Traveling in May

[kileybeth]

Hello,
My boyfriend and I are leaving the US May 27th and returning on June 30th. We are starting in london off to:
Brussels
Bruges
Amsterdam
Berlin
Munich
Salzburg
Vienna
Florence (we will do day trips to Rome/Venice/Milan)
Nice
Paris
London
Ireland possibly

We are staying in hostels all along the way and have already booked a few. We are planning on doing the eurail saverpass which gives us 21 days of unlimited travel. My first question is:
Is this a good pass to have for our trip?

Also any information for things we MUST see is much appreciated. I am very interested in historic buildings and art, but anything is fabulous. I've read the guidebooks, but still need and want as much advice as possible.

Thanks so much!!

Kiley*

[Kim]

Hi Kiley,

Since you are trying to pack alot into a trip that's not that long, I would keep Ireland for another trip.

As far as time budgeting, I'm not a huge fan of Brussels or Milan so my personal recommendation would be give them 1 day each-Bruges is smaller but I love it.

I would stay in Bruges and do a day trip to Brussels-there isn't that much to see and it's only 1.5 hours away. (Since you are getting a consecutive day pass, you mine as well).

The only other thing is I would stay in Rome (and Florence) if you can. Rome is a city like no other, you can't do it justice as a day trip.

It's a pretty long trip to day trip to the other places as well:
Florence-Venice 3 hrs.
Florence-Milan 3.5 hrs.
Florence-Rome isn't so bad at 1.5 hrs.

Rome isn't bad for accommodation prices either, Venice is pretty brutal however. Your Vienna to Florence leg will be a night trip as it will take 11.5 hrs.

Kim

[nitsansh]

Just curious... how do you fit 21 days pass to 34 days trip?

I agree with Kim that day trips from Firenze are not good idea...

[kileybeth]

Because we are starting in london and ending there we will not be spending all of our time using our eurail as britain does not accept them!

[nitsansh]

I see that... but you have a gap of 13 days! Is that how long you want to be in UK?
I think that for your itinerary, the 5-countries Selectpass would be more useful. Your 5 countries are: Benelux, Germany, Austria, Italy, France.
I suggest that you buy 5-days pass and use it for the long journeys:
Amsterdam-Berlin
Berlin-Munich
Vienna-Firenze
Firenze-Nice
Nice-Paris
The other are too short to merit a use of travel day, none of them is over 30$.
If your pass is validated in London, you can buy a discounted ticket for the Eurostar London-Brussels and Paris-London. Make sure to reserve seats on those trains as soon as possible, the seats for pass holders are limited.
If you consider that the 21-days pass will NOT get you a discount for Eurostar, I think you will save money if you buy a Selectpass.
BTW: Are you both over 26 YO?

[nitsansh]

FYI, the Selectpass is much cheaper than Eurail pass:
Eurail Saver pass:
21 days 648$
1 month 804$ (you will get the difference back by purchasing 2 Eurostar pass holder tickets)
Selectpass Saver 5-countries:
5-days 374$
6-days 406$
8-days 470$
10-days 530$

Actually, if the increment for additional day is 30-32$, it's worth to buy more days and travel 1st class all the way.

[kileybeth]

Hi,
We are both 21 so if possible we will get student fairs no matter what we do. In regards to the selectpass, is that 5 days traveling? I'm not quite sure how those work, i'll have to research them. You are being so helpful, as first time travelers we are rookies to say the least.

Kiley

[Kim]

Hi Kiley,

This page here will tell you all about the select pass:
www.railconnection.com/railpass/eurailselect.asp

If you go to the main page of that site at www.railconnection.com , and choose "Rail Passes", there is an explanation of all the different passes that might help as well.

Usually, a flexible pass like the Select Pass or one of the others ends up being a better option as the one you get is for consectutive day travel (say 21 days in a row) rather than flexible travel (which is say 15 days in a month)

Kim

[nitsansh]

If you are 21 (or any age between 12-25), you are eligible for youth tickets and passes. The Saver tickets are for 2 people in 1st class, Youth tickets are 2nd class. There's no reason you should even think of 1st class... enjoy the opportunity to buy 2nd class passes as long as you can... a friend of mine (20-something years older...) once told me he wouldn't travel 1st class even if he would get free tickets... he said he doesn't feel comfortable with the type of people that go 1st class... 1st class travellers are either business people (the ticket is tax deductable), snobby rich people who want to stay away from the "commons", or non-European tourists (mostly north-Americans) who travel with rail passes.
For the passes that apply to you, look at the Youth version of Eurail, Eurail Flexi or Select Pass in the following link:
www.ricksteves.com/rail/choosemenu.htm
There's one significant difference concerning Eurostar. Youth can purchase a 79$ or 75 Euro ticket (or a similar price in Pounds) which is not related to any rail pass. In USA, you can either buy a ticket with reservation, or an open voucher which you exchange for the actual ticket. If you buy Eurostar ticket in Europe it allways include reservation. Youth tickets are quote-controlled so you should reserve them ASAP.
There are cheaper alternatives to Eurostar for cross-channel travel. Look out for cheap flights of Easyjet, BMI or Buzz for London-Paris, Ryanair or Virgin-Express for London-Brussels.
You can also fly to further destinations and save a rail journey. For example, fly to Paris, travel in clock-wise direction to Belgium, Netherland, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and back to London from Nice. If you like, you can fly to almost any place on your itinerary from London.
If you prefer to travel by night, you can arrange your itinerary to maximize the # of night trains. Short journeys of less than 25$ you better buy P2P ticket.
If you buy Selectpass, watch out that your journey does not go through a country which your ticket is not valid. Some routes between Germany or France and Italy go through Switzerland. If you travel Berlin to Vienna your route will be through Czech Republic. In such cases, you have to buy P2P ticket for the section not covered by your pass.

