Well for starters, this:

is a horrible itinerary. You’re not giving Greece, Belgium, and Austria much justice, in fact there’s too many stops in this itinerary to begin with, and the one-stop-per-country itinerary isn’t going to give you the best experience for any of the countries you plan to visit. Additionally, you’re hopping all over the place, and I understand you plan to fly, but you’re bypassing a lot of highly worthwhile places that are not big cities, all the while spending half your time in Europe at airports. I discourage the big city-only itinerary; instead, prioritize which countries you want to visit on this trip, and narrow it down your current 11 to about 3-6 (depending on which countries).

Depending on which countries you end up visiting, I would say either a Europe-wide pass (which I guess would be Eurail’s Global Pass), or a pass that covers certain countries that are near each other (like Eurail’s Select Pass or Region Pass). If all or most of the countries you plan to visit can be covered by one of the Select or Region passes, go with that, because it’ll be cheaper.

Whatever’s cheaper. According to Eurail’s website, the youth pass covers ages 12-25.

http://www.eurail.co…

Well, according to these Eurail webpages: http://www.eurail.co… and http://www.eurail.co… if you book online, particularly if you book before arriving in Europe, you can get “great deals”, but you can’t get the Eurail discount online.

On your question about getting the discount for travel before the first day of using your Eurail pass: if no one here at Eurotrip is able to answer that question, the Eurail website says you can call Eurostar with questions at: +44 (0) 1233 617 575 (if you don’t mind the long distance call).

Depends on what you mean by “near Paris.” If you’re just going from CDG into Paris and making a day trip to Versailles, “no.” If you’re making a day trip to Strassburg and an overnight trip to Normandy or similar itineraries, probably “yes.” Around Athens, probably “no” as — no trains to the islands and you can bus other places around the mainland. Not sure of the question — your pass will be good on virtually any train in any country it covers. IMO, a consecutive day pass is rarely the best alternative financially, but travel guru Rick Steves disagrees. Try putting your itinerary in a www.railsaver.com for a recommendation. Follow the “I have a good idea of my itinerary” route and click “I prefer using railpasses (to point to point tickets) ‘only when it saves money.’” By all means get the youth pass. It will save considerable money and you won’t meet many other young, budget travelers in 1st class. Your pass must be validated in Europe to get the discount. If you get a 10 day pass, you can have it validated early as a discount doesn’t count as a rail day and you have 2 months to use your 10 days. If you get the 21 day pass it might be a problem. However,* regular youth fare on Eurostar and the passholder discount fare for youth are almost exactly the same*, so don’t worry about the passholder discount. Look for the cheapest youth, youth leisure or other special fare you can find at www.Eurostar.com

We use the global pass all the time, and due to our age we travel in 1st class, and regardless of what some say, we have meet heaps of young backpackers travelling in 1st class!!! If you can afford the extra go for it!!

What’s the difference between 1st and 2nd class?

Why is it “worth it”?

The money of a few hundred I can spare if for a good reason. Some of the time will be overnight trains, does 1st class make a big difference then?

Jhyphi,

2nd class is perfectly comfortable. You don’t need 1st class, save yourself the money.

IMO, 1st class is almost never “worth it” in Western Europe — and only rarely worth it in Eastern Europe.

Trust me 1st class is worth it! Iwould love to know when some people last used 1st class train travel in Europe? We use it all the time and the difference is chalk and cheese.

Can one of the people who say 1st class is worth it, or those who say it isn’t, please elaborate more on why?

Is it the people I’ll meet? I definitely am looking for friendly young people.

Size of space? Likelihood of being robbed?

I’m 5’9” and 150 pounds (70kg) so relatively slender/athletic type and never have a problem with airplane seats.

Thanks!

