First Time Traveler - EuRail vs. Bus and Flights

mmoyer2655
Traveller
0 comments

Posted 11 years ago

Hello,

I just found the site, and so far the information has been extremely helpful. I do have a few specific situations I couldn't find answers to.

My wife and I will be traveling Apr 8-Jun 20, 2013 through 15 European cities. We arrive in Barcelona by cruise ship Arpril 20th. We're trying to find which rail pass is best vs. bus/flights vs. a combination of the two.

When I first ran the numbers on the 15/2month EuRail global flexi passes, it was obvious that it was much cheaper than point-point, but not too much more expensive than a bus pass, making it the perfect choice. However, once I discovered most of our rail trips were both overnight and international, the seat reservation prices really started adding up.

Then I found railcc, and now see there are more trains and connections than sites like raileur*pe.com show, so I'm more confused than ever.

I've put together a spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Akw-IbDR15Z-dFc5LXFwbXpaOWotTlpRSFhBak5CdEE) that shows all of my options (before I found railcc).

Basically it ended up totaling as follows for two people:

Unlimited Rail: [b]$3216[/b] total including reservation fees as shown on raileur*pe
15 Day Flexi: [b]$2514[/b] incl. reservation fees
10 Day Flexi/5 city Megabus: [b]$1776 [/b]incl. reservation fees
Unlimted Euroline Bus: [b]$1466 [/b]

So, I guess I'm looking for opinions on the following:

1. Are my seat reservation prices accurate in my spreadsheet? Or, are they cheaper/more expensive in person at the train station?

2. Which legs of my trip do you think I can avoid such costly fees? It seems like anything around the UK is extremely expensive. Paris to London is obvious with the eurostar, but why london to brussels, brussels to amsterdam?

3. Which option would you recommend for my itinerary? I would rather take all trains but the convenience is worth $300-500 dollars to me, not $600-1000+. So far the 10/2month+Megabus option is looking the best to me unless there are workarounds to the higher seat reservations.

4. I understand the 1900 rule. However, some legs like Barcelona to Paris only have trains departing at 1955. Does that require two days of travel on my pass, or does it count as one since it is booked as a reservation on the pass?

5. We are planning on spending 2-5 days in each city, being as flexible as possible. Is it reasonable to book these seat reservations the day of, or day before departure? Does that increase the cost?

For reference, our itinerary is more or less

Barcelona -- Paris -- London -- Edinburg -- Brussels -- Amsterdam -- Berlin -- Prague -- Vienna -- Venice -- Florence -- Rome -- Nice -- Madrid -- Lisbon (fly out of Lisbon)

Thanks for for any opinions you may have!

Mike