If you're wondering whether or not a Eurail pass makes sense for your Europe trip, this
honest review is going to give you five key considerations to make.
Stay until the end and I'll even link you to a free quiz that I designed that'll help
you make your choice.
So without further ado, let's get started.
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What's up, smarties?
In case you're new around here, my name is Christina and I help travelers like you travel
Europe smarter, cheaper and more off the beaten path.
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Today we are tackling a pretty hot topic and that is rail passes.
Specifically we're gonna talk about the Eurail pass, which is a rail pass for non European residents.
Don't worry though, as a side note for my European friends,
you guys also have something called the Interrail pass, which is more or less the exact same thing.
So all of these tips will still apply to you.
I'll make this quick.
A Eurail pass can be a really great way to get around Europe, but whether or not it's
worth it for you completely depends on factors like your budget, your priorities, your travel
style, your age, and of course where you're going.
So to help you out here are five considerations to make before you get that Eurail Pass.
As a little disclaimer, all the information in this video is accurate as of 2019 but Eurail
does have a habit of changing things a lot
so be sure to check out their website for things like prices and validity.
Consideration number one is what is your priority when you travel?
See there's a common misconception out there that using a rail pass is the cheapest way
to travel around Europe.
Unfortunately, that's not quite the case.
I actually have a full video dedicated to the cheapest ways to travel around Europe
and most of the time there are cheaper options than a rail pass.
Specifically when it comes to train travel, most of the time, booking point to point tickets
in advance is really going to be much cheaper.
The downside to these point to point tickets though is that oftentimes you're locked into
a certain date and a certain time, so to score and lock in those rock bottom fares, you just
have to commit to that one specific slot and there's no room for flexibility.
On the other hand, if you use a Eurail pass, it's the complete opposite with a few exceptions
where reservations are mandatory, you can usually just hop onto the train with your
rail pass and take any journey that you want.
So this is really, really great if you have a more spontaneous travel style or if you
just want a little bit more flexibility when it comes to your travel plans.
Plus I do have to say that train travel is just so nice.
It's honestly my favourite way to travel around Europe.
I mean it's a lot more comfortable than buses and airplanes plus, you know with train stations
they're usually in the city center as opposed to on the outskirts of a city like an airport.
So most of the time you are traveling from the city center of one place to the city center
of another,
and that's really, really valuable because it's super convenient for you to get to where
you're staying.
So in my opinion, if your priority is factors like convenience, flexibility and comfort,
then it makes a lot of sense to get a Eurail pass.
For me personally, this past spring, that's when I use my Eurail pass and the main goal
was to actually go see some of my bucket list destinations in Spring, places that you know,
had beautiful spring flowers.
And so because blooming season varies year to year, I couldn't exactly book my tickets
in advance.
So instead what I did was I just waited for conditions to be optimal and then I grabbed
my rail pass and went.
If I purchased tickets on the day of, that would've been way more expensive butbecause
of the pass I was able to just go whenever the flowers commanded and it was perfect.
So consideration number two is which Eurail Pass you're actually buying.
It gets a little bit confusing because honestly when it comes to Eurail passes, that term
gets tossed around a lot like it's one single entity when in reality there's a lot of different
kinds of Eurail passes to consider.
And really the value that you're able to extract from your pass depends a lot on which one
you buy.
So the first consideration or distinction I guess that you need to make is in terms
of the geographical area that your pass covers.
This is actually pretty easy now because Eurail recently rehauled their entire system and
nowadays you can only purchase either a one country pass or a global pass.
So the one country pass, it's pretty straight forward.
You purchase one pass and it's valid for that one country only, whereas with the global
pass you actually gain access to your entire network, which is 31 countries and that's
a pretty big difference.
So in my personal opinion, a one country pass is very rarely worth it just because they're
tremendously expensive and it's hard for you to get your money's worth.
On the other hand, a global pass really can be worth it depending on where you go and
how far apart your different stops are.
For instance, I would say if you are traveling really far distances, then it might make more
sense to actually buy just you know, a flight because time is money and you don't want to
be spending 12 hours on a train, when you could be spending 12 hours eating spaghetti.
Back to the Global Pass though, I do think it can be really, really worth it if you plan
a bunch of different legs that are only within a few hours of each other.
For me personally, I used my global pass a lot going from Germany to Switzerland and
because they're neighbours, you know, none of my train rides were ever more than a few
hours.
And in addition to that, they tend to be quite pricey countries for trains.
