Rail passes and local trains

[armzie]

Hiya!

Just wanted to check something: I am buying the 5 country 6-day railpass, to travel as follows:

Day1: Berlin to Decin (en route to Prague)
Day2: Breclav to Vienna
Day3: Vienna to Munich
Day4: Venice to Florence
Day5: Florence to Rome
Day6: Barcelona to Madrid

I am flying for the other connections, but I just wanted to double-check: the railpass does NOT cover inter-city travel i.e travelling on the local metro within Paris or Berlin etc. For these I assume you buy daily metro tickets, or point-to-point tickets?

As far as I understand, a railpass is only valid on a national railway between countries and cities...am I right?

[herrbert]

I am not a big expert on railpasses, but I think it would be even cheaper to fly Barcelona - Madrid. (Normaly 20 euros, at vueling.com).

For most cities it is possible to buy day-cards (or 2-3 or 7 days card) for metro, or public transport. This is different in each city. When going to Toledo from Madrid, just buy p2p-tickets, the distance is too close, to spend you pass on that.

For preparing you travels within the cities, you can take a look at the metro maps already at: www.amadeus.net/home/index.htm

[me]

armzie said:

As far as I understand, a railpass is only valid on a national railway between countries and cities...am I right?

when i was in Vienna in the 90's, i asked for directions to my final destination at the train station. the answer i got was rather convoluted, i could see on the map more direct routes. when i mentioned this, the man pointed to the rail pass i was holding and said he was trying to show me a way to go where the pass was valid.

so, some of the public transit *is* covered by a rail pass.

- d