Euro Train Travel

silkmanuk

I have been searching through Ebay for a Railcard to get me around Germany for 3 weeks but to no avail. I have been googling to find what prices they can offer me and the cheapest for a months pass is around £130 . How do you go about getting deals on european train travel, it would be great if this site had a "Trainchecker" like the "flightchecker" for europe.

richardw

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

Voyager2002

Note that as well as the pass for the whole country, cheap passes are available for particular districts. If you are willing to plan, you can buy some very affordable advance-purchase tickets for longer journeys, and use regional passes to explore each part of the country that you are visiting.

Peter_D_2

The man in Seat Sixty-One (http://www.seat61.com/) is your friend for anything related to European train travel, including rail passes.

Get a coffee and have a long read.

jollyme

It is possible to buy rail passes for travel in europe if you're younger. Look at www.interrailnet.com You buy the pass before you go in this country. A friend travelled in Finland a couple of years ago this way and saved loads!

Zimm190

Is the month pass with interrail? Could be good but depends how far and much you want to travel. I think you have to pay a supplement to use the fast ICE trains, and travelling on the regional and intercity trains from say Berlin to Munich would not be fun (and would probably be false economy).

I live in Germany and the advance fares (Sparpreise) for the ICE are pretty reasonable although you are restricted to a specified train.

An option for travelling round individual states is the Länder ticket - it costs 27 euros and you can take an unlimited number of journeys within the state on local trains - in most cases it's also valid for the buses and trams. Up to five people can travel on this one ticket so if there's a group of you this can work out very cheaply.

Alternatively, if you're travelling on a weekend, there is the Happy Weekend ticket - 37 euros for the ticket and is valid for up to five people. Unlimited travel all weekend on local trains.

Have a look at the Fares and Offers page on the Deutsche Bahn website, there's lots of options.

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/prices/prices.shtml

jollyme

Wow, Zimm190, you certainly know you stuff. I'm sure silkmanuk will find your info very helpful!

dzug1

e-bay don't allow the sale of travel tickets. Any you see there are ones they haven't noticed and removed

GlennTheBaker

Myself and Mrs Baker did a mini European tour in July by train. We looked into getting Inter-Rail passes but, having read www.seat61.com extensively, we ended up buying some extremely cheap advance fare tickets online (eg Brussels to Cologne for 15 Euro) before we travelled and it was, for us, a much better and cheaper way of doing it.

hardpressed

GlennTheBaker wrote: »

Myself and Mrs Baker did a mini European tour in July by train. We looked into getting Inter-Rail passes but, having read www.seat61.com extensively, we ended up buying some extremely cheap advance fare tickets online (eg Brussels to Cologne for 15 Euro) before we travelled and it was, for us, a much better and cheaper way of doing it.

I would like to see something of Europe next year, also want to travel by train, can you tell me where you went, please?

GlennTheBaker

hardpressed wrote: »

I would like to see something of Europe next year, also want to travel by train, can you tell me where you went, please?

Eurostar from St Pancras to Brussels and then onto Ghent. Spent 2 nights in Ghent then got local train back to Brussels before getting the Thalys to Cologne. 2 nights in Cologne and then we got a direct train to Zurich. 2 nights in Zurich and then did the previous 2 legs in reverse to spend 2 nights in Brussels before getting the Eurostar back to St Pancras and spending 3 nights in London.

We got the Eurostar for £59 return and this included the onward journey to Ghent. The Brussels to Cologne part of the trip was a lovely cheap 15 Euro advance ticket, as was the trip back. The most expensive part of the trip was the Cologne to Zurich part - I think it was about £60 each.