Once your Pass is on the way, the only thing left to do is book any seat reservations. While most trains in Europe are free to ride with your Eurail Pass in hand, some train companies ask you to pay an additional seat reservation fee. Avoiding reservations is easier in some countries than others, but it is possible to travel without them. We all love getting a good deal, right?
As a Eurail Pass holder you can enjoy extra benefits all across Europe. Children under 12 travel free! Getting ready to go? We can help with accommodation, activity planning, insurance, and so much more. Check out the FAQs in our help section for even more detail on how Eurail Passes work, and plenty more. Use our Customer Service webform to ask your questions. A Eurail trip is the perfect way to explore Europe and its wonderful cities and landscapes.
You become part of an incredible community which always holds together! Andreas, 23, Austria. Your order. Total order amount. Remove Pass es. Your cart is empty. Everything you need to know about Eurail Explore Europe with the one rail pass that lets you see it all.
What exactly is a Eurail Pass? Using your Pass. Places to visit. SEE Europe by train. Going from A to B? What Passes are there? Planning your Eurail trip Traveling by train takes you straight to the heart of big cities and tiny villages just waiting to be explored. Where do I start?
You'll want to purchase your pass online before you depart for Europe, as passes are inconsistently available at train stations in Europe, and can be more expensive. Eurail passes are convenient, too. Once you're in Europe you can hop on a train anytime to anywhere in Europe that is covered by your pass. You can't buy the same Eurail passes in Europe that you can in the U. Simply head to the Eurail website to buy. After you buy your Eurail pass online, it'll be delivered to you by UPS, FedEx, or similar, and you'll be able to track its progress to your house.
Once you've received your pass, take good care of it and treat it like you would your passport. You don't want to forget or lose your pass. Decide how many European countries you're visiting before you buy a pass, and that will help you narrow down which option is right for you. You'll need a seat reservation, which can be made up to 12 weeks in advance. If you're aged between 12 and 25, you're in luck, because that means you qualify for a discount on your Eurail pass!
These are referred to as student discounts, but you don't need to be a student in order to qualify—you just need to be younger than These discounts work out to savings of several hundred dollars, depending on the pass you choose, so it's definitely worth cashing in on your young age. Before you start using your pass, it must be validated. A train station attendant will validate it at first use in Europe.
Validating Eurail passes means marking the date on which train travel begins on your pass. Eurail passes are purchased for specific time periods, like one month. So if you buy a one month pass, it's valid for one month from the date you first use it. If you've never been on a train in Europe before, don't fret—making reservations and buying tickets are generally straightforward and stress-free. If you're traveling outside of the heat of summer, you'll rarely need to buy tickets in advance, and can just turn up at the train station a few hours before the departure time and ask for a seat on the train.
So, to answer your questions. Belgium does count as your first country, Germany as your second, and so on. On your return to Belgium from Spain, it will depend on which train you take and at what time it departs. What is a travel day? A travel day lasts 24 hours from midnight to midnight.
On each travel day you have access to the train networks where your Eurail pass is valid. This way you get 5 hours of travel for free. This is known as the 7 p. So, check your train options and see how they fit into this rule. If you have any doubts, let me know which are your options to see where could they fit.
Great explanation of the Eurail system! I know this information will be helpful. My husband and I are traveling to Europe this summer and we just received our Eurail passes today. I have one concern. When ordering, Eurail said to specifically put our names as they are on our passports. And I did. I would very much appreciate any help on this. Thanks for all the information, it has been a great help. I dont know if this question has been asked or not yet; however, i was wondering if i use my pass to get free travel on lets say the german S-Bahn spelling?
Sorry for the late reply. In that case, I would recommend buying an S-Bahn ticket. Brilliant and a very useful article. I had a query: Do they match your name on the eurail pass with that on the passport everytime you board a train?
My passport does not have my surname, so I have not applicable written on my eurail pass. Will that be a problem? Hi Karan — Thanks! Well, I think you should match your name to how it appears on your passport.
They usually check it after you board and the train has left, so it is unlikely they will not allow you in. Thanks for providing such useful information. We are planning a trip in October end. We are 4 youths under 26 and 1 adult. We wish to buy the global pass 15 days. But which ones should we buy? Please suggest. First class is simply a bit more comfortable. If you have a first class ticket, you have the option of traveling first or second class too. You can all buy second class and the adult can buy first class.
