Henar
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 1 week ago
We have been organising our trip for quite a long time now and we still dont understand what trains does our Global Pass cover, because in the website it only letra you book very few trains and it requires that you pay for them, so then what does it really cover if we have to pay? And most importantly, what happens with countries like Greece and Bulgaria? Because from the eurail site it tells you that you cant book a train from for example Athens to Sofia which should be included. Can anybody please help us with this trip?? Thank you
MisterSteve
Traveller
916 comments
If you've been organising your trip for quite along time and still have these questions you are doing something wrong. You can't book a train from Athens to Sofia because there are none - there are no international trains from Greece to anywhere and haven't been for several years. It's clearly stated on the greek railway website https://www.hellenictrain.gr/en/international-railway-services - so how many official operator websites have you actually found?? Most of eastern europe is a couple of decades behind with technology so online booking, or even agency booking, is not possible -some can't even provide timetable info. If you are spending most of your time in the east it will probably be cheaper just to buy tickets locally and not bother with a Eurail pass, it will also probably be faster to go by bus.
The Eurail website lets you book thousands of trains although there are many, many thousands where reservations are not required and are not possible - if you still think that all trains need reservations your research has been wasted. In the west the main problems are Spain, which is slightly better than it was but still doesn't allow reservations from outside the country for many trains where they are compulsory, and Britain which doesn't connect to foreign agencies but has no compulsory reservations so isn't so bad - and when you arrive you can get reservations for FREE!!
It is true that some operators are charging for more than reservations, notably Spain and France. You also pay extra for accomodation on night trains and Eurostar trains to/from London have a charge which is mostly a fee from the operator of the Channel Tunnel (like airport fees on top of flight fare).
By now you should have found the fuller (but still with gaps in the east, and late updates for Spain) timetable database at www.bahn.com