First time Eurailer

[Mlouis]

Hi guys, I have always bought seperate train tickets in Europe, so I am a little eurail ignorant. I will be living in Spain for study abroad (2 months). I would like to visit Germany, Switz, Italy, France, Spain (of course) and maybe Portugal. Would it be best for me to get a "select pass" for 15 days w/in 2 months? I really do not know a thing about these tickets, I have heard that they are useless in Spain and Portugal because of a reservation fee? I could be way off... please clarify if you have any idea what I am talking about :-) A Eurail pass for 2 months unlimited seems a litle pricey ($938!!) I would love any input...as I said, I am lost!
Thanks!!

[nitsansh]

Are you the same person who goes to Santander?
It's important to know the location... Spain is a big country...
Unfortunately, from that location you can go no further than France or Portugal in a weekend trip, assuming that's the time you are free to travel, and some regions of those countries (Algarve in Portugal, for example) may be out of reach as well... unless there's any airport in that region which you can fly out for reasonable price...
Also, assuming you'll be travelling no more than every 2 weekends, that would be a maximum of 10 travel days...
If you want to do serious travelling, you will have to wait until you finish your studies... or before it starts...

So, first, what amount of time have you got for travel? No use to make plans if you don't have the time...

[Michele]

Hi, I am sorry, I should have added that. Yes, I am the same person going to Santander. We are flying into Germany 1 week early. We will have 3 day weekends to travel and also 1 free week week inbetween classes. Sorry, I really should have mentioned that :-)
Michele

[nitsansh]

So, if I got it right...
You will travel for one week from Germany (where exactly? Germany is big country as well...) to Santander before you study, and another week break in the middle of the 2-months course, and on each week of class you have 3-days weekend break (Is that Thursday afternoon to Monday morning?), which I figure makes 3 weekends on either side of the week-long break... and you want to use all these breaks for travel?
That makes 6 weekends and 2 full weeks... will all that be inside 2 months?

Well... it's no brainer that you should use the longer breaks to travel to further destinations... that means Germany, Switzerland and Italy... and save the weekends to travel to closer places in Spain, Portugal and France...
Could you specify which places you want to travel in those countries?
As you mentioned you used to travel in Europe, it would help if you specify which places you visited, and whether you'd like to return there... and also what are you interested to see and do...
and what time of year do you travel?
Presumably, money is an issue as well... so if you have an estimate of how much you would like to spend that may help too... more travel always mean more expenses...

[nitsansh]

And also... since I see you use first person plural... how many people are "we", and do all of those want to travel together? And what age are you? These factors are very important to determine which tickets apply to you...

[Michele]

There are 12 girls going to Santander, only 4 girls want to travel to other countries during our breaks. Our long weekends start after class (1pm) on Thrusday, then we resume classes on Monday. I am not sure yet where we are flying in to, we are still trying to find the best ticket prices, and we are calling around for group rates. I have only traveled throughout Spain (minus northern Spain) and then England, Netherlands & Belgium. I am a little short on information about France, Italy, Germany etc, most of my guidebooks are strictly Spain, so I have been in the library soaking up information on these other countries.
If you or anyone else has any "must-sees" I would love suggestions, I am open to anything, I never limit myself to strictly tourist attractions.
I would like to see the French Riviera, I hear Nice is splended, but can be a bit touristy. So I thought maybe we would stop there on our way to Italy. Again, I am just getting started, so I am open to suggestions. I read in Rick Steeves' that the "Cinque Terre" in Italy is similar to nice without the massive tourism.
I think I will make Portugal part of a weekend trip to Galicia.
So, basically in a nut shell, 4 girls, no concrete plans yet, I might have to get back to you on Germany and Switzerland because like you said they are large countries.
Thanks for listening and for your suggestions, I really appreciate them!
Michele

[Kim]

I read in Rick Steeves' that the "Cinque Terre" in Italy is similar to nice without the massive tourism.

Unfortunately, the Cinque Terre is very touristy, especially in the summer-but it doesn't spoil the incredible charm of it.

Honestly, I don't think Nice is anything like the Cinque Terre-I found Nice to be nice but the Cinque Terre is so unique and wonderful. Nice didn't do much for me-I mean it's fine but nowhere that I would go back to.

Two of my photos from Manarola, where we stayed in the Cinque Terre:

Kim

[Michele]

Thanks Kim, like I said, you guys know a lot more than I do on these countries, I really appreciate your advice! I have added Cinque Terre to my tenitive itinerary, and scratched off Nice for now. -Michele

[nitsansh]

When are you going?

I just found out that from May 16, Volare will start flying from Bilbao to Milano. Their flights to Milano cost 9 Euro including tax, to Bilbao 41 Euro... So you've got 50 Euro return flight to Italy... it would be over 200 Euro if you go by train!
Unfortunately, Milano and London (by Easyjet) are the only destinations you can fly by "no-frillers" from Bilbao or another airport near Santander...
However... look out for attractive local offers (valid only for purchase in Spain) by the Spanish airlines... there are 3 airlines in Spain: Iberia, Air Europe, Spanair. Last time I checked, domestic long distance flights in Spain (like Barcelona-Sevilla) were around 100 Euro return. Not as cheap as no-frillers, but worth considering...

If you plan to travel in a party of 4, you need serious cosultation to find out which places you want to go... more people, more opinions...

Travelling in big party will be valuable if you go to Germany... you'll pay 2.5 times the price for one for 4 tickets, giving you 37% discount... on top of that you can get further reduction if you buy tickets in advance, especially return tickets... if you use these offers, you don't need a rail pass...
Discounts for travel together, youth (are you all under-26?) and advance purchase also exist in France, and once again, if you use them you don't need a pass...
And once the 2 major railpass-friendly countries are taken out, and if you also fly to Italy, you will find little use to buy a pass for trips in Italy, Spain or Portugal... flying to Milano could also serve as gateway to Switzerland, as it's one hour away from the Swiss border... travel in Switzerland is expensive, though, and you can easily accumulate enough travel for a Swiss pass...
This shows for the umpteenth time that passes are good for flexibility, but if you would rather plan and purchase tickets in advance, you'll get better deals without them.

When you make up your plans, it would be possible to go further...