When making reservations, the adult can choose to reserve in second class instead of first. First class tickets give you that option. When no reservation is needed, you can all sit together too with no problem, as long as it is second class. Please kindly mail me a map showing all the train routes withing Europe. Please mail info on cost too and the physical map to my address below:.
Make train reservations well in advance to allow enough time for shipping. Do you think that going to the station a few hours earlier like you did is enough? I have one more question: Whats the difference between buying the Eurail pass on the Eurail webpage rather than the Rail Europe webpage? Are there any advantages on any of them? Thank you so much for this article ad the very useful tips. It is what I needed to decide to make the Euro-Trip. Hi, we are traveling as a family, 5 of us, to 6 countires, so I know we need a global pass.
We will be here for 1 month, staying in a few cities days and visiting others for just 1 day. Questions: 1- should we buy a continuous tic or day tics? I believe you should buy the pass that allows you to travel non-continuous days, as in 10 or 15 days within two months or whatever the pass allows.
The class depends on your travel style and your family members. Norbert, thank you for the info! Another question, when in say Barcelona, does our Eurorail pass allow us to travel throughout the city on city transportation or not?
Most of the time, no, unless they are regional trains. The best way you can know is by looking at the train schedule included in the booklet you receive when you purchase your passes.
My suggestion would be to contact someone over at Eurail and ask them specifically about city transportation in X city, and if it is included in the pass. Great tips!! My husband and I will be going to Europe in the summer for 4 weeks.
Our first time. Which route or how my countries do you recommend for us to see the major tourist spots in that amount of time using eurail?
We were thinking about starting in Dublin — London -paris- parts of Spain and Portugal — south of france- Italy — Greece and Amsterdam. Would that be enough time? Thanks for all the pointers. This was a useful post and I think it is rather easy to see from the other comments as well that this post is well written and useful.
I bookmarked this blog a while ago because of the useful content and I am never being disappointed. Keep up the good work. Hi, I am an exchange student living in the Netherlands, and I believe I should be eligible for the cheaper Interrail pass since I have a Dutch Residence Permit valid for the rest of the year.
The thing is, two of my friends are coming to Europe to backpack with me for a month using Eurail passes. My question is, do Eurail and Interrail offer the exact same trains, in other words will our passes be compatible? Thank you for your time! We will be traveling to Germany ideally on a overnight train during Oktoberfest.
How can I reserve it now? I have a question on the duration of the pass. For example, if I buy the one month option and activate it on July 18th, does it last until the end of July or will it go to August 18th?
Thanks for the help! This article was very informative. Hi Kenny — The pass will last until a month or 30 days, I believe have passed after activation.
In your sample, it would last until August 16th, since July has 31 days and the day of activation counts too 30 days total. We were cheated of 50 EURO by an officious railway officer who noted we HAD filled in our travel diary exactly as detailed on item 2 found on the cover of your tickets but failed to be advised clearly or noticed small panels on the ticket itself…leading to a fine…. On enquiry with other travellers we noted many had had the same experiences in using their tickets….
Rob Sintes NZ Tourist. Thanks for sharing your experience so people can use this to avoid getting a fine. With the greatest possible respect Nobert.. My comments are as previously..
Never use this service. Purchase your tickets directly from the railway companies.. You will save money and not get tied up with the conflict between Eurails seemingly endless rules and railway staff.. Second, the pass is not for everyone. It will be cheaper for some people while it will be more expensive for others.
As I said, I did have my oops and in cases I had to pay even with a ticket in hand , but those oops were my fault and I acknowledge it. So should you. My advice remains Nobert….. Never use a Eurail pass…. Purchase tickets as I have noted before… just like the Italians do…at the railway station.. My advice still remains too. Each person should do their research to see if a pass is more convenient for them, or buying the tickets point by point whether at the station or online ends up being cheaper.
To each, their own. Thank You for the tips! Lets see if you can clear my mind abouth my situation. The interrail pass is only delivered in european countries, so I would have to use the eurail pass.
Do you have an opinion abouth it? Do i risk and buy the pass? Or should I buy the regular tickets? Tiago, Yes, the Eurail pass is what would work for you. You can buy it ahead of time and have it delivered or buy it there in Europe, but it would be more expensive there. If you will take a lot of trains, then a pass might make more sense.
Never use this service is my advice…just purchase your tickets like all the Italians do.. Eurail is a reseller…I would never trust them again.
