Eurail Pass?

[Ctwizzy]

Backpacking in September till sometime in October, whenever the money runs dry pretty much.

Debating wether me and my friend should get eurail passes.
We plan on visiting the following countries:
France (mostly just paris), then Netherlnds (Amsterdam), then to Germany (Munich) for Oktoberfest, then to Italy to see Rome, and possibly Florence etc.

Now we arnt limiting ourselves to these big cities, we may want to go off the beaten track for a day here or there, or for even day trips and we dont want our travel costs sky rocketing.

Now as of now were not sure where and when we will be going to certain places which is whats making this difficult.

We are also on tight budgets. Anyone have any recommendations?

[Pete_Coach]

Unless you are planning to do extensive train travel, the EuroRail pass may not be worth it. You will more than likely be taking inter city buses anyway. If you do have longer trips, then take the train an pay the daily rate. Remember that paying for the Eurorail pass is assuming you will use the train for distances almost every day for a period of time. You will not so, you will probably save money by paying as you go.

[Ctwizzy]

Yes I know, but the flexipass with eurail is more what I was looking at.
You can choose 10 or 15 days over a 2 month period its about $700 CAD. They dont have to be consecutive.

Ill be going from Paris -> Belgium -> Amsterdam ->Germany -> Italy
So its pretty linear travel which is why im debating eurail vs just point to point travel.

[heymikey]

Visit RailSaver.com (http://www.railsaver.com/) and it will calculate whether or not a railpass is right for you and if it is cheaper to purchase point-to-point tickets instead.

[ephemera]

It may even be cheaper to fly between cities.

[Ctwizzy]

Yeah its debatable wether I need one or not, im sure busing will be fine from city to city within the same country.

And I may be able bus from france -> belgium.

Eurail isnt that expensive but i want to stay out as long as possible and dropping 700 now takes away a substantial amount of funds.

[JiffyPB]

Another thing to keep in mind, is that a few routes still require you to pay. Specifically, the Paris->Brussels route is something like 45EU per person (Can't remember too well). This is still much reduced over normal prices, but something you have to prepare for.

I had a Eurail pass the last time I was there, because I was doing a lot of long distance train travel. I found it incredibly handy, because you aren't stuck waiting in lineups for tickets, you (usually) show up about 15-30 minutes before departure and hop on with your pass. Some require reservations, and I just made them the night before since it there were very little in the way of lines then.

Convenience wise, railpasses are pretty darn great. I think if I bought point to point tickets, from what I saw when I was there, it would probably be pretty much the same price, +- 5%. The convenience is worth the possible slight cost difference to me.

And busing, while good, is far, FAR slower in many parts. In Canada, buses and trains move at roughly the same speed (sadly). In Europe, many train routes will push 250-300km/hr. The Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam line and Brussels/Frankfurt/Munich line were all high speed when I took them, and there are many others.