Eurail Stories

One advantage of a Eurail Pass is that it allows you to hop on and hop off trains all day long. That’s what happened when we left Geneva and crossed Switzerland.

We went from Geneva to a small town where we met some friends. After that it was on to Bern. And after Bern, Thun.

After divesting ourselves of our bags, we went back to Bern and spent the evening floating down the river and downing some beers with friends. Then it was back to Thun for a good night’s sleep. And all the transport was hassle-free thanks to our Eurail Pass. It also helps when you’re not counting every journey you do, but enjoying as much travel as you want to on one of your “on” days.

I’ve spoken to some people who found a Eurail Pass wasn’t the cheap Euro Rail Pass they expected. So, what’s with that?

Firstly, every time we’ve used Eurail Passes, we’ve found them to be amazing value. This time, we’re actually trying to track what we would have spent if we were buying point-to-point tickets. We’ll let you know how it ends up.

The reason a Eurail Pass might cost more than point-to-point tickets is if you are travelling in cheap countries! Italy is much cheaper than Switzerland; Spain is much cheaper than Sweden.

Before you organize your Eurail Pass, you should have a rough idea of where you’re going to travel and when. Use this to your advantage by checking those prices online before you buy. It’s not the most accurate, but Jizdenka does a very good job of accessing international train costs. You can supplement this information with information from the national sites.

Whatever you choose, enjoy your time in Europe

One of the strangest features of the Eurail Pass is that they force everyone over the age of 26 into First Class. This doesn’t appear to be a problem! (Although you may be able to make your journey’s more cheaply by buying second-class point-to-point tickets.)

Here’s our experience of complementary nuts and cookies as we travelled from Bern to Berlin, reaching speeds of around 250km/hour, on an ICE train.

Reservations on Bern-Berlin are recommended but not compulsory if you take this route during the day (I’m not sure about at night). We choose a time we thought wouldn’t be busy and had no problems finding seats. In fact, we had a whole six-seater cabin to ourselves for 90% of the train trip.

On day one of our Euro rail adventure, we headed from Geneva to Thun with Eurail.com

The ride was smooth and beautiful, plus we were met by a friend in Bern and had a great time exploring the local towns, floating down the river towards the parliament buildings, and hanging out with new-found friends at a few parties.

Today we’re in Geneva, Switzerland and we got our Eurail Global Pass tickets!

This is the big unboxing of our Eurail map, Eurail Traveller’s Guide, Eurail Timetable and — of course — Eurail Pass tickets.

From Geneva we’re heading east … check back tomorrow to see where we end up!

The Eurail and the Euro Rail Pass are one and the same. In fact, the Eurorail is actually an informal name for the Eurail Pass.

The name confusion is based around a branding change made to simplify and shorten the name from “Euro Pass”. Even now, years after the change, people still refer to the Eurail Pass as Euro Pass or Euro Rail Pass.

Travel on the Eurail Pass

The Eurail Pass gives you hop-on, hop-off access to most of Europe’s train network. Bookings are more and more necessary in Spain and Italy, which comes with extra costs.

The traditional Eurail pass covers 21 countries, as of 2009: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Other passes, such as the Eurail Selectpass, allow one to select a series of bordering countries. For fare calculation purposes, some regions count as one country: Benelux, Slovenia-Croatia, and Serbia-Montenegro-Bulgaria. The United Kingdom is notably absent, but provides a separate set of passes. Source: Wikipedia

Where can I buy a Eurail Pass?

Eurail Passes are generally only available to people from outside Europe (and some other States). Although you can buy a Eurail pass inside Europe, it’s both easier and cheaper to buy them outside. If you’re already in Europe, consider having them sent to family or friends, then posted to you by courier. In some cases this case save you a chunk of cash!

What about the InterRail pass?

The InterRail pass is a different ticket again. It is only available to residents of Europe.

Eurail or EuroRail

Whether you call it the Eurail, the Euro Train or the EuroRail Pass, you’re sure to have a lot of fun travelling around Europe. Check out more Eurail Stories or information on Euro train passes for inspiration, tips and advice for European train travel.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. Standing in Geneva Train Station; weighed down by a backpack about 10 kilograms too heavy. I was about to launch myself into the continent. I was about to validate my Eurail pass.

