Eurail Global Continuous Pass

1. "Fantastic"

Joanne
(Brigadoon, WA)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

2. "The best travel is on secondary trains"

Stephen
(Roseville, NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

My rail travels involved a mix of the newest and fastest and old and slower. The first shock was to be charged Euro 140 on top of my Eurail pass to travel Paris to Hendaye. On time running running on TGV trains was poor, in 3 trips, one 18 minutes, one 90 minutes late. Seat and window arrangements on many modern mainline trains are poor. And the trains were generally dirty. Local trains were quite different, generally really big picture windows, and more relaxed. While the local trains didn't have a buffet or restaurant, some on train meals were pretty poor and there was generally time to get a nice meal at station waiting for a connection. A high point was overnight sleeping car trains in Spain, very comfortable, and for those wishing to travel by train to Portugal, really the only sensible way to go.

3. "Very useful and a great money saver!"

Scott
(Hallett Cove, SA)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

4. "cheapest travel possible for us, definitely worth it. "

Liam
(auckland)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 4/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

Definitly worth it for us our trips worked out at about 30euro each but you should definitely think about how many trips your going to do and have a quick look at costs before buying it. we were travelling every 3 or so days so i dont think we could of got a cheaper means of transport. mostly it was very easy to use except for when we left spain for france when they wouldnt sell us reservations for other countries which meant we had 10 minutes to leave a train, go to the ticket office, buy a ticket, find our platform etc... all adds to the experience though and gave us another story to tell.

Moderator: "Most trains are on sale 90 days before departure and we advise passengers to prebook as soon as the reservations open before leaving Australia if they can."

5. "Easy and Convenient"

Megan
(Sydney, NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

Eurail Global Pass was very easy to use, the only difficulty we had was with reserving seats. Once you get the hang of the system though its a much better option than buying point to point tickets. Would recommend to others.

Moderator: "Rail Plus can prebook seats for you before you leave Australia. This saves you having to queue and do it locally where some staff don't speak english."

6. "Eurail pass is easy to use to get around Europe."

Sarah
(Warrimoo, NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

We are doing a rail trip around Europe and it has been a breeze to use. It doesn't matter if you can't speak their language, if the train company that you are travelling on is part of the pass then you just show it to them and they know what to do. We did come across a situation where we were travelling between Prague and Budapest and the train that we were on went through Slovakia (which is not part of the Eurail system) and we had to buy a ticket on board the train, it would have been cheaper to buy at the train station the extra ticket. We had not issues getting a sleeper train either, it cost a little bit extra but it was worth it.

7. "Very easy to use"

Kristen
(Millswood, SA)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

8. "Loved train travel in Europe's winter wonderland"

Anne
(NZ)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

The flexibility of the continuous global rail pass worked out fantastic for me and great value for money, but in the end a 10 day in 2 month would have probably been the better option for me (my mistake) and I probably wouldn't bother with one for Italy travel again.

9. "That Train Trip - Eurail"

