First, three overnight trains if pretty hectic for 2 weeks. I’d try to cut to 2.

1. I think you will find a 3 country select pass for Germany, Austria and France with point to point tickets in Italy or a 4 country select pass including Italy cheaper.

2. No, you do not have to buy reservations for all trains in Italy. There are thousands of trains that don’t require reservations. However, it’s very likely that you’ll end up on trains that require reservations at least some of the time in Italy (unless you want to take slower trains in the middle of the day) and fairly likely that every train you choose for these routes will require a reservation.

3. It is better to make you’re reservations in Europe. They will be significantly cheaper and you’re less likely to end up wasting a reservation because your plans change. Try to buy your reservations at least a day in advance for day trains and 3 days in advance for overnight trains — longer if it’s a weekend. I hate trying to buy reservations in Italy, so I would buy those all at once to avoid waiting in line multiple times. I’d try to buy them in Vienna or just buy point to point tickets (which will include reservation if needed) from the automated kiosks in Italy.

Thanks for the reply. The info is really useful.

I was counting the minimum number of days I needed and it would be 7 – 8 travel days, and the select youth pass 4 countries is 300 euros for 8days/2months while the global youth pass is 332 euros for 15 days. So I was thinking, that maybe getting the global pass would allow a bit more freedom in traveling and I can also cover for the extra trips to Pompeii and Versailles with it. What do you think?

And what is the ave cost of a couchette for the overnight trains? Is it between 20-30 euros?
And for buying reservations, esp in Italy, is it that I would need to buy it for an exact time of the day eg. the train from A to B at 12/06/09 at 10.31am?

Thanks a lot.

First, I don’t think you’ll really need that many days. Price the Italian trains at www.trenitalia.com — It will probably be cheaper to buy tickets than to use a day of the railpass for these tickets.

Couchette berths will probably be 30 euros on all of these routes. Here’s some information on the most popular overnight trains. http://ourworld.comp…

You buy a reservation for a specific train (specific train #, time and day). If you don’t take that train then the reservation may be wasted. Sometimes you can change a reservation (at the kiosk, so without waiting in line) without fee if you do it before the original train time.

Thanks a lot for all the great advice.
I’m already clearer on how i should plan my train trips.

I’m now planning train trips in Germany cos I’ll be in Germany for about 1 week before my exchange program. I believe getting a BahnCard from DB should be the cheapest way to travel around the cities in Germany, right?

Thanks for all the help so far.
I would now like to ask, are the fares on the Trenitalia website accurate? Is there anything else i need to consider? Cos i was looking at the overnight Vienna->Venice ticket and it says 35Euros. But when i clicked on the “continue to buy”, the prices listed there had changed to other values. This makes me a little worried if i have missed out anything. And if i’m going to use my select pass, do i use the global pass option to determine the price? So if it says 7euros, that means its the reservation fee?

1. Trenitalia.com is the website of the national rail company in Italy, so the fares are accurate. However, it shows the low price for special fares that may have already sold out. The price on the “continue to buy” would be the actual fare to book that ticket on-line right now. The special fares may sell out or may not be available for purchase at the station. Remember that the ticket price on Trenitalia will include the reservation (15 to 20 euros on EurostarItalia trains) which is not covered by a railpass.

Ok, i understand.

How do I find out how much the reservation is going to cost me? Cos i was checking tgv just now and i didn’t see an option for eurail pass holders when asked for “your season ticket”. Same for trenitalia, they don’t have an option for select eurail pass under “Select your fare”.

You are making this much more difficult than it needs to be. The simple fact is that you can not figure out exactly what specific train tickets (or reservations) are going to cost until you actually buy the tickets. You will not know exactly which, if any, rail pass is the absolute best deal for your itinerary until your trip is over and you know exactly which trains you took and exactly what you paid for the tickets and can compare that to the various railpasses. Try putting your itinerary in at www.railsaver.com to see which railpass it recommends.

I think the best list of what reservations cost if you buy them in Europe is this one from Rick Steves. http://www.ricksteve… I think all of the other websites just show the inflated prices they charge if you buy your reservations from them.

You can not generally buy “just a reservation” to use with a railpass from any of the national rail company websites — except for a very few trains on bahn.de, the German rail website. Since they don’t sell reservations on line, they don’t give you the prices for reservations on line. You have to either buy reservations at the station in Europe or pay the inflated prices (plus shipping) to buy from the sites that sell railpasses.

thanks.. i guess i’m going into too mcuh detail right now..
i should take it easy for the time being..
thanks for all the advice so far..

Not sure if this is a silly question but
My name on my passport is my last name followed by my first name (i’m from singapore). But what will be printed on the eurail pass would be my first name then last name. Does it matter? Should i adjust the sequence so i appears as it is in my passport?
thanks