[kileybeth]

Ok so I think I got some things together:
Buy the 5 or 6 day selectpass youth for 307, 334 respectively. Then from the other places we will buy point to point tickets. Does this sound like a good idea? I am confused on the tickets from Heathro airport to the center of London and also the London to Brussesls travel options.

This confused me:
"If your pass is validated in London, you can buy a discounted ticket for the Eurostar London-Brussels and Paris-London. Make sure to reserve seats on those trains as soon as possible, the seats for pass holders are limited."
Why would we validate our pass in London, we cannot use it there right?

Thanks so much for all of your help..........i can't say it enough!
Kiley*

[nitsansh]

The cheapest pass you can buy for all countries in your itinerary is 5-countries 5-days Youth Selectpass at 307$. This is more than 60$ per day. If you buy the same pass for 10 days, it will cost 437$, a ratio of 43$ per day. Another way to look at it: The 1st 5 days cost 60$ each, an additional day 25-27$ (the increments are 27$ for the 6th day, 53$ for 7th and 8th, 50$ for 9th and 10th).
Since you are 2 people travelling together, you are entitled to discounts in some countries, notably Germany and France. In those countries there are also significant discounts for adavanced purchase. If you can, or want, to book tickets early, you might find that P2P tickets will cost less than a pass. The major advantage of rail passes is their flexibility. You are only limited by the pre-determined countries and # of travel days, and within those limits you can travel anywhere and anytime you like.

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

This confused me:
"If your pass is validated in London, you can buy a discounted ticket for the Eurostar London-Brussels and Paris-London. Make sure to reserve seats on those trains as soon as possible, the seats for pass holders are limited."
Why would we validate our pass in London, we cannot use it there right?

This was relevant to Saver pass (or regular pass). It is irrilevent if you buy youth ticket, which cost the same as pass holder ticket.
Here's the deal...
Standart one-way London-Paris or London-Brussels 2nd class ticket cost 199$ (in USA). Youth ticket for the same routes cost 79$. Pass holder ticket cost 75$. To qualify for a pass holder ticket you must have a pass that is valid on one of the countries you travel to/from (UK, France or Belgium) AT THE TIME OF TRAVEL. Which means, if you start in London, you must validate the pass before you take the Eurostar. Because of that, you couldn't buy 21 days Saverpass and benefit from pass holder fare, or you wouldn't have enough days for the trip in the continent. If you bought 30 days pass and use it to get discounted Eurostar tickets for London-Brussels and Paris-London, it would cost you less than 21-days Saverpass plus standart Eurostar tickets.
Since such condition does not apply for youth, this is now irrelevant.

The basic question you should ask yourselves, is whether you would like to be flexible, and have the freedom to change your plans during the trip. Consecutive-days Eurailpass gives you maximum flexibility, but you pay a higher price for it. Cheaper passes or P2P tickets restrict your flexibility.

[kileybeth]

Ok
I just booked a flight on ryanair from london to brussesl for 31.72gbp. That is for two tickets. So from there we will start our 5 day pass and buy p2p tickets for our short train trips. Is this all good?

Thanks
Kiley

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

I am confused on the tickets from Heathro airport to the center of London and also the London to Brussesls travel options.

The best way to travel Heathrow to central London is by the tube (underground, subway). 3.70 Pounds one-way. Don't take the pricy Heathrow Express which cost at least 10 Pounds.
London to Brussels:
Fastest and most expensive method is the Eurostar. 2.40 hours from London-waterloo to Brussels-Midi for 79$ (youth fare). Cheapest and slowest by bus, about 30 Pounds (45$).
Flights for this route, including travel to/from airports, might be cheaper than Eurostar, but don't worth the hassle IMO.
As I mentioned earlier, youth tickets are quote controlled (which means there is a quota of tickets at this fare on each train), and you better reserve them early before they run out. If you know when you want to travel, do it before you fly to London.
It's the same principle with cheap flights. Book them early if you want low prices.
Bus tickets are available at fixed price as long as there are seats on the bus.
Check these sites for details of air and bus alternatives of Eurostar:
www.aerfares.net/v3/index.php
www.ryanair.com/
www.gobycoach.com/?w=800&j=1

[kileybeth]

I already booked a flight on ryan air from London stansted to brussels s charleroi