It was an exciting moment; one that I had planned and anticipated for months. It was also a heck of a lot of money. I had been scraping together work here and there and figured I had just enough to make it to Amsterdam then a cheap flight to London where I could stay with friends. A Eurail pass wasn’t cheap and if something went wrong, I was calling Mum for a money transfer.

I’m a bit of a worrier, especially when it comes to anything “official”. I trust people but not bureaucracy…what was going to go wrong? It had to be something. By the time I had stood in the line this long I had dropped my bag to the floor and was kicking it in front of me. I really should have packed less crap but I refused to dump anything.

The front of the line. The empty slot. I dragged that tonne weight over to the counter. “Bonjour! Parle vous Anglais?” High school was good for four words; shame I wouldn’t understand a meaningful response. The ticket agent spoke perfect English (to my colonial shame) and the pass was validated almost instantly (to my surprise). A passport as identification, a quick stamp or two and it was done. Now, where was the platform…

Follow Jeff’s journey from Switzerland to Amsterdam thanks to a Eurail Global Pass. Subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss anything.

When I headed off on my Eurail adventure, it was the first time I had even been to Europe. I flew to Heathrow, London then a budget flight to Italy. After a week’s hectic sightseeing in Rome I started the 15 day global pass and set off.

My goal was simply to see as much as possible…visit as many places as I could…and that made for a crazy itinerary. I slept on trains for five nights and hostels for the rest of the time. Sometimes I travelled with friends that I had met, other time by myself…but I was always moving quickly. At typical day would look like this:

• Wake up on the train. Check the timetable to see where I was and were I was headed.
• Get off at the first city on my list. Have breakfast in the old town, walk around the sights, look at the outside of famous buildings.
• Back to the train station. Hop on a train for an hour or so.
• Get off at the day’s second city. Have lunch in the old town, walk around the sights, look at the outside of famous buildings.
• Back to the train station. Hop on a train for an hour or so. Have a nap.
• Get off at the day’s third city. Check into a hostel or book an overnight sleeper at the station.
• Have dinner in the old town, walk around the sights (in the dark!) and find a bar with a cold local beer. See if I can find a party that lasts until the train departs.
• Repeat.

Can I recommend this? If you’re crazy enough to be sleep deprived for two weeks! It was an amazing way to see a lot: six countries and their capitals baby! I ended up in Paris — which isn’t cheap! — where I think I slept for most of the week. There are vague recollections of the Arc de Triomph before flying home and back to College.

I’d suggest staying off the booze if you’re going to attempt it; A beer or two is fine, but things get messed up enough without hangovers getting in the way. One thing I regret is that I didn’t meet so many people, but it whet my appetite and I’m hoping to return and do a slower trip one day.

Dave travelled on a Eurail Global 15 day pass and wrote this one-off story for us. Will you share your Eurail Stories?

A Eurail Global pass is the mother of all European train passes: 20 countries of unlimited travel in Europe! It doesn’t get better than this.

How long?

A Eurail Global pass allows you unlimited train travel (within the Eurail zone) for a set number of days. You can travel every day of this pass; there are no time or distance limitations. How many days you choose really depends on your schedule and budget. Options are:

• 15 days
• 21 days
• 1 month
• 2 months
• 3 months

Where is it valid?

The Eurail Global pass is valid in all 20 countries of the Eurail network:

• Austria (including Liechtenstein)
• Belgium
• Croatia
• Denmark
• Finland
• France (including Monaco)
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland

Some journeys may require a reservation to be made in advance at a small extra cost.

The perks

A standard pass puts you in first class all the way, baby! That’s pretty good going and can have some excellent advantages. Of course there’s the extended leg room, more comfortable chairs and quieter surroundings but each countries train network has its own unique touches too.

Buying a pass means you save a lot of time stuffing around at the ticket counters. On occasion you’ll have to make a seat reservation — this is usually for sleeper carriages or peak-time intercity trains — but that’s not going to be too common.

