Eurail Travel Times
Busabout vs. Eurailpass?
Hi there-
My boyfriend and I are planning to travel next summer to europe with another couple. I am having trouble deciding between eurail and busabout. I hear there are quite a bit of extra charges that go along with the eurail. But i also hear the busabout thing is kind of like being on a tour. I really don’t want to be stuck on a bus with a bunch of kids that just want to go party. So- I was looking for honest opinions of both of the choices. Or if you have any other ways of traveling, its welcomed.
Travel time
cost
best experience
I don’t know much about the busabout, but if I were to take that option, I would go for the flexipass option rather than a fixed schedule.
The Eurail pass isn’t as good a deal as it used to be. It’s best if you’re doing a lot of travel and you’re willing to stick to the slower regional trains that make a lot of stops and may require a lot of train changes. If you use the higher speed trains or night trains there are supplements and/or reservation fees to pay. Here in Italy the supplement ranges from 5 euro per intercity train to 15 euro for a Eurostar and 20 euro for an Alta Velocita train. The supplements for the night trains can be more if you get a berth. In addition, you have to go to the station and stand in line to get the reservation – there’s a fairly substantial fine if you get on a train without the correct tickets. It is often cheaper to just buy point-to-point tickets – especially if you buy them in advance and can take advantage of discount fares.
A good resource for planning train travel throughout Europe is: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en (German train site in English). You can check schedules, but you’ll need to go to the individual country websites to price/buy tickets. For example: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD (Italy), http://www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/ns2007/en/mainmenu/include/1193053691834/travelers?p=1193053691834 (Netherlands), or http://www.oebb.at/en/ (Austria).
Just enter “trains” and the name of the country in Google to find the websites.
You might find these sites useful:
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass.htm#Where%20do%20I%20start
http://www.railpass.com/pds/RPE/Region-Europe_Trains