What Railpass to choose now that i'm done??

[ghady]

Hey..

After a long, LONG process of planning, I'm practically done with everything.....except for the railpasses... im gonna need to separate ones, one for me and one for my friend, cuz he goes back to beirut before i do, so he's going to see less of europe..

here's my path:
berlin (2 nights) to asmsterdam (2 nights in amsterdam) (transavia)
amsterdam to stuttgart (2 nights in stuttgart) (train)
stuttgart to paris (3 in paris) (most probabaly germanwings flight, unless i decide on train)
paris to lyon (2 in lyon) (train)
--->my friend needs a railpass for these. the cheaper the better.

now I am going to continue from france to spain to rome:
BSL euroairport to barcelona (3 or 4 nights) (plane obviously)
barcelona to rome (4 nights) (ryanair flight)
rome to sorrento (2 nights) (train)
rome to beirut.

so what railpass should i buy?!?!
money isn't THAT much of an issue for me (it is for my friend), but i'd rather that the price not exceed 500 dollars... and i wanna be comofrtable using it and not find myself having to cancel seeing some historic sites after discovering that i only have 1 travel day left (for eg)..

thanks a lot!
ghady

[herrbert]

www.railsaver.com, will give you the answer. Looking at your route, I would think it will recommend getting no pass, and to buy p2p-tickets, but it could just as well prove me wrong, so check that website, fill in the route ... and wait for the answer.

[ghady]

hmm

so since all of my inter-country travelling will be via plane, will it be better to scratch the railpass thing altogether and just buy train tickets within the country itself (for eg, it doesn't seem likely that rome-->sorrento will need a ticket right?)

but wont I run the risk of not finding any trains?

how much do 2nd class train tickets usually cost for people who are less than 26 yrs old?

[herrbert]

Not finding trains will be not likely, but for some trains it is better to make reservations (on some you will need to make reservations). Make them the day you arrive. Usualy you will be arriving at the station from either another city, of from the airport, so it's best to make your reservation, while you are there anyway.

The prices vary from country to country, so there is not a lot to say about what the tickets will cost in general. If you want to know, than you need to research the websites of the railways for that country. (e.g.: www.bahn.de for Germany.). And it also depends on the type of train you are taking. (Amsterdam-Stuttgart varies from 101 till 124 euros, I guess that will be the most expensive one, as trainrides in both Holland and Germany are quiteexpensive)

But do the check on railsaver first.

What do you mean with Rome -> Sorrento not needing a ticket?

[ghady]

ok, ill check all that..

sorry, my bad, i meant that rome-->sorrento will not need a reservation.

and about those...you can reserve train tickets at the airport? really? i'm a bit rusty here cuz i havent been on a train in over a decade.

so i should forget about the whole railpass thing and just play it by ear when i get to whichever country..as in buy the tickets on the spot, except for the train from amsterdam to stuttgart, which (because it's a crucial point in my trip), i'll have to reserve once i get to amsterdam... right? if i've got it all wrong, feel free to scold