you just have to include all the countries you will be going to, it doesn’t matter what order they’re in.

Vienna to Rome, you could probably find a budget flight for cheap but then you have to take into account travel to/from the airports, which may be the cheap airports that aren’t as close to the cities, an wait time in the airport for security and such. I would just take a night train, I think. There are sure to be some from Vienna to Rome. Deutsche Bahn’s website says there’s one from 19:23 to 9:05.

Thanks, I appreciate it!

For the second question you can try to book OBB’s super special fares that start at 49 EUR for a T6 couchette and 59 EUR for a T4 couchette but they are limited.
http://www.oebb.at/p…
As as the pass goes you may want to check how much point to point tickets will cost you between some of the cities as the Thalys trains require a supplement in addition to the rain pass. Do you know what city pairs you want to travel between?
Cheers
Howie

My first choice for Vienna to Rome would be a cheap flight. 2nd choice would be an overnight train. In either case, don’t try to fit too many flights or too many overnight trains into a short trip. Any combination of “too many” will be exhausting.

Thanks, oldlady for the response. I purposely planned the trip so that destinations that required flights would be toward the end, that way we wouldn’t be jet-lagged within the first week or two and we could enjoy ourselves. I tried to select a decent amount of days in each city, between how big they are, what there is to do, how expensive it can be, and most of them came out to 5 days apiece. Do you think my itinerary is sustainable in terms of recooperating (in other words, am I putting enough time into each city to wear off jet/train lag?). I want to stay long enough to see the famous museusms in each place but also have time to relax and enjoy myself.

Sorry, Howie, I didn’t quite understand what you meant by “city pairs” (I’m still kind of new to this Eurotrip jargon ).

Thanks for the Vienna-Rome advice, however

hi friends
this is my first trip to europ and i will be for a training period in zurich i wana use this oppertunity and travel to paris to see Eiffle tower & etc. and i have to know what is the best and cheap way to get there and i also wana know about costs pls?

KED528: I looked at your itinerary and it’s a little too leisurely for me. However, if you’re planning day trips from some (all??) of these cities if would be a very comfortable way to see a fair amount of Europe. Are there reasons, other than a leisurely travel style, you want to spend so much time in each city? As an example, Brussels has an interesting medieval center that you can see in 1/2 a day and a few other sights to fill up a day or two. Otherwise, it’s a huge city that’s a modern architectural tribute to the bureaucracy that is the EU. I would put extra time in Greece in order to do some serious island hopping. 5 days in Athens is about 3 too many for me, but 5 days in Greece really won’t give you time to get to/from/around a couple of islands. If you’re planning to go any place other than Istanbul in Turkey, I’d add time there. 4 days is about right for Istanbul, but if you want to go to Ancient Ephesus (IMO, the Turks do a much better job of preserving and displaying Greek ruins than the Greeks) it will take a couple of days either added to Turkey or to get there from Greece.

hello dear oldlady
I am from 23 to 28 august in zurich and one day in between i wana go for a one day trip to paris and i want to be back in zurich at night into my reserved hotel the date of my trip is not 100% predetermind
thank u for helping me

I appreciate the input, oldlady, thank you very much. The primary reason why we plan to stay in each city for a while is because we are really looking to immerse ourselves in the culture, whether it be four, five, or even six days. We do not plan to stay in the cities every single day. For example, the reason why we chose so much time for Amsterdam (7 days) is for the convenient day trips to places like Den Haag, Rotterdam and Haarlem. I chose 6 days in Rome because I really regret staying their for 2 days last time I was there and would like to do and see the things I didn’t have a chance to do. However we may plan on going on a day trip to the coastline there to see the beaches and of course a day in Vatican City (although Vatican doesn’t take all day, it eats up a lot of time waiting in line for museusms and trying to move your way through a cramped Sistine Chapel).
Sometimes people do the “bing-bang-boom” travel style (couple of days in each city and completely exhausted). Places like Luxembourg are extremely small so a day or two is sustainable, but the hot-spot names like London and Paris are places that may need five or six days to both explore the inner city and then venture the outskirts to take in the whole atmosphere. We’re just looking for time to enjoy each city.
I will take your advice on the extra island-hopping time in Greece and add more time onto that. We don’t really plan on venturing too far out of Istanbul, considering it is a “megacity” and also some friends of mine went on a cruise there and said the city was magnificent. I greatly appreciate you reviewing my itinerary, you’ve been a great help.

