Navigating Europe by Train: Your Eurail Pass Guide
When it comes to long-distance travel in Europe, trains are my absolute favorite. They're comfortable, offer spacious seating, eliminate the hassle of checked baggage, and provide stunning scenery along the way. Plus, train stations are often centrally located, unlike airports or bus terminals.
Because I travel by train quite often, I frequently use a Eurail Pass. On a recent trip, I used my Eurail Pass in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. As you might know, these are countries where using a pass is not only flexible but often more cost-effective than buying individual tickets.
Optimizing Your Eurail Pass Usage
For these particular countries, you generally don't need to do extensive calculations. Simply estimate the number of travel days you need and purchase a pass accordingly. I had 10 days of train travel, so I bought a 10-day pass for 400 euros, averaging 40 euros per day. Since I knew my daily train journeys would cost more than 40 euros individually, I didn't bother checking the price of each segment. However, if you have fewer travel days, say four days, making the per-day cost of the pass higher, it's worth doing a more detailed cost comparison.
Whether you need to check individual ticket prices or not, always write down your planned journeys. Trust me, don't try to keep it all in your head – it's easy to get mixed up!
If your itinerary includes multiple countries where the pass isn't consistently advantageous, consider creating a table to compare costs.
Categorizing Your Train Journeys
After listing all the train segments for each travel day and checking their prices, I categorize them into three groups:
- Group 1: Definitely use a pass day (because individual tickets are very expensive, like Day 1 in the example below).
- Group 2: Definitely don't use a pass day (because individual tickets are very cheap).
- Group 3: Possibly use a pass day if it's convenient or if you have extra travel days.
Keep in mind that how you categorize each travel day depends on your personal preferences and circumstances. For instance, can you book tickets in advance, or are you waiting for a visa? Do you prioritize the cheapest option or are you willing to pay a bit more for flexibility?
Reservations: To Book or Not to Book?
Trains Requiring Reservations
Even with mandatory reservations, a Eurail Pass offers flexibility, especially on routes where trains don't usually sell out (like in Sweden).
The trains most prone to selling out are Eurostar, Thalys, and French TGV trains. For these, buying individual tickets in advance is often cheaper.
In the example below, if you're only traveling from Paris to Basel on Day 1, buying an individual ticket might be better. However, if you're continuing to Interlaken on the same day, using a pass is definitely more worthwhile, despite needing a reservation for the first leg. A Eurail Pass offers the advantage of being able to catch a later train from Basel if you miss your connection. Trains from Basel to other parts of Switzerland are frequent.
Non-Mandatory Reservations
For trains in Germany and Austria, where reservation fees are quite low and easily booked online (not through Eurail), I always reserve seats on high-speed trains like IC, ICE, and EC. For just a few extra euros, you secure a seat for the entire journey, avoiding the awkward tap on the shoulder: "Excuse me, this is my seat." German ICE trains can get quite crowded. When checking train schedules on the German railway website, you can often see how busy a particular train is expected to be.
On my recent trip, I was traveling from Austria to Switzerland. I initially planned to take the 13:47 train but changed my mind and took the 15:47 instead. Without a pass, booking a ticket close to the departure date would have been expensive. However, because I had a pass, I only paid an additional 3 euros to rebook the reservation for the later train (although the train didn't require reservations, I made one for the reasons mentioned above).
Flexibility Doesn't Mean No Planning
Even if you don't need reservations and can hop on any train along your route, you still need to research how long the journey takes, how many transfers are required, how frequently trains depart, and the time of the last train of the day – unless you're prepared to spend an extra night in the previous city!
- If you only need to search for train schedules (without prices), use the German railway website/app or the Eurail Rail Planner app.
- To search for prices while planning, you can use ticket retailers like The Trainline, Rail Europe, or Omio. Be aware that these websites may not show routes for which they don't sell tickets.
Some (very few) private train companies aren't affiliated with Eurail and don't accept the pass, such as Italo in Italy and Ouigo in France.
Some trains from city centers to airports are covered by the pass (usually because they are regional or suburban trains). Airports where I know the pass can be used include Oslo, Stockholm, Munich, Zurich, London Stansted, and London Gatwick. Note that in Oslo, you can take regular trains but not the airport express train with the pass.
To determine if a train is covered by the pass, go to the Rail Planner app, open the Filters section, and select "Eurail/InterRail Pass network only." Then, when you search, you'll only see trains that accept the pass.
To find out if a train requires reservations, search for the journey in the Rail Planner app. If reservations are needed, it will say "Reservation required."
When searching for train schedules and ticket prices in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland, I always use their respective websites or apps. In other countries, I use DB Navigator or Rail Planner to search for schedules and The Trainline to search for prices. These are just personal preferences.
- German Railways DB: bahn .com/en, DB Navigator app
- Austrian Railways OBB: oebb .at/en/, OBB app
- Swiss Railways SBB: sbb .ch/en/home.html, SBB Mobile app
- Italian Railways TrenItalia: trenitalia .com/en.html, seemingly no national app, but there is Trenord for Lombardy (TrenItalia owns half of Trenord)
Eurail Pass Benefits
While primarily a train pass, the Eurail/InterRail Pass also offers numerous additional benefits. The list of these benefits has expanded so much that they've created a portal to search for benefits by destination. These benefits can change at any time (added or removed), so remember to check before using them. Here are some of the most appealing benefits.
Switzerland
- 50% discount on boat trips on major lakes.
- Free boat trips on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz because the boats are operated by BLS, which is also a railway company. This is the same company that operates part of the Golden Pass Line.
- 50% discount on tickets to Rigi and Pilatus.
- 25% discount on tickets to several other mountains, mainly around Lucerne and Interlaken.
Germany
KD Rhine River cruises: 20% discount.
Austria
10% discount on the Salzburg City Card.
Norway
30% discount on tickets for the famous Flam Railway.
S-Bahn (Suburban Trains) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Some of the airport trains mentioned above are free because they are suburban trains (usually trains from the city center to the suburbs). To be sure, check the Rail Planner app.
You also get discounts on some ferries around Europe. A list of participating ferry companies is available online.
I dedicated several evenings to writing this guide, and I hope it's helpful to someone.