You can jump off and on any train you like at any time. Bored with the city you’re in? Jump on a train. Want to stay another day? Just do it.

Carrying a pass is more secure than carrying month’s worth of travel cash. If you’re the type of person who prefers a cash budget then at least your pass can be insured, unlike most of your money.

How does it work?

You will receive lots of information with your Eurail Pass. In short, you activate the pass on the first day of your travel by showing it at the station along with your passport. When conductors ask to see your tickets simply show them the pass. Since Eurail Passes are linked to one person, some conductors may ask to see your passport as well, especially (we’ve found) if you are on a Youthpass.

Can I get one?

Eurail passes are available to anyone who:

• has not lived in Europe for the last six months

and who is not a resident of

• The Russian Federation
• Turkey
• Morocco
• Algeria
• Tunisia

This means people from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Africa and Asia, and all of South America can buy a Eurail pass.

Discounts?

If you are under 26, you qualify for the under 26 “youthpass”. This gives you unlimited second class travel. Although people have been known to end up in first.

If you are travelling in a group of 2-5, you should investigate a SaverPass which offers group discounts.

There is a centralised network which sets the prices of all Eurail passes, so beware of sites offering big discounts and “sales”. You’re most likely to find sales sites offering giveaways, a “free” days travel, or free shipping rather than a straight discount.

Where can I buy one?

It is difficult to buy a Eurail pass from a station or shop in Europe; and if you can it’s more expensive. I recommend buying one in advance. The easiest way to do this is online. Although you can find offline outlets, it is likely to be inconvenient. (Updated thanks to reader comments.)

Eurail Stories has decided to set up an affiliate programme with Rail Europe because we trust their service and found them to be prompt with their customer service. You can buy a Eurail Global pass from them here: Rail Europe: Specials & Promotions

More info

• Subscribe to our RSS feed or join our mailing list (in the sidebar).
• Read about other European Rail passes here.
• Ask questions in our forums: travellers and experts join in.

Buy now

• Click here for Rail Europe
• Get good travel insurance here.
• Book hostels for all your destinations here.

This is part of a series by Linda King

We wanted to use our Global Eurail pass to its best advantage, so we weren’t spending long in each place. We tended to arrive somewhere in the evening, explore it in the morning and head on in late morning or early afternoon. That’s exactly what we did in Liechtenstein, except with a bit more drama than we had expected.

Liechtenstein is a tiny country, with only one railway station which has a rather sparse schedule. The station is about an hour’s walk from the capital, Vaduz, though there’s a good network of buses to take you there. We were staying at the youth hostel, which was about halfway between Vaduz and the Schaan Post bus stop, which is also where you catch the train.

We’d spent the morning in Vaduz and walked back to the youth hostel to pick up our bags before heading to the train station to catch the 12.30pm train – the last one for about three hours. But we completely mistimed our walk and got back to the hostel at 12.20 – there wasn’t a chance of walking to the station in time. A bus was due near the hostel at 12.25 – supposed to arrive at Schaan Post bus stop at 12.30. Cutting it fine, certainly, but the people of Liechtenstein take after the Swiss in terms of efficiency – or at least we hoped so.

It was an anxious wait for the bus, but it finally arrived and we bustled on with all our bags. The driver took off, and we named the stop we wanted – Schaan Post. We were a bit surprised when the bus driver said no. What? we asked. “Finished” he said. We were completely befuddled, but still tried to pay while he tried to explain how the bus stop had disappeared or something – we had no idea.

Since our German was verging on non-existent, we didn’t work out what was going on until we reached the stop we wanted, just outside the post office. He looked concerned and pointed to the post office and said “finished” – the post office was closed for the day and he didn’t want us to make a journey there in vain. We finally understood, and pointed to the train station and said “nein, zug!” (no, train). Indeed, the train was just approaching the station. His face cleared and he gestured to us to run for it. We tried to pay for our rather entertaining bus ride but he wouldn’t hear of it, so we ran and caught the train with seconds to spare. Mint.