Railpass or no Railpass...

[johnnyb00m]

Hey everyone!

I know this is quite a popular subject on these boards, although I didn't find the exact answer I was looking for in previous posts, since my situation is a little different.

I will be attending school in France for 5 months in January with 6 of my friends. We have been talking about doing a lot of travelling on weekends and breaks.

We've been trying to decide whether a railpass would be worth getting or not. We do not have a defined itinerary, but we definately know that we would like to see as much of europe as possible. We've also looked into flights, especially considering our somewhat restricted travel time (roughly 3 days at a time, no time to waste on long train journeys).

So here's the question... Do you think it would be a good idea to get a railpass just for the 'closer' countries bordering france and then for the longer distances fly? Or would the railpass be a waste?

[Jules80]

bear in mind that rail passes are only good for 2 or 3 months at a time ( i think its 2 but can't really remember). so you'd need several to cover the time your there which could be expensive. in the uk they have rail cards which, if you are a student for example, you get discounts on rail travel. is there a similar system in france? i would tend to suggest p2p tickets. but you'd really ahve to look into in. www.railsaver.com could help you with that.

jules

[johnnyb00m]

The problem with www.railsaver.com is that is assumes I am backpacking in Europe, and not living there. Therefore, the whole criteria to decide which pass I need is irrelevant for my situation...