citrin@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Wayne Citrin) (03/09/86)
I have a few comments on the Eurrail pass. It's very good for the grand tour of the great European cities (lots of traveling, relatively little time, etc.), but for other types of trips there may be better alternatives. I used one (actually an Interrail pass, since I bought it in Europe - more about that below) and it paid for itself and allowed me all the spontaneity that it promised. However, if you're not doing this type of traveling, you might look into other possibilities. For example, on my second trip I arrived in Amsterdam, spent a few days there then took the train to Zurich from which I took a few train trips to outlying regions of Switzerland. I also took the train from Milan to Zurich (I got a car ride to Milan), which was pretty spontaneous. I then returned from Zurich to Amsterdam by a different route. The Eurrail pass wouldn't have been worth it in this case. What I did was to get discount train tickets in Europe. These tickets are commonly known in the US and Britain as Transalpino but are more commonly known through- out Europe as B.I.G.E. tickets. They are sold at BIGE offices in all major European cities and perhaps also in the US. You can buy them if you are under 26. They generally cost half the price of the equivalent second class ticket and entitle you to second class travel between the starting point and the destination with unlimited stops alond the route. I think the ticket is valid for two months from the time you start. These BIGE offices are listed in Let's Go under "Discount Train Tickets" in the various city sections. I bought BIGE tickets in Amsterdam, Zurich, and Milan about a day before I took the trains. BIGE tickets are generally useful only for international inter-city travel (of course with the stops in between). For the short (1-2 hour) trips in Switzerland another strategy was necessary. Many countries, including Switzerland, have a national railpass. This entitles you to unlimited train travel inside the country, and is usually about as expensive as a Eurrail pass. They generally are not good buys. Switzerland, though, had something called a half-price rail pass. This cost about 30 dollars and was good for a month. Showing this pass at train stations entitles you to buy half-price tickets on all domestic routes (including private railways, cable tramways, funiculars, and cog railways). This was a great buy and paid for itself (and more) after two round trips. Other countries may have a deal like this. The way to tell whether the Eurrail pass is right for you is to look at a Eurrail schedule/fare table and estimate your total train fare. You can find this at your travel agent or Eurrail office. Even if you anticipate completely spontaneous decisions on where to go, you can still make some good guesses. If the total is greater than the cost of the rail pass, go for it. Otherwise look at other alternatives. About the Interrail pass, it's the Eurrail pass equivalent for European students including Americans residing in Europe. It costs about as much as the Eurrailpass and gives you slightly better priveleges. This includes train travel in Britain, Ireland, Morocco, and several Eastern European countries. It gives you half-price travel in the country in which you bought it and free travel everywhere else. Unlike Eurrail pass, the Interrail pass is a booklet in which the rail agents record your trips. When the pass expires, you can hand it back to the issuing agency for a rebate (10 pounds in England when I was there). This is incentive for you to give it back because they use the recorded information in the booklets to help determine how the rail companies split up the railpass revenue. If you decide to keep it like I did, it makes a good souvenir. Theoretically, there are fairly strict residence requirements to buy the Interrail pass. I didn't meet these requirements but decided to buy the pass because I was cycling in England at the time and decided to go over to the Continent on the spur of the moment. Eurrail passes were not available so I went to the London American Express office and they got me one in four hours instead of the three days that they initially said it would take (amazingly useful places, those American Express offices, but that's another story...). Actually, they could have gotten me a Eurrail pass, too; flying it over from the US, but that would have taken longer and been much more expensive. Although American Express didn't ask me for proos of residence, I hear that they're a lot more strict about giving it out to non-residents now so you might want to check. Don't even bother to ask the European rail agency offices in the US about it. They'll probably deny it exists. Anyway, I hope this contained some useful information about European train travel. I think it's great, although I'm thinking about doing it by car next time just for the different experience. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)
maariano@watdaisy.UUCP (Marco Ariano) (03/09/86)
In article <12270@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> citrin@ucbvax.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Wayne Citrin) writes: >I have a few comments on the Eurrail pass. It's very good for the grand [...] >The way to tell whether the Eurrail pass is right for you is to look at >a Eurrail schedule/fare table and estimate your total train fare. You can >find this at your travel agent or Eurrail office. Even if >you anticipate completely spontaneous decisions on where to go, you can still >make some good guesses. If the total is greater than the cost of the rail >pass, go for it. Otherwise look at other alternatives. > [...] > >Anyway, I hope this contained some useful information about European train >travel. I think it's great, although I'm thinking about doing it by car >next time just for the different experience. > >Wayne Citrin >(ucbvax!citrin) Excellent points on using a Eurail pass. Listen to this guy. I have one point I'd like to add. When calculating whether a Eurail pass is worthwhile for you, do not underestimate the value of time saved from buying tickets. As far as I'm concerned, this feature of a rail pass is worth at least $100. You just wander into the train station, look at the timetable and hop the train you want. It's leaving in two minutes?!...No problem. Without a pass you have to find *where* to *stand in line* to ask in a *foreign language* (well almost) for the cheapest kind of ticket you can get etc. and pay for it in whatever currency. This is a serious consideration. If you spontaneously decide to go for a day trip to Fussen with some people you just met, you just hop the train and go. After using the trains in Britain and Czechoslovakia (where Eurail is no good) we were continuously commenting on the incredible convenience of our pass. I hope I've been convincing. Just remember this when you're in gare-nord in Paris, you don't have your ticket yet and your train, the last one going today, leaves in two minutes. (And they're *ALWAYS* just leaving in two minutes! :-) Marco Ariano CSNET: maariano%watdaisy@waterloo.CSNET ARPA: maariano%watdaisy%waterloo@csnet-relay.CSNET University of Waterloo BITNET: maariano%watdaisy%waterloo@csnet-relay.ARPA (And don't get carried away trying to make your pass 'worth it' by trying to see everything and sleeping on the train and go go go. You'll really wish you hadn't later.)