Do NOT get a Eurail pass!

This is a slightly outdated post about our regret of buying Eurail passes but I still think it’s relevant for those of you thinking of going to Europe. I wish we knew about this earlier.

(1) Eurail is not convenient!

In a lot of countries, you have to reserve your Eurail pass in advance!

When we got our Eurail pass, we had the idea that you can just jump into any train. WRONG! You need to reserve your seat in most regional, national and multi region train.  What does reservation means? Extra MONEY!

Second thing is, you have to reserve it in a Eurail office or in the train terminal of the country you want to reserve!

And if you think, you can do it online, you are wrong! Eurail pass must be booked in person on the train station! This is also true for any schedule changes!

So when Aldi and I arrived in Rome, Italy, we could only reserve all our seats within the Italy’s Trenitalia network only! This means we had no way to book our legs from Switzerland onwards. We had to wait until we got to Switzerland, only to find that it’s already full!

(2) Eurail has many hidden costs!

There used to be a time when Eurail is cheap. Not anymore.

Every train ride that we took in Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain, except a local (read: SLOW) train from Avignon – Montpellier, had reservation requirements which means extra money! Anywhere from EUR 3 – 20. This is on top of our already very expensive Eurail pass

In addition, if you are planning to go during summer or high season, beware! Many train companies have a quota on the number of Eurail pass holder allowed on their train. So when the Eurail seat is no longer available, they will ask if you want to purchase normal seat. What does that mean? more MONEY!!!

(3) Local trains are not worth the Eurail pass

But what about local trains? Isn’t it true that we can use our Eurail pass unlimited there?!

Yes, true, BUT, why would you want to use your Eurail pass to pay for something that is worth EUR 15 anyways?

We did the math. We got ourselves a EUR489/4countries/10days ticket. Rough calculations mean we need to clock at least EUR50 per day to break even. That meant we had to take like, 6 local trains per day? Not possible.

(4) There are other cheaper alternatives

Eurail came at a time where air travel is expensive. Well guess what? It’s not anymore! Check out budget airlines in Europe, they are very cheap! And can save you lots of time!

Another good alternative is the busses. Apparently (according to my host in Barcelona who is an avid traveller himself), everyone uses the bus nowadays!

Also if you buy a train ticket a couple of months in advance, you can get a really good deal! Do that! At least if you change your mind, you can do so online instead of going to the train station.

Conclusion

We did not break even on our Eurail pass. =(

So please, don’t get a Eurail pass. Book your train directly (way in advance) through the internet. Secondly, compare those prices with bus and budget airfares.

Have a good trip!

*I know I should include reference of Bus and Budget Airlines, but I am lazy…. haha…. please do it yourself.