Rob Sintes. Thank you, Rob! Just wondering if someone could tell me what the free gift is that you get when you send in your travel diary! Hi, nor bhai i m planning to explore the all schengen state, i have only 12 days to explore. Which eutrain pass buy, and where to start my journey, please advise me. Best Regards. Could you talk a little bit about inter country travel using Eurail. I understand that each country has different rail companies. As long as you have a pass that allows you to travel to more than one country and use the schedule book given with the pass to coordinate you trip, you should be good.
Just follow the schedule as given and verify any transfer and its respective platform on the timetable at the station once you get there. So, just to be clear. I have a 15 consecutive day Global pass. That is correct unless the train requires a reservation.
Just make sure to validate your pass as explained in the post before you start traveling and to timestamp it every day you travel at the station before you hop on the train. Avoid fines! I had the same question as I plan in getting a 15 day continuous pass.
My hope is that I can hop back on a train without standing in lines or making reservations. Is it that easy? Besides the initial validation, you mentioned a timestamp at the depot before getting on a train. Also, I will be starting August 18th, is this a busy enough time of year that I should be making reservations anyway?
Thanks for all the info! You need to validate your pass before you use it for the first time and then need to time-stamp each day you use it right at the train station. For example, if you plan of taking three trains today, you only need to find the time stamp machine usually right at the platform in most stations when hopping on the first train.
Having said that, this is only valid for trains that do not require a reservation. Usually these are the regional trains.
If the train requires a reservation, you need to make such reservation before getting on the train. For example, in Italy, they have the regional TrenItalia trains that do not require reservation and the Freccia trains that are faster and more expensive, thus they require a reservation.
Check the schedule book you got with your pass to know if your trains of interest need a reservation or not. I have tried to read through all the comments and have not found my answer! If I use the Eurail-am I allowed to visit country for a few days and then jump back on a train to visit another county? Hope I am making sense. FYI-would really appreciate an email address to help me out with this!
There are two types of Eurail passes, one that gives you an X amount of consecutive travel days, and one with an X amount of travel days not necessarily consecutive within a period of time. In your case, you might want to have the latter.
Today counts as a day of travel. Then you spend three days in your destination. Those days will NOT count as days of travel. Then you hop on a train to go to your second destination. That day counts as your second day of travel. You can stay for as short or as long as you wish in each country as long as it is within the timeframe stipulated in your Eurail pass. Only one right? Or do I need to hop the train everyday? Do you think this would be fine?
Thank you! Thank you? The days only count when you hop on a train. For example, today day 1 you go from Spain to France. Then, you stay in France for a week. Next week, you take a train from France to Belgium, and that will be day 2 on your pass. Based on the countries you mentioned, you need a 5 countries or global pass.
You will be going from France country 1 , passing through Belgium country 2 , and then reach The Netherlands country 3. This you will do with every train you hop on the same day or any given day. Once the train conductor gets your ticket, they will validate the entry with their timestamp.
Thank you for the information. We are planning a trip to Europe and will be using a Eurail Global pass. We intend to spend around two weeks.
My question is how hard is it to get off a train for a few hours then get back on to continue to another destination? For example if we are Traveling from France to Barcelona, and we want to get off at some point along the way to walk and eat then get a later train from that point onto Barcelona all in the same day to keep it to one travel day how difficult is that? It looks like we have to get reservations for the train from Paris.
Would we again need to do the same from our midway stopping point? How hard is it to get a reservation on the same day of travel? We are spontaneous travelers and sometimes chose to do things spur of the moment. If you bought and received the Global Pass already, you may have received the booklet with all the train schedules.
Just plan accordingly so you can get off, have enough time to sightsee around, and then catch the other train. I did this a few times. Regarding reservations, if you need a reservation for the train, and hop off, you will need to make an additional reservation for the next train you catch if it is required. So, have that in mind, including the reservation cost. This happened to me when I was going from the border between Spain and France towards Paris.
I could have waited for the reservation for the next day, but I decided to pay the full fare just to keep on going with my schedule. Having said that, I believe that was the only time I paid for the train ride for lack of reservation availability. I did most of my reservations the day before or the same day just before hopping on the train, and most were available last minute, including sleeper trains. First, how difficult is it to change trains, especially if they have minute transfer window?
Second, if reservation is optional, do you still recommend making reservations? And do you know if the reservations provide specific seating or just guarantees seating? Any information will be helpful. Regarding the transfers, it will vary greatly depending on the station and its size.
