The German national rail company website is the best one to use for train schedules anywhere in Europe: http://reiseauskunft… It’s the easiest to use in English and is generally complete and up to date. You’re making this much to difficult. There are thousands of passenger train departures a day in Europe and there’s generally at least one train every hour between major cities, so scheduling is rarely a problem. I think you’ll receive a paper schedule of the major trains between major cities with your rail pass, although that may no longer be the case. It’s about 100 pages and lists about 5% of the complete European timetable….

Have you looked for cheap flights to/from Barcelona? Use www.whichbudget.com to see which low fare airlines fly which routes and check our “cheap flights” forum for more links and tips. Overnight trains for both Paris/Barcelona and Barcelona/Milan are another option. The best train option for Barcelona/Milan might require 2 days of the railpass as it leaves at 18:53 — 7 minutes before the “7:00 PM rule.” The next best option has a connection before midnight, so also doesn’t fit the 7:00 PM rule.

thanks! so i looked at the time tables for the Eurail pass and created an itinerary of when I’d arrive and leave each destination. In short, I am visiting 7 countries and I will be using 7 days from my Eurail pass. Is it better to buy the “10 days within 2 months Global Youth Pass” or just buy train tickets individually?

The trip planner recommends a 5 country, 8 day pass plus some point to point tickets for your itinerary. UK isn’t part of the Eurail system, Netherlands and Belgium are considered one country (Benelux) and it’s probably cheaper not to use a pass in Czech Rep. That’s the best general recommendation you’ll find. You might be able to beat that if you’re willing and able to buy advance purchase, non-refundable tickets from the individual national rail company websites. The links are in a sticky at the top of this forum or on the “travel tips” tab under “transportation.” Some of the sites don’t sell international ( one country to another) tickets, others don’t take non-European credit cards and some don’t use English on the actual buy pages, so it takes some luck in addition to a lot of work…

P.S. What do you mean by “timetables for the eurail pass?” The wording implies that you think the timetable is different if you use a rail pass.

thanks, that is really helpful. I updated my trip planner on this site. Most of my train rides are from one country to another. The timetables for the Eurrail pass that I mentioned is located here:

http://www.eurail.co…

If you scroll down, you will see that there is a 5MB pdf file that you can download.

this is basically my itinerary:
London to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Paris
Paris to Barcelona
Barcelona to Geneve
Geneve to Zurich
Zurich to Munich
Munich to Prague
Prague to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to Mannheim
Mannheim to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to Brussels
Brussels to London

Would you still recommend the 5 country, 8 day pass plus some point to point tickets? Is it better to purchase point-to-point tickets when I get there a few days before the train ride, or should I do it all in advance?

actually, this link was very helpful. Wish I found this earlier:

http://www.eurotrip….

As I said, the trip planner uses rail saver. It is the best general recommendation you sill get. Anything better depends on your willingness and ability to do the work and buy ticket from the individual national rail company websites.

Buy point to point tickets at any major train station in Europe ( a day or so in advance is best, but up to 1 hour before train time usually works) or from the national rail company sites. Do not buy them from a travel agency that sells rail passes as those are more expensive “global fare” — about 30% more than regular fare.

Eurostar, the channel train isn’t covered by you rail pass. Look for cheap specials at www.Eurostar.com (or any other website for a travel agency that sells European rail tickets and rail passes.

I’d recommend you to at least check point-to-point options, and airplanes for 2 sectors. I live in The Netherlands currently, here is how I’d organize such a trip:

London to Amsterdam – Eurostar point-to-point ( I just bought a cheap € 49 one-way ticket on that route on the NS Hispeed site. Use that site (English version available) instead of the American version of Eurostar site).

Amsterdam to Paris – Thalys point-to-point. It costs as cheap as € 39

Paris to Barcelona – Consider travelling by plane

Barcelona to Geneve – definitively travel by plane, there are no direct high-speed connections between those 2 cities.

_Geneve to Zurich
Zurich to Munich
Munich to Prague
Prague to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to Mannheim
Mannheim to Frankfurt_ – Consider a pass covering only these sections on these 3 countries. Always travel by fast trains in Germany, don’t fall for the “use the regional rail” trap as those regional trains are as crap as Metrolink in LA, for instance.

Frankfurt to Brussels – Thalys point-to-point
Brussels to London Eurostar point-to-point, to be bought as a return ticket together with your London-Amsterdam ticket (the trick is this: a London-Ams. ticket is, indeed, the combination of one London-Brussels ticket + a Brussels to any-Dutch-station ticket, this last section being unreserved and not train-specific. Buy a return London-Amsterdam ticket, ditch the any-Dutch-station to Brussel ticket on your way back to London and get to save a bit).