Sue
(NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

We decided to go to Europe for our Honeymoon as cheaply as possible. It sounded great in theory, and it would have all been perfect, except for That Train Trip. We purchased two 30 day Eurail train tickets with the idea that some nights we would save on a nights accommodation at overpriced hotels and awaken well-rested at the destination of our choice. It was working to plan, except for that one time The Trieste to Rome Express. This was one time where second class was just not worth it. Only had we known then, what we know now. We booked our second-class journey using our Eurail tickets from Trieste to Paris for the 13-hour overnight trip. Our arrival at Trieste Station was full of anticipation and excitement, since this train journeys destination was a, child-hood dream to travel and visit Paris on my honeymoon. Once we located our train, we climbed on board carrying our backpacks, whilst negotiating the narrow corridor in search for our sixperson compartment. It was an older train, where its origin was from Belgrade. The train whistle blew and our journey commenced. Although riding the rails is meant to be a quintessential part of the European experience, this train trip was in Europe and it was an experience. It started with having the compartment to ourselves, until I decided to go looking for a drink of water at the 3rd stop. The train was stopped and searched the platform, then I suddenly see our train moving. My thoughts were, do I run and get back on or continue to find a drink? You see the conductor said we had a 15 minute stop and I just got off. Fortunately the same conductor was on the platform and said don't worry, train is only adding carriages and I had time. Phew, I just got married and I thought I was going to lose my wife on our first trip. As I got back to the cabin to tell Sue my experience, I found her there with a shock look on her face a four of the darkest African looking men I have ever seen, each showing their bright whites. They seemed nice enough, but Sue wouldnÂ?t go to sleep unless I kept watch. So, I kept watch, or so I thought I did. Next thing I remember is waking up on SueÂ?s lap and looking up at Sue, who by now had red blood shoot eyes and not a happy Jane. Fortunately, the four nice gentlemen got off just as we approached the Swiss border. We were ready to finally go to sleep and moving along nicely, when we got interrupted by three German speaking people. "Hello" said a heavy-set gentleman, followed by a tall thin gentleman and a female companion who looked she just came from a strip show. They drank, eat and sang endlessly. They were friendly and generously offered us some of what they were eating, but we politely refused, as the heavy gentleman was still chewing half of it while groping Miss Frankenstein and grabbing his thin friend by the b%$lls. We both couldnÂ?t watch and I was starting to squirm, feeling the pain of the thin gentleman. Hours and hours had gone bye, when finally the three people in a cabin got up and said those magic words in German; "Auf Wiedersehen", Good-bye. We politely responded with a good-bye and thinking simultaneously "Thank God". The remainder of the train trip, what was left of it was bearable, except for the toilet malfunction and that we didn't get any sleep. In case you're wondering, we are still train advocates, but we travel 1st class now and constantly laugh and reminisce about our experience on "That Train Trip".

10. "Getting the most out of Eurail - 3 month Consecutive Eurail Saverpass"

Leigh-Ann
(Baulkham Hills, NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

In 2006, my husband and I backpacked around the world for a year, spending 8 months of that year in Europe. We used two 3 month and one 1 month all country consecutive Eurail passes to get around and it was by far the best way to do it. We were able to get on and off trains to wherever we wanted every day, and we did. We fit in more cities, towns and villages in that time than we ever imagined we could. As an example, on one day we left Tours in the Loire Valley in France at 9.40am on a Wednesday. We caught 3 trains (via Le Mans and Rennes) to get to Pontorson (9km from the famous Mont St Michel Monastery). We left our large backpacks with the station attendant in the tiny town since we only had 2.5 hours before our next lot of trains. We got a very infrequent bus in the pouring rain to the Monastery, had 1 hour there, and then had to join the traffic on the single laned road out of there on the bus, which took almost and hour and just made it back to Pontorson in the knick of time to catch 2 more trains (via Rennes) to Paris. We then got the Metro across town, to connect to another 2 trains (with a 2.5 hour wait out in the freezing cold, on the platform in Nancy between 3.15am and 5.50am) to finally arrive in Luxembourg on the Thursday morning at 7.30am. With very little sleep after 8 trains (none longer than 4 hours in duration to get a decent sleep) and nearly 24 hours on the go, we then spent the whole day walking around Luxembourg city when we arrived. Needless to say we slept like logs that night.

11. "Eurail trip - 1979 - Eurail Consecutive Pass"

Norma
(Wagga Wagga, NSW)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

I tell this story to my clients all the time as even after 30 years it is still vivid in my mind. In 1979 I travelled with two friends on a 3 month Eurail consecutive pass and at the time we were travelling from Fluelen to Innsbruck via Zurich. We picked up a train timetable from the rail station in Fluelen and found that the train only stopped for one minute. All the carriages on the train go to different places, eg Basil, Frankfurt, Berlin etc, and one has to make sure that you get on the right carriage or you end up in the wrong city. The train was very long and the carriage that we had to get on was towards the back of the train. I had a very heavy backpack and panicked as I knew I wouldn't be able to reach the correct carriage within the minute. Brainwave !!!! I would get onto the nearest carriage and walk along the train until I got to the correct one. My friends kept running and managed to get onto the correct carriage. The train began to move and I started to walk towards the back of the train. All was well until I came to a locked door between the carriages. Oh, no!!! What to do, I could see myself in Berlin or somewhere else and no friends in sight. I waited until the conductor came along and tried to tell him my problem, but as you guessed he didn't understand English and ignored me. I then realised that I had the timetable and that further up the line the train stopped for 5 minutes. This was where the carriages were stunted off and joined up with other trains to go to their destinations. The plan was to jump off the train when it stopped and run towards the back and get on the correct carriage. Meanwhile my two friends had walked back up the train and came to the locked door as well. The plan worked, as I was running down the platform my friends were waving and looking out for me. Joy, oh, joy, we were finally back together again. The moral of the story: Always get on the right carriage or you never know where you will end up.

