Yeah, in fact there are only carriages running out in Eastern Europe
Now, seriously I’ll let you know if I see any railpass in Eastern Europe.

All best,
Radu[url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com’ title=‘Adventure Travel in Carpathians. Hiking holidays in Transylvania. Camping, horse-riding, travelling in Romanian Mountains’] Adventure Travel in Eastern Europe[/url]

Look, after a short search on the Internet I found http://www.railpass….
Did you check this out ?

Radu[url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com’ title=‘Adventure tours in Carpathian Mountains’] Adventure tours in Eastern Europe [/url]

WHERE, specifically are you going? Trains are an even better option for getting around in some parts of Eastern Europe than in the west. In some parts of Eastern Europe the roads are in terrible shape which makes bus or car travel slow and uncomfortable. In other parts of Eastern Europe bus is as good or a better option than train. There are several types of railpasses available for Eastern Europe. Check radu’s link or click "buy a railpass" at the top of this page.

The big issue is that railpasses are usually a waste of money in Eastern Europe. Trains are cheap. Unless you’re doing TONS of travel, you’re probably better off without a pass. Railsaver.com covers most eastern European countries. Follow the "I know my itinerary" route and check "use a railpass only if it saves money" (click on "more destinations" if that option doesn’t show). That will give you a decent recommendation on whether or not a railpass saves money for your itinerary.

i havent really planned this trip yet, its just ideas running through my head. but i was thinking of hungary, slovenia, croatia, bosnia, yugoslavia, albania, greece, bulgaria, romania, moldova,ukrain and so on. i know that eurail does not offer anything for those countries. im guessing there is a bus line or something but i havent found anything on it yet.

I think you’re confusing the 17 country eurail system and the use of a railpass with the availability of good rail service. You don’t need to buy a railpass to take advantage of the great rail service in both Western and Eastern Europe. Just because a country isn’t a member of the Eurail group doesn’t mean it doesn’t have decent rail service.

For your itinerary:
Hungary is one of the 17 countries and has always been covered by Eurail. You can now include some of your countries on a select pass. Slovenia and Croatia (counts as one country), Romania and I think Bulgaria can now be countries selected with a eurail select pass. However in all these countries, trains are cheap enough that it’s probably a waste of money to use a Eurail pass, which is based on more expensive prices in Western Europe. European East and Balkans Passes cover most of the countries you’ve mention, but again, just buying point to point tickets as you go will probably be cheaper.

I’m not aware of any rail pass that covers Ukraine, but one of the plushest, nicest, newest train I’ve ever taken (as good or better than 1st class on Eurostar) was in Ukraine. Plus, you certainly don’t want to bounce by bus on most of the truly awful roads in Ukraine. Same is true for Romania — there are some very nice trains (also some really bad ones, but they’re pretty easy to avoid) and some very bad roads.

a eurail pass will end up costing more in most cases for eastern europe.at least in where I’ve traveled,the exception being hungary(romania,bulgaria,serbia,makedonia)I just dug out a old ticket from bulgaria,it was 12.70 leva to go from russe(sp ?in english)to sofia….basicly cross the country for about 8$by train a excursion pass for bdz(bulgarian rail company)on a eurail pass was around a hundred us……in other words its about impossible to use this amount for travel if just buying tickets,even if trying

sweet, thanks a lot for the info.

try Eastern Pass, its like a Eurail Pass.

quote: try Eastern Pass, its like a Eurail Pass.

Hi all,

I don’t want to start a brand new topic, so do allow me to hitch onto this topic. Advices are greatly appreciated.

I’m currently pondering over the purchase of an Eastern Europe Pass (the Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Rep, Poland and Austria one) for USD162 or to buy Point-to-point when I’m actually in Europe.

Seeing that I’ll only be making the following 3 journeys:
a) Vienna to Prague (4hr train ride)
b) Prague to Warsaw (9hr overnight train ride)
c) Warsaw to Krakow (3hr train ride),

which should I get? I know the easy answer would be Point-to-Point since I’ll only be utilising 3 days while the E.Europe pass is for 5 days. I guess the real question is, do I purchase the tickets when I’m there or should I get the tickets at home? I’ve done a quick search through railpass.com and the total costs add up to about USD140 (raw cost).

For the overnight train, I’m guessing I’ll have to pay more? Is it too risky to buy my tickets upon arrival? I’ll be there in mid-September and I’m hoping it wouldn’t be as crowded then. And are Austria, Czech and Poland considered part of the "cheaper" Eastern European countries? What’s the rational thing to do?

Thanks.

[added]: Oh.. And is it possible to make reservations/purchases in Venice (yes, Venice. It’s not a typo. Venice is my first arrival city) for the above-mentioned 3 journeys? Or should I only purchase the tickets when I arrive at Vienna? Concerned because Czech and Poland are not part of the 17 countries. Thanks again.

Buy point to point after you get there. The European East price is supposedly based on Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest-Prague-Warsaw — which includes a fairly expensive leg in Austria besides being a whole lot more traveling than you’ll be doing You can probably buy the tickets in Venice — but there may be longer lines at the international windows there than in Vienna, so Vienna may be easier.