I had transfers that were literally just exiting one train and the other was just a few steps at the other edge of the platform while I had others where I had to change platforms or even buildings since I transferred between two different systems. Once I sat on an optional reservation train ride and throughout the ride I had to change seats a few times because I had no reservation, but the seat I was occupying was reserved by someone else at different points.
Thanks for all the great information. It was a lot easier to understand than the other rial websites. The customer service for Euro Rail said we have to send them a list of cities and dates we will be traveling to so they can reserve certain trains. You said it was possible to just reserve them the day of most of the time? Regarding your trip, I think it is very ambitious for just two weeks. Some of the most beautiful parts of the country are on the island, and those take time to reach by ferry.
You could visit other mainland areas like Meteora, but that still takes time. You can reserve the same day for most trains or the day before. Is it a peak season for train travel or not so much? You can travel standing only on regional trains that do not require a seat reservation. One would hope for it to be possible, but it might vary depending on the country. I loved the Norwegian train sceneries heading north from Oslo to Trondheim. I think they are my favorite so far. Yes on some trains.
Dear Norbert, Thanks for all this great info!! Especially, about getting your passes stamped at the station. Why do they have so many rules?!! I traveled on Eurail years and years ago and it was so much less complicated!! I was planning to buy a pass today, but had questions I have found their website not to be the most user friendly!! They never responded! Maybe you could help. I will be traveling at the end of May with my daughter, who is We decided to go with the global pass, which will allow us more flexibility than the Select pass, however, it appears that she is able to get a second class pass, but I was not given that option.
Thanks, Priscilla. Hi, Priscilla — Sorry for the delayed response. I might be wrong, though, and it could be open for either class. Now to my question. My wife and I bought a 3 country, 6 day pass and later comes to find out what that 6 days really mean.
So we should have gotten 3 or 4 days. After much looking and planning we have to change our original plan completely around. Can the pass be changed? With or without penalty? Sorry for the delay.
I would recommend contacting Eurail directly either by email or social media Facebook or Twitter since they will be able to give you an accurate answer based on their current terms of service. Hi there, Thanks so much for your info. I just have 1 question. Does the global Flexi pass cover the ferry from Italy to Barcelona? Did you do all your travel in one trip? I think it might be, or at least discounted. I would recommend contacting Eurail or the ferry company to ask them directly to be sure.
I did my European trip in a span of three months, stopping on almost every country along the way. Thanks for all this great info, Norbert! Greetings from Miami, Florida! Hello there, I want to take an overnight train from Venice to Wien Austria.
If I book it directly to Wien the last train leaving is at pm arriving in Wien at pm thus not making it an overnight. What rules do they have about booking for one city and getting off early in another? And will I get in trouble stamp wise? Just bear in mind of the 7pm rule as explained above. If the rules are the still same, if you hop on an overnight train that departs after 7pm and arrives after 4am, only one day counts, and the day that counts is the arrival one.
You bought the pass to have the freedom of train travel, so you can get on and off as you wish without having to pay more money. Just know that the pass works based on how many travel days you used, not how many trains you took or to where in the country did you go.
Hello Norbert, Thank you very much for such a great detailed article. I do have one question, however. If it was answered in comments or in the article, I do apologize. We are traveling to Paris in about one month. Our plan is to cover countries in about 11 days of stay. We are thinking of visiting Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Bern.
I were to get pass for 5 days in 2 months. Question: Does the flexible pass allow a person to travel in local trains for free? Stay in Bern, and travel to Interlaken? What would be your suggestion in such circumstances?
Thank you in advance for your time. Thank you for advice and outline of Eurail. My wife and I have purchased a 3 country flex-pass and are planning our routes. I have a simple question: Can you reserve night trains online months beforehand and apply the Eurail pass? Is this something I have to do over the phone or once we are in the country?
Thanks for any advice. DO not buy the full price reservation as you will probably not get refunded the difference once you show the pass in person. Many thanks to your very detailed and easy-to-understand article.
I was about to buy the 1 month continuous Global pass and you did save me a really magnificent sum of money as I found out I only need a Flexi Select pass. Well, cannot help sending you big Thanks and Love from Hanoi, Vietnam.
I myself feel really touched on that. Be yourself at all times that way, good-natured Norbert. If you have any question, feel free to let me know! This post was extremely helpful. I am planning a trip through Europe for about six months.
Is it safe to assume I should go ahead with the Global Pass? If so, how often will I have additional out of pocket expenses for travel even with the Global Pass? If your trip will go over 5 countries, I would recommend getting the global pass.
As for out of pocket expenses, it depends on what type of trains you get.
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