12. "Amazing Race - Eurail"

Suzanne
(QLD)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

We virtually hit the ground running with our 1st Class 21 Day Eurail pass in hand. Arrived at London Heathrow and spent 2 nights in the Windsor area visiting Windsor Castle, Henley Upon Thames then picked up a car and drove to Dover to see the White Cliffs. After a very tasty lunch, with views of the castle, we boarded our ferry, and headed to Calais. First encounter with railway ticket office....not a friendly one. Last seats already sold for the train to Paris and next available was 5am next morning. Not a good start, and our clerk was holding arms in a cross shouting COMPLETE at us like on TV - DEAL OR NO DEAL!!. After chatting with a friendly bus driver, she advised there are TWO railway stations in Calais, and she was heading to the OTHER one - the TGV station, arriving just in time for the next train to Paris. PHEW! Paris for 3 nights was incredible, with our last evening it was dinner on the Eiffel Tower. We took the beautiful Thalys train to Cologne, then we headed to Heidelberg where we visited the old castle and rode on the funicular railway, then on to Lucerne, which provided a free cruise on the lake Como (I am sure i got a glimpse of George Clooney.... but it may have been my imagination) then Venice, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, Rome, Milan, Nice and Monaco. Wow... amazing memories and over 3000 photos. Gotta love the digital camera, and there is no way to see all that we saw in 3 weeks without a Eurail pass!!!

13. "Oops! - point to point"

SANYA
(VIC)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

It was 1996, and I was a young, naive girl!! On her very first journey through Europe. After reading through lots of brochures I had decided that myself and one of my cousin would make our first train journey to Athens then ferry over to the beautiful Greek Islands, I felt like the islands were calling us for a bit of fun in the sun! Well, we bought our ticket the day before............easy.........an overnight journey in a sleeping carriage............very nice! Very exciting! I LOVE TRAINS!! Now this is where it gets interesting........... The train departed at 8pm........we needed to be there 1/2 hour before, find our carriage and settle in and enjoy our journey! Simple we thought! So we did that exactly or so we assumed! We turned up to the train station, walked to the train, got in, found out sleepers, BUT it was locked so we decided to wait outside of door for the conductor to come around and open it.................we waited and waited and waited, time went on, it's was now half an hour past departure time..............we couldn't understand what was going on! So we got off the train, found a conductor walking past and asked how come the train was running so late and how come we couldn't get into our sleeper cabin. He kindly asked us for our ticket...............which we handed over..............to our surprise.....he scratched his head and laughed!!! Nothing seemed that funny to us............he pointed to the next track and said "your train left on time without you in it!" HUH??? What?? NNOOOOO!!! Apparently, there were two trains heading off to Athens that evening, one leaving at 8pm, the other at 10pm! We JUST got on the wrong train! Our train was gone.................with two beds empty! Some lucky person was having a fabulous night's journey! We on the other hand............well we got on that train leaving at 10pm, in a first class seat and slept in the upright position, cuddled together for warmth all the way to Athens! The morale of the story "Don't ever assume thing".

14. "Local train in Yugoslavia - Eurail pass"

Kerry
(Clayfield, QLD)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

My cousin and I were backpacking through Europe in 1981, when we meet some Italian backpackers in Greece who spoke very good English. As they were on their way back to Italy and we were traveling that way too, we decided to take the same train via Yugoslavia. The trains in Yugoslavia, particularly during the summer, are crowded and as usual we missed out on getting a seat, so we spent pretty much the whole journey sitting in the gangway outside the toilets. To pass the time we taught each other swear words - Italian for us and English ones for them. After traveling for 2 months by train, I had come to despise having to show my passport to train officials, so when a Yugoslav train official wanted to see our passports I immediately blurted out a series of really bad swear words the Italians had taught me. To my surprise the Yugoslav train official's eyes widened as he knew exactly what I had just said to him and the Italian's we were traveling with, sat there speechless and horrified at what I had just said. I didn't know what to do and I really thought I was going to be thrown off the train. I immediately held up my Australian passport and with a cowardly smile said "Ameci" (friend) to the Yugoslav train official. To my amazement he smiled too and from then on whenever he would pass by I would say to him "Ameci" and he would give a laugh and repeat the word "Ameco" back to me.