1st class cars have fewer seats — roughly a ratio of 8 seats in 2nd class in the same space that holds 6 seats in 1st class. The 1st class cars are sometimes newer, although often all the cars on a train are roughly the same age. First class tickets cost 1 1/2 times 2nd class. The seats are bigger and more comfortable in 1st class, but 2nd class seats and spacing are comfortable for my 6’1” football-lineman-built husband and 6’2” son. 1st class cars almost always have lots of empty seats, because virtually all Europeans, except rich business types and pensioners who seem to get free travel, use 2nd class. You aren’t likely to get robbed on a train and I don’t think whether you’re in 1st or 2nd class will make any difference.

I think you’re much more likely to meet a lot of friendly young people in 2nd class.

BTW, I was on 2nd class trains in Finland (also on 1st class — not worth it), Russia (4 classes on some trains in Russia and I probably won’t go below 2nd class) and Estonia last summer and in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy in 2004. We took one first class train in Italy and found it to be a total waste of money. We took EurostarItalia trains after that — far better in 2nd class than most 1st class trains elsewhere. IMO, the higher reservation on a EurostarItalia train is a much better expenditure than the higher train ticket cost for 1st class on any other train. We took 1st class trains in Ukraine (probably not worth the extra money over 2nd class but the tickets were cheap in any case) and Romania (maybe worth it due to crowding in 2nd class and some kind of iffy types that the conductor ran out of the 1st class car) in 2004.

When comparing classes please compare apples with apples. To start Eurail doesnt cover the eastern european countries, and having used trains in these areas, there isnt much difference. However all my comments have been in relation to Eurail. Granted Italy has some of the worst trains in Europe, but go to any other country and the difference is there. If your son travelled in 2004, one must ask how long since oldlady has actually used ist class travel if at all.
Most 1st class cabins have mainly 4 seats, heaps of room, like a small room, free coffee, and yes, lots of young backpackers. If you want to sleep on the train , i know where i would rather be!! Also you do not have to reserve all trains, and as for waiting in line for hours to make one..what a joke. In addition you get free travel on regional and metro trains and like in Germany the u bahn. Empty cabins means lots of room!!

Trackers,

Oldlady has a lot of travel experience around Europe, and although I don’t have the travel experience that she has, I can vouch for her that “2nd class” or economy class as it is more properly called, is perfectly comfortable. And it doesn’t really make a difference when was the last time she travelled on a train in Europe; if anything, the newer generation train cars are better, not worse. I’m not as tall as her husband and son, but at 5’10” and a weight that fluctuates from 180 to 220 lbs, I’ve never had any space issues. No, I’ve never taken 1st class on the TGV, because I have no reason to. I’ve walked through the 1st class compartment (anyone can feel free to venture in there, it’s not restricted for crying out loud) and I’ve seen why some people pay more: the seats are very large, there’s enough space for a business traveler to load up his laptop and all that stuff. But there’s absolutely nothing about economy that would compel me to pay more to travel 1st class.

No one here is denying that there is a difference between 1st and economy classes; obviously if you pay more you should expect more. But it’s not like you’ll be sitting in cramped seats, next to weirdos, with chickens running up and down the aisle, should you choose to go with economy. This is a budget travel website and if there truly was a compelling reason to pay more and travel 1st class, then we would advise newbie travelers to do so. But given that there is no compelling reason for a leisure traveler to do so, we don’t advise it. Especially for the countries that Jhyphi plans to visit, yes including Italy. The vast majority of people travel in economy, especially almost all leisure travelers.

Eurail now includes several countries in Eastern Europe. Here is the list of Eurail countries according to www.eurail.com

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

I think it’s also important to note that Eurail is not a single rail system. Eurail is just a program where participating national rail systems collectively sell continent-wide rail tickets to non-European-resident leisure travelers, and these tickets are recognized by all rail systems participating in the program.

Looked at Eurail lately? It has always covered Hungary and now covers Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Romania… In addition, a select pass can cover Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and there are passes available that cover Poland.

It boils down to how much you’re willing to pay for extra comfort. IMO, there aren’t many circumstances where 1st class is worth the extra money. If you’re over 25 and a Eurail pass saves money for your specific itinerary/situation then 1st class is a good deal.