Choosing Transport

[boylorne]

I need a recommend. Me and my friend (males, 26) are just about ready to go to Europe, but we haven't decided on our country-to-country transportation yet. Here's the itinerary:

July 18, 19, 20, 21 - London
July 22, 23, 24 - Paris
July 25, 26, 27 - Brussels/Bruges
July 28, 29, 30 - Amsterdam
July 31, Aug 1, 2 - Berlin
Aug 3, 4 - Denmark
Aug 5 - Fly back to London, then home.

We were thinking the Eurail Select saver pass (4 countries, 6 travel days) but at $492 each, some people have told me we'd be better off just buying train tickets as we go from point to point. What's the reality?

Any help?

[Eagle]

boylorne, Welcome to the Boards! Here are a few thoughts regarding your transportation questions:

> London to Paris - the only two reasonable choices are EuroStar (train) from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord OR budget air (EasyJet, RyanAir, etc.) from one of the London airports to Paris. I haven't checked on prices or availability of flights, but hopefully someone else will be able to comment on that.

> Paris to Brussels / Bruges - definitely train! This is a fairly short trip, so Point-Point tickets would be good option, rather than using a day on a rail pass.

> Brussels to Amsterdam - again, train is the best option. You might want to visit Bruges first, as I believe you'll have to travel from Brussels to get to Amsterdam (ie: no direct train available from Bruges?).

> Amsterdam to Berlin - this part of the journey is a bit more difficult to decide. Travel by train is going to be somewhat longer, but IMO this journey also is better by train. I don't feel there would be much (any?) time savings vs. using budget air. For example, using an IC train, one possibility would be to depart Amsterdam Central at 10:57, arriving Berlin Hbf at 17:08 (one change in Hanover, total trip time 6H 11M. Note that reservations would be required for that train.

> Berlin to Denmark - you didn't indicate where you were going in Denmark, so it's difficult to provide much information. Using Copenhagen for example, I believe the journey by train would be 6 - 7 hours?

Using open jaw tickets would have been a better option (ie: fly home from Denmark), however I'm assuming you've already bought your airline tickets?

If you want to determine which Rail Pass (if any) is most appropriate for your trip, enter each of your destination cities into www.railsaver.com and the web site will "suggest" the most appropriate combination of Railpass and point-point tickets. I've found that the site isn't infallible, but it does provide a fairly close indication.

Given the fact that some of your rail trips are going to be longer (ie: more expensive), the Rail Pass might be a good idea. One important thing to note though, on those train journeys where reservations are compulsory, you'll have to pay separately for those (these are not included in the cost of the rail pass). That means the total cost of your train journeys will be higher than $492.

If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend that you read the "Rail Skills" chapter in the Guide book Europe Through The Back Door, as it provides a lot of good information on how to travel easily by train.

When are you planning to take this trip, and what type of budget are you working with?

Good luck with your planning!