he Eurail Pass offers travelers the freedom to take trains across Europe at their own pace. There are several types of Eurail Pass and the best known ones are the Eurail One Country Pass, Eurail Select Pass, Eurail Global Pass, and Two-country Select Pass. You may choose the number of countries that want to check out and then pick the type of Eurail Pass which fits your travel plans.
The Eurail One Country Pass – Cost and Coverage
- It is the best option for travelers who want to spend their holidays visiting the varied attractions of one country in Europe. You may opt for popular countries like Spain or Italy and then use high-speed and regional trains to travel from one gorgeous city to another. The cost of Eurail One Country Pass starts from $67.
The Eurail Select Pass – Cost and Coverage
- It allows travelers to visit and travel via train to 2, 3, or 4 adjacent European countries that you opt for. The Eurail Select Pass lets customers select from 27 different countries in Europe. Its cost starts from $145.
The Eurail Global Pass – Cost and Coverage
- It gives travelers the fantastic option of exploring all the dream destinations in Europe with one single pass. The Eurail Global Pass is a flexible and convenient train pass that offers access to the rail network in 28 different wondrous European nations. Its cost starts from $339.
- Travelers may either opt for a 15-day, 22-days, 1 month, 2-months, or 3-months continuous pass, or a flexipass that offers the option of 10 or 15 days of travel during a period of 2 months, or a flexipass with 5 or 7 days of travel within a period of 1 month.
- The Eurail global pass is the only one that offers a 3-month travel option and thus is quite popular with backpacking student travelers. The continuous travel type option of the global Eurail pass is especially cost-effective and suitable for the whirlwind tourist who is traveling via trains just about every day.
- The global pass covers the ticket’s full cost on most trains that run across Europe, including night, day, medium, fast, slow, and international, etc. It lets customers travel freely across most of European nations, from Portugal to Turkey to Finland. Great Britain is however not covered by this pass. It also does not cover overnight train accommodations, the Paris–Italy Thello night train, some privately operated train routes, and fees for seat reservation.
- It is also important for customers to be aware of below listed aspects of the pass:
- High-speed TGV trains in France restrict seats for pass holders and also need paid seat reservations. Hence, you need to reserve a seat as soon as they are able to commit to a specific time and date of travel.
- The Eurail global pass covers travel on the London–Paris/Brussels Eurostar ‘chunnel’ train; however, using the pass for this trip may not be ideal choice for pass-holders.
- Direct night trains on Paris-Italy route do not accept the passes, but direct TGV daytime trains do accept them. However, daytime services are sparse and reservations often sell out rapidly.
- Rail network connection to Turkey and Greece is limited and hence it is best to fly to places like Istanbul, Athens, or Thessaloniki. Greece can also be accessed from Turkey and Italy via ferries.
Eurail Map