This whole Eurail thing is confusing me. plz help!

[ghady]

Hey.

I've been trying to figure this whole Eurail thing out by myself, and for the most part, it's fine... but i have a few questions..

Say I choose to buy a eurail select path... for 3 countries... and for 5 days in two months.

What does that mean?

-Do I have to buy a train ticket every time?

-Do I have to reserve places on trains?

-Can I use the pass INSIDE one of the countries?

-Say I get to Paris from Germany on a Tuesday using the pass. If I want to go from Paris to Lyon on a Friday, will that count as an extra day on the eurail pass? will i have one less day of travel?? if so, would it just be better to buy a train ticket there?

-What about passports? I'm enlgish so it doesn't matter to me,
but my friend needs a visa to get to europe. will he need a visa for every single country we want to go to?

Thanks a lot everyone. I really appreciate it. And i'm sorry for the meticulousness of my questions

[herrbert]

No you don't have to buy tickets, when you have the pass, but make sure, that you get your pass validated, when you embark on your first trip. (this is very important!)

Reservations, really depends on which trains, and routes you will be using. My advise is to check the site of the railwaycompany, to see if you need to make a reservation or not. If you are not sure, you can always ask at the station, when you arrive, and make a reservation for when you will be leaving (a couple of days later).

About which countries you can visit, you need to look at which card you have bought (or will buy). As I don't use them, I can go wrong here, but I know, someone will correct me if I do.

You can use your card in three bordering countries. (for example Germany, France and Spain), You can travel by train for 5 days, and you have 2 months to do that (the 2months, will be calculated from the day of validation a.k.a. the first day you use the card).

If you have an itinerary done, and you know where you are going, I would recommend to use www.railsaver.com, to let them tell you, what card, would fit your demand the best. I just checked you route, and I think you are best of, flying some routes, and you might find yourself buying p2p-tickets, as that would work out cheaper. (not completely sure, but check railsaver)

As for you friend: If she/he is American or Canadian, you don't need to worry. You are staying in the Shengen area, and for less then 90 days, so there is no problem there.

[ghady]

thanks herrbert!

my friend is entirely lebanese apparently. he only has the lebanese passport. so if he gets the schengen visa (which shouldn't be a problem since he's already gotten it before), would that solve everything.

also, what's a p2p ticket?

thanks.

[me]

ghady said:

also, what's a p2p ticket?

p2p is abbreviation for point-to-point, this is when you buy a ticket from, for example, Vienna to Salzburg. on many routes you must buy a reservation, too.

this is opposed to having a rail pass which can cover the fare, but not the reservation.

- d