I’m a bit confused. Are you only adding Barcelona if you decide to fly or would you go there anyway if you buy a railpass? I don’t see it listed in the itinerary below your post; is that still your plan?

Ok to clear up the confusion….if i dont fly to barcelona im not going to go there. If i do fly, i plan on staying there 3 days. There is a reason for this, if you want that long explanation i can give it….but i dont see it as relevant. Also i have two different itineraries…i dont know if you can look at both, but both my ideas are on my page.

I think this is a fairly big pain. Troll around the Ryan Air website for information on the buses serving the particular airports — it will tell you time and costs, but it takes some hunting to find the information. I’m not sure if I’d do it for $150 total savings. I would definitely do it for $150 each.

As for your actual question, I’m with Augustin — I just don’t get it. If you’ve decided that a 15 day eurail pass is the way to go, then what does the side trip to Barcelona by plane have to do with the railpass decision? You’ve already decided you aren’t going to Barcelona if you don’t fly.

Try putting your itinerary in “railsaver” for a recommendation on what’s best — a specific railpass, no railpass, railpass plus point to point tickets. You can get to railsaver under the “bookings” tab, or it’s part of the “trip planner.” IMO, a consecutive day railpass is seldom the best deal, and I don’t think it’s the best deal for any of your posted itineraries. Others, including Rick Steves, disagree.

I think I understand part of it now; if getting to Barcelona by plane is too much of a hassle you’ll skip it and go to Nice instead and travel solely by rail. But why a three country pass when you’d be traveling in France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany? Would you be buying point to point tickets for some trips?

Ryanair from Paris (Beauvais) to Barcelona (Girona) is the most inconvenient airline for that route, and I can understand if you feel the extra time to/from airports is a hassle. That said, if you take that morning flight on May 3 it might not work out too badly. You’ll arrive in Barcelona on the bus from Girona at 12:15 when you should be able to check in to your accommodation and shouldn’t lose too much of the day.

As for Girona to Ciampino, it’ll be an 1:15 to get to Girona from BCN and 40 minutes from Ciampino to Termini station, so not all that bad.

I’ve never been to Nice, but absolutely love Barcelona. Does either city sound more attractive to you? What train were you thinking of taking to Nice, day or overnight?

You know what augustin, your right. I wasnt thinking, but yes ill be going to 4 countries. Thats if i were to take out Nice if i go to Barcelona instead. But i understand why i may sound confusing, if i were to get the 15 day rail pass and take a train to Barcelona, i hear its a pain in the butt to get from barcelona to cinque terre and i just dont want to deal with that hassle. So your probably wondering, “well your going through nice,” but the fact is that if we go to barcelona and nice than that means well have to take out one of our cities in eastern europe due to time constraints. I dont know if im willing to do that. Gosh im probably confusing you all more. If youre still confused….than ignore this. Haha sorry. But yes, i will do my research and see what will work best for us. To answer augustins questions, i was planning on taking the night train from paris to Nice. If i had to choose between barcelona and Nice, i would probably choose barcelona. But just the thought of having to stress about flying into small cities (girona or chiampino or beauvais) and trying to figure out how to get to the big cities freaks me out. But if one of you tell me its pretty easy and nothing to stress about than ill do the flying. So yea….