15. "TGV EXPERIENCE - FIRST CLASS EURAIL PASS"

Elizabeth
(Redbank, QLD)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

YEARS AGO I WAS BOOKED ON A EUROPEAN COACH TOUR WITH MY 75 YEAR OLD MOTHER WHO HAD NEVER TRAVELLED OUT OF AUSTRALIA APART FROM PNG. AT THE LAST MINUTE THE COACH TOUR WAS CANCELLED AND WE DECIDED TO TAKE A EURAIL PASS THROUGHOUT EUROPE. HOPING THIS WOULD NOT BE TOO STRESSFUL FOR MY MUM! MY GREATEST MEMORIES WAS SEEING MOTHER NEGOTIATING A STEIN AT THE BEER GARDEN IN MUNICH (I HAVE THE PHOTO TO PROVE IT), ENJOYING A GLASS OF WINE, FRENCH BREAD AND CHEESE ON THE TGV TO DIJON, DEFENDING MY RESERVED SEAT FROM A MATRIACH IN ITALY AND SPLITTING MY SIDES LAUGHING AT HER APOLOGISING TO HER REFLECTION IN A STREETSIDE MIRROR IN FLORENCE WHEN MUM NEARLY WALKED INTO IT. MUM PROVED THAT AGE IS NO BARRIER TO INDEPENDENT RAIL TRAVEL, WE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. I WOULD LEAVE HER TO GUARD THE LUGGAGE WITH A COFFEE OR WINE (DEPENING ON TIME OF DAY) WHILE I HUNTED FOR A PENSIONE AT THE RAIL STATION INFORMATION BOARD. WE TRAVELLED DURING THE DAY TO WATCH THE PASSING SCENERY AND OTHER TRAVELLERS STAYING IN CITIES OR VILLAGES ON THE WAY. MUM HAS GONE NOW BUT THE GREAT MEMORIES OF THIS PARTICULAR TRIP REMAIN FOREVER WITH ME.

16. "Eurail Global Explorer - Eurail"

Melinda
(Sippy Downs, QLD)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

I had the most wonderful time using my Eurail Global Pass last year. There was so much freedom with this pass it made my Europe trip so memorable. We could hop on and off where we wanted, they'd drop you right off in town so we could walk to our accommodation and we had the freedom to stay as long or as little as we wanted. We hadn't planned on seeing Slovakia but we decided on a whim to do it and it was fantastic! It was so relaxing just sitting there and watching Europe pass by through the big windows. Much better than spending our time in airports and on planes! Well worth it :)

17. "Europe 1993 - Eurail"

Kris
(Caloundra, QLD)

Recommend:
Overall rating:

Value for money: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Suitability: 5/5

In 1993 I spent 3 months travelling through Europe on a Eurail pass. During that time I met many other travellers from all countries in the world. Some of the most memorable moments though were the overnight train journeys and sharing a 6 berth train cabin with 5 complete strangers of various ages, viewing the wonders of the Swiss Alps on the switchback railway and feeling like I was in a Norsca Advert, watching how the scenery changed from one European country to the next. On one particular trip from Naples to Sicily I was lucky to share a cabin with 2 lovely sicilian girls and a handsome older Italian man and the whole journey they tried to match me up with him. In Reggio di Calabria the train carriages were loaded onto the ferry and we continued our journey across the straight to Messina. By the time we reached Messina, he'd asked me to marry him (jokingly of course) Needless to say at 21 I wasn't ready to settle down plus I still had 2 months left to go on my railpass! I bid farewell to my new friends and continued my trip through France, Spain, Portugal! The time I spent travelling on the trains was by far the best trip I've taken. Sometimes it was hard work but the people I met and the places I saw are something I will forget.

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