So I got my money's worth for sure.
The second distinction that you need to make with your Eurail pass is in terms of the validity
period and the number of travel days that you get...
So really there are two kinds of passes that you can purchase: the continuous ticket, which
is basically you purchase a ticket for a set period of time and then every day of that
period you can ride a train and your pass is valid.
On the other hand, you have the flex pass, which is basically you order a set number
of days in a time period of one to two months.
So you can say, I want 10 travel days in two months.
And then on those specific days that you specify, you can ride as many trains as you want.
I'll be honest, the continuous pass is very rarely worth it unless you're going to be
traveling once every one or two days.
On the other hand, I really do recommend a Flex Pass if you're going to be buying a Eurail
Pass, but of course it all comes down to where you're going to be traveling, so that brings
me to consideration number three, which is which countries you'll be visiting on your
trip.
The honest truth is with Eurail, there are certain countries that are much better for
the pass than others, so for instance, I would absolutely not use the Eurail pass if you
plan to travel extensively around France, Italy, and Portugal.
The reason for that is that these countries require mandatory reservations on all their
high speed trains, which really racks up the costs for your pass.
In addition to that, most of the time point to point tickets in these countries aren't
that expensive, so your savings with the pass wouldn't actually be that significant anyway.
On a side note, Portugal doesn't even take reservations online and you have to make them
in person and so it's just such a hot mess.
Please don't use your Eurail in Portugal because the tickets are otherwise really affordable.
Anyway, in addition to that, there are certain countries where bus travel is a lot more common
than train travel and for that reason I would really avoid getting a rail pass for countries
in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
On the other hand, there are certain countries that I think are amazing for the Eurail pass
and that includes Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, which
was only recently added in early 2019 so that's really great because trains in the UK are
hysterically expensive.
These countries in my experience are the ones that don't have mandatory reservations and
in addition to that have very expensive point to point tickets.
So you're likely to save a lot of money using a rail pass.
For me.
I personally use my Eurail pass a lot in Switzerland where trains are notoriously expensive and
I actually used them on a lot of scenic sightseeing trains which would otherwise be like multiple
times the cost, so I definitely got my money's worth.
It's worth noting as well that during this two month period I actually did go to Portugal
but I didn't use my real pass once and the reason for that as I mentioned before is that
reservations can't be done online in Portugal and so it just wasn't convenient and the ticket
was cheap anyway, so that's cool to keep in mind that you know you don't necessarily need
to use a travel day if you don't want to.
If you can find a cheaper alternative like a flight, a bus or something else, you can
just save that travel date for the future.
When in doubt though, be sure to search out point-to-point ticket prices for the countries
that you're visiting and also add up potential costs like reservation fees in order to figure
out whether or not a Eurail pass actually makes sense for your trip.
Consideration number four is how old are you?
I know that that's a bit of a personal question, but it's an important one to keep in mind
because Eurail actually has very, very good discounts for youth who are 27 years old or
younger.
How good are these discounts?
Well, actually a youth pass tends to be about 20% lower than the adult pass, which is for
adults age 28 to 60.
On that note, they actually have discounts for seniors who are aged 60 plus as well.
Unfortunately, it's not as good as the youth pass.
It is about 10% I believe, but still it's a pretty good deal.
And so if you want to consider getting a Eurail pass, know that the deal is a lot sweeter
if you're 27 years old and under or 60 plus.
And next step is consideration number five, which is are you going to be using the perks
of your Eurail pass?
See the thing is a lot of people assume that the Eurail pass is only a rail pass, but in
addition to giving you access to trains, it also functions as a discount card.
So with your Eurail pass, you get lots of different discounts at places like hostels,
attractions, city passes, and different modes of transportation, even like ferries and buses.
So what I would do if I were you is I would actually look at the different countries that
you're going to be exploring and check the Eurail website to see what those additional
perks are.
Depending on your travel style, if you decide to use a lot of these perks, that would make
the pass super, super worth it.
For me personally, I didn't actually use the person very much apart from one time on a
special train in Switzerland where it saved me 25% off - it saved me about 10 euros.
So it can be a really good deal.
It can offer a lot of great perks, but you have to really research and look at what perks
they offer for your destination countries before you commit.
So tell me, have you ever used a Eurail pass or is that something that you'd like to do
after watching this video?
Be sure to let me know in the comments below and if you're still undecided and looking
for that quiz, you can find that link down below.
Thanks for watching, smarties.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to leave me a nice little thumbs up, a comment with
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