Your two months officially begins the day you have your pass validated at the train station in Europe — presumably the day you take your first train ride. Just remember that you must have it validated within 6 months of the date you purchased it (the date stamped on the pass, not the date you received it). I’d order at least two weeks before your departure date, but there’s no advantage of ordering particularly early since you won’t be able to order prior to the potential price change on January 1. Yes — a rail day is a calendar day — midnight to midnight. There’s a special exception for overnight trains called “the 7:00 PM rule” that means most overnight trains only count as one day. You mark arrival day on your pass and don’t have to use a day for departure day if you didn’t already use the pass on another train. Yes — it’s very unlikely you’ll run into a train that isn’t covered except for some privately owned, scenic railroads in Switzerland.
4. Yes, railpass works for this, but why do you want to spend 16 hours on the train from Amsterdam to Milan? Look for a cheap flight. With that trek out of the rail picture, you might find it cheaper to buy point to point tickets instead of using a railpass. The Paris to Amsterdam ticket will be pretty expensive if you don’t find an advanced purchase on-line special, so that may make a railpass worthwhile. What does railsaver recommend with and without the Amsterdam- Milan trip?

Thank you for your reply,
Well time will be a factor, that is why we are going straight from amsterdam to milan without making anything in between one of our travel destinations. But is it really 16 hours? That’s pretty long, but we wont mind because im sure it will be scenic and interesting. Plus we could catch up on sleep.
Anyway money is also a big factor and i can’t imagine a flight from amsterdam to milan plus all the point to point train fare, being cheaper than just geting the 3 country rail pass for $310

I just tried the railsaver tool that you mentioned, and it’s telling me to go with a 5 country rail pass when i put in all the destinations i mentioned above. I don’t think it would be necessary if the train could go stright from amsterdam to milan, but it’s saying we have to board another train in germany . I suppose it would be more efficient to go to amsterdam first and then Paris and then from there to Italy

Flights from Amsterdam to Milan can be had for about 35-40 euros if you book early, Amsterdam-Rome as low as about 55 euros:
http://www.easyjet.c…

You may want to do the overnight train just for the experience, but wanted to let you know flying is not prohibitively expensive.

wow i didnt realize it was that cheap to fly around europe

The overnight part of this train will require a reservation which will cost 20 to 30 euros and isn’t covered by the railpass — about a wash with what you’d pay for a hostel for that night. Also, since this won’t be a direct overnight train, the 7:00 PM rule probably won’t apply. You might end up using 2 days of your railpass for this trip.

Be sure to include total cost (buses to/from the airports, taxes and baggage fees) when comparing plane to train.

anything you want to know about Eurail.. visit this www.eurail.com/