are very fussy about how the travel days are recorded. You have to write each travel date down on the pass itself plus keep a “train diary” with all the information for each train you are using. Each trip has to be filled out correctly before you get on the train, or you risk losing your pass and being charged full fare plus a penalty (for supposed attempted fraud).
But, to the original question, assuming we are able to follow the instructions correctly, we will save about 25% for our train travel.
A random tip for this is to buy the Eurostar ticket via the Dutch rail website, for some reason it’s substantially cheaper than the British Eurostar site.
At unpopular times flying one of the budget airlines is generally cheaper anyway.
Anyway, like others have stated, it depends on how you use it. I used it a lot and it was very convenient.