What You Need to Know about Eurail Passes

CanuckAbroad » What You Need to Know about Eurail Passes

What You Need to Know about eurail Passes

Established in 1959, eurail has become a tremendous success in terms of giving tourists and locals the ability to get from one country to another without a high cost or big hassle. Instead of having to purchase multiple tickets on multiple venues of transportation, you can select the appropriate eurail pass for your adventure and then move freely from country to country as you explore the various attractions and sites of interest. However, it can help to know how the eurail passes work and the specific benefits they can offer you.

There are a number of benefits for using a eurail pass when you’re travelling through Europe, including free or reduced transportation on:

The tracks of private railroad companies
National/international ferry crossings
Bus services

You can also get a number of price reductions for reservations at hotels, museum entrance fees, bike rentals, and more. When you use a eurail pass, you simply pay one fee and can expect to travel from country to country without many additional payments.

There are a number of different passes that you can purchase:

eurail Global Pass - This pass allows you to travel between as many countries as you like within a certain time period. These countries include Belgium, Austria (including Liechtenstein), Finland, Denmark, France (including Monaco), Germany, Hungary, Greece, Luxemburg, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Republic of Ireland, and Switzerland.
eurail Select Pass - This kind of pass will allow you to travel between 3, 4, or 5 countries, depending on the pass that you purchase. The countries included for this pass are: Benelux (Belgium,the Netherlands, Luxemburg), Austria (including Liechtenstein), Bulgaria/Serbia & Montenegro, Finland, Denmark, France (including Monaco), Greece, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia/Croatia, Sweden, Spain, and Switzerland. With this kind of pass, you will want to choose a countries that are accessible to each other via rail or boat in order to use the pass correctly.
eurail Regional Passes - These kinds of passes are good for four countries in a region for a time frame of ten days to two months. There are many restrictions with these passes in terms of locations.

A rail day is considered the hours of midnight to midnight, so when travelling with a restricted type of pass, keep this in mind in terms of when you will be able to travel. You may want to note that if you’re taking a train at seven in the evening to arrive in another destination the next day, this trip will only count for the previous day.

When you arrive at the train station for the first trip with your eurail pass, you will need to get it validated, but after that, you are free to travel as much as you like, within the restrictions of your pass.

Tags: hotels, reservations, tickets, travel, travelling

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2 Comments »

So with the eurail Pass, I dont need to buy tickets? I just, for example, hop on the train in paris, show them my eurail pass and get off in Amsterdam?

Comment by Paul D — April 24, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
Sorry, Paul D! Nothing is that easy with travel in Erope. Seems so, but isn’t (I’m in Sweden now). You need reservations for night trains and don’t for day trains. However, a lot of the trains are sold out weeks in advance, so be careful and check… you might have to make reservations anyways if you are trying for a route that is not also requently covered by flights. I think each reservation costs $5-40USD.

Comment by Charm1983 — May 8, 2007 @ 2:48 pm