Depends on your travel style, life style (go with the flow or controlled), when (what month), where (which countries and cities). Basically, do you want a set-in-stone itinerary or do you want flexibility to change your plans as you go? I recommend always booking first night’s lodging in advance — you’ll arrive jet-lagged, sleep-deprived and possibly culture-shocked. Don’t add homeless. I also like to have the last night set at least a few days in advance so plans A and B for getting to the airport can be worked out. If you want to take advantage of low fare specials on train fares or take advantage of cheap flights, you’ll need to book well in advance. If you use a railpass or are willing to pay regular fare, you don’t need to book trains in advance (other than getting a reservation if the specific train you choose to take requires one). First off, you don’t want to book seats through Eurail.com or any other travel agency. Reservations from a travel agency cost two or three times what you’ll pay at the train station in Europe. Eurail.com is one of many travel agencies that sell railpasses, train tickets and reservations. There are two possibilities for why you can’t book reservations — your dates are more than 2 months from now or your dates are less than about 3 weeks from now. I think some sort of pass will definitely be worth it for this itinerary. Use railsaver.com — under the “bookings” tab at the top of the page or in the trip planner — for a recommendation on which, if any, railpass is best. It will probably recommend a combination of some sort of railpass and some point to point tickets. As for a railpass being expensive: What would you expect to pay to travel quickly and comfortably to a dozen widely scattered cities in your home country? In order to price the train tickets for your itinerary you’ll need to look them up on the individual national rail company websites. The links are in this sticky at the top of the “tranport” forum: http://www.eurotrip….

If you do buy a railpass, support our sponsors and buy it here. The price is generally the same no matter where you buy it and this site guarantees lowest price.