Eurail Passes?

[DemonDeac]

some of you have obviously been to Europe.ill be abroad and travelling my fair shair. did you get one? what kind of pass did you get? was it worth it? any websites that have a good deal?

thanks boys....and occasional girl

[SmileyEH]

I'm also probably going to get one, but not sure what length/class etc.

-SmileyEH

[mmmmmbrother]

if you doing the europe on speed tour then they are worth it, but if you want to spend some time in all the cities, which i would recomend, then maybe not.

i think you have to take the train every few days for it to be worth it

[DemonDeac]

yea. i mean, they're gonna be weekend trips when i have off from class since ill be studying in Rome.

anyone thats gotten one?

[kenberman]

[ QUOTE ]
some of you have obviously been to Europe.ill be abroad and travelling my fair shair. did you get one? what kind of pass did you get? was it worth it? any websites that have a good deal?

thanks boys....and occasional girl

[/ QUOTE ]

it depends entirely on the traveling you want to do.

also, I'm not sure if Ryan Air of easyJet fly out of Rome, but I would suggest looking into these at alternatives. you can oftentime get dirt cheap flights (like $20 or so) from these airlines. they make Southwest look luxurious.

[DemonDeac]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
some of you have obviously been to Europe.ill be abroad and travelling my fair shair. did you get one? what kind of pass did you get? was it worth it? any websites that have a good deal?

thanks boys....and occasional girl

[/ QUOTE ]

it depends entirely on the traveling you want to do.

also, I'm not sure if Ryan Air of easyJet fly out of Rome, but I would suggest looking into these at alternatives. you can oftentime get dirt cheap flights (like $20 or so) from these airlines. they make Southwest look luxurious.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea Ryan air is option #2 is i dont do the eurail pass. but dont they fly at like 7AM and out of smaller airports?

[kenberman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
some of you have obviously been to Europe.ill be abroad and travelling my fair shair. did you get one? what kind of pass did you get? was it worth it? any websites that have a good deal?

thanks boys....and occasional girl

[/ QUOTE ]

it depends entirely on the traveling you want to do.

also, I'm not sure if Ryan Air of easyJet fly out of Rome, but I would suggest looking into these at alternatives. you can oftentime get dirt cheap flights (like $20 or so) from these airlines. they make Southwest look luxurious.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea Ryan air is option #2 is i dont do the eurail pass. but dont they fly at like 7AM and out of smaller airports?

[/ QUOTE ]

they generally fly out of secondary airports (like London Luton, instead of Heathrow), similar to what Southwest does in the US. in some cases, they do fly out of major airports.

ok, I just looked, and they fly out of Rome Ciampino. I have no idea where that is, but I'm sure you could figure it out.

re: times, they fly at normal hours, you'll just pay a premium to fly at certain times. their rate chart/website/ecommerce is very easy to use.

basically, using ryanair will open up weekend options for you that wouldn't be available (or unpractical) via eurorail. trips to Dublin and Stockholm, for instance. for some place, eurorail will be fine, but I would look into the different places you can go via ryan.

check it out

ryan air (http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/)

[Indiana]

Depends on where ur goin. From Amsterdam you can always buy a ticket to Brussels on the spot there at the train station. But from Brussels to Paris you need to get one in advance.

Indy

[milliondollaz]

i went for 2.5 months and got the unlimited 2 month pass. def. worth it. every weekend i could take whatever train i wanted, while guys who got the 10 or 15 day passes had to wait till after 5pm, so they could get the whole next day too. it works on the s-bahn subways in munich to, so i never payed for subway fairs.

IMO ryan air tickets are about as useful as confederate currency. i flew to london from frankfurt instead of taking the train from france (where i was) to london. the chunnel costs like 100 euro's i think. and the flight was 20. easy decision i thought. BUT. it was 20 euros for a damn bus to take us to the random ass airport in frakfurt, and it flew into some random ass airport around london, which was another 20 euro bus to london. and we still had to take a train from france to frankfurt to begin with.

the train stations are in the middle of the cities, so if your train leaves paris at 2pm and gets to london at 7pm, you need to be at the paris train station at 1:55 and you will be on the streets of london at 7:05.

if you take ryan air, you will leave at 2pm to go 40 miles outside your city, wait in a long ass line, wait at the gait, finally fly to some place in the boonies, wait for the busses to go to the actual cities, and feel ripped off.

if you travel by train, you can drink cheap (yet still great) wine the whole time, and just get ripped.

eurail unlimited = no stress and direct travel

[gumpzilla]

I'd recommend it. I couldn't tell you any of the specifics, as I was traveling with some people who were much more zealous about organizing these kinds of things, but it was nice to have the option. The kind that I had was usable for 3 days of your choosing, but I think they all had to be used within a week or so of the day you used the first one. This was kind of a nice feature, because it meant that on days where we were taking longer train rides we could use the pass, and on days where we didn't really go very far at all we could just spend out of pocket. And this was all for just traveling around the Netherlands and a teeny bit of Germany; if you're going all over the place, I think it's an even better idea.

[kenberman]

I agree with a lot of this. if Eurorail is an option, then go with it (like Paris to london, or Rome to Florence, or really any trip under 6 hours or so). but if OP wants to go to Scandivania or Ireland for the weekend, eurorail won't do it.

flying cheap just opens up more options. and regarding secondary airports, you're right - some are better than others. you just need to do your research before hand.

[DemonDeac]

good stuff

how much did you pay?

[daveymck]

Theres Flybe as well.

British airways can be decent as well if you book enough in advance.

[milliondollaz]

i'm 99% sure i payed just under $1000 for mine two years ago. i think $970 was the magic number. the website lists my pass for $1338 now though.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/eurail_index.htm

i got the eurail pass, some of my buddies got the flexi passes. if you only travel on the weekends, and don't plan on going on any marathon trips, like barcelona to buddapest, you might be able to save some money by getting the flexi pass, and buying your tickets for shorter trips.

but like i said, the unlimited pass gives you a lot of peace of mind, plus it saves you a lot of time, cause you just walk onto the trains, you never have to wait in line and actually buy a ticket. all you have to do is show the dude who checks tickets your pass and passport, and you're set.