Thanks!

I was just asking what cities you were planning on using the pass between. I would calculate how much point to point tickets between the cities would cost before buying a pass. On some of those trips there are some good specials generally available that maybe cheaper then the pass. With the trip so far off though the current lowest fares probably will change and when I have a chance later I’ll link all the local rail companies for you.
Cheers
Howie

Oh, now I understand (sorry!). Well, I plan on using Eurostar to get from London to Paris. Then use Eurail from Paris to Luxembourg to Brussels to Amsterdam (completing the Benelux) to Berlin to Prague to Vienna. My next scheduled stop after Vienna is Rome, but it may be better to take a flight (which I hear is only 90 mins).

Thanks for helping, I appreciate it!

Paris-Luxembourg 25 EUR booked in advance at http://www.tgv-europ…
Luxembourg-Brussels 21,60 Eur (youth ticket upto 25) 31,60 EUR adult
Brussels-Amsterdam 19 EUR 26 EUR (youth ticket) booked in advance at http://www.thalys.co…
Amsterdam-Berlin 39 EUR (advance fare) book in advance at http://www.nshispeed…
Berlin-Prague showing 60 EUR but I know there are usually cheaper specials offered. Bookable on http://www.bahn.de
Prague-Vienna 48 EUR (adult ticket can’t see how much the youth costs)
Vienna-Rome 49EUR in 6 bed couchette 59 EUR in 4 bed couchette bookable well in advance at http://www.oebb.at/p…
25+21,60+26+39+60+48+49=268EUR*1.41=$371 so it turns out to be a bit cheaper then a pass but more work so it’s a trade off and this also includes Vienna to Rome. I would reexamine this as you get closer to your trip date.
Cheers
Howie

Thank you for putting your time into this, it means a lot! I will certainly examine these mre in-depth as the trip date gets closer.

You can do this, but I’m not sure why you’d want to unless putting the “I saw the Eiffel tower” notch on your belt is ridiculously important to you. IMO, Paris is not a day trip from Zurich. The fastest train is 4 1/2 hours each way, with the earliest reasonable departure at 7:02, arriving in Paris at 11:34. Best return is at 17:54, leaving you just over 6 hours in Paris. Given time to get to/from Gare d’Est (it’s a fairly ugly trip back if you miss the 17:54) you’d have 5 1/2 hours in Paris if everything went perfectly and you didn’t get lost or anything. You could easily be in line at the Louvre for 1/2 of the time you’re in Paris. I guess you can say “I’ve been to Paris.” Flying, when you add in time to/from airports, check-in time, security time, will take even longer.

That’s just an absurd idea..It wouldn’t even be enjoyable to do that in a day. As oldlady said your going to spend more time traveling then in Paris..Leave Paris for another trip and do an easier daytrip out of Zurich.
Cheers
Howie

Just so you guys know. I just integrated the Railsaver logic into the Trip Planner, so you will be able to determine the best rail pass with a single click of a button. If you specify which legs you want to fly, the rail passes will be updated accordingly (you will have to click the button again to update it if you add the flight after you search).

If you have feedback regarding the new features in the trip planner, please let me know. I like feedback.

swill,

Thank you for installing this for Eurotrip, I think it’s a smart idea. I just have one question: I just used the tool for my itinerary and it suggested exactly what I thought of in the first place but then it tells me that it’s going to be an extra $80 in city-to-city tickets. This will be my first time using the European rail system and I am just wondering why it’s going to be more than I expected, so could you please explain?

Thanks!

You are traveling from London to Paris on the train. This takes the Chunnel which is not covered by any (that I know of) rail passes. This is where that extra point to point ticket cost comes from…

Hope that helps…