Is A Eurail Pass Worth The Money
3. Eurail/Interrail train reservation
I was mentioning the booking fee before and here I will explain a bit about it. The Eurail/Interrail booking fee is another very important detail that you have to consider before buying the pass.
Remember, just because you are a lucky Eurail pass holder, that doesn't mean you can get on any train for free, whenever you want! Why? Because some of the trains will require you to pay a reservation fee.
Let's talk about it in detail:
When do I need to reserve a seat and how much is it?
There are 4 cases when you would need to reserve a seat on your trip:
- It is mandatory to book your seat on a night train;
- You normally have to book your seat when using a fast train (marked R on the app), but there are some exceptions;
- Most French trains (except regional trains) require a reservation because they have a limited number of seats;
- It makes sense to make Eurail reservations for your seat if you travel on a very popular route in a high season (April-August, December) and you are not sure you will have a place. Chances are, the train will be full if you decide to show up the day of and just board it.
NOTE: You can make a reservation up to 8 days before your train's departure day, but they advise doing it as early as possible if you can.
NOTE 2: You can't reserve first class seats in Germany, only second class.
NIGHT TRAINS
While making a reservation for some of the fast trains is optional, a reservation for the night trains is always mandatory, so make sure to book your spot in advance before taking the night train.
HOW MUCH IT IS – Again, it depends on which country and which route you are going to take. The average cost for a nice, comfy overnight ride by train is 20€, which might be even cheaper than spending your night in a hotel. That means you save both time and money on transportation while sleeping!
EXAMPLE – I took a night train from Bucharest (Romania) to Budapest (Hungary). The trip took about 10 hours and it cost me 26€ for a double sleeper.
You can read more about Eurail night train reservation fees here.
See what a night train ride from Romania to Hungary looks like:
HIGH-SPEED TRAINS
The countries that have many high-speed trains are France and Italy. That is a good thing to consider when choosing a country to visit during your trip!
While a fast train is very convenient because you can cross the entire country in a couple of hours, it will be costly because of the reservation fee. Of course, you can avoid paying that fee by only using slow regional trains, but this solution is usually quite inconvenient as it requires many connections and long waiting times.
Some routes are so popular among travelers and locals, you should try to make sure you have a secured spot on the train!
HOW MUCH IT IS – It really depends on the country, route and train you are taking. It can be anything from 3€ to 30€ for a high-speed train reservation.
EXAMPLE – A high-speed Frecciarossa intercity train in Italy will cost you an extra 10€ to book. A TGV train in France is 9€ to book. It gets more expensive if you travel from one country to another (using international trains). To go from Paris to Barcelona, for instance, is 35€ for a first class seat and 27€ for a second class seat.
NOTE: Even if you are a 1st class pass holder you can, of course, book a ticket for second class to save some money.
Why on Earth do I have to pay more to reserve my seat?
I feel your pain! Unfortunately, those are the rules of some countries in Europe and they do not allow you to just hop on the train, even if you have an Interrail/Eurail pass.
How do I understand when I need to reserve a seat?
You can check the Eurail timetable (on their website or in the app) and enter the departure and arrival stations, as well as the dates and times. After the system has found your train route, you can check and if it says R – reservation compulsory, that means you will generally need to reserve a seat.
Why generally? Because for some not-that-popular routes, the guy at the ticket counter told me that I didn't have to do it, even though there was R on it.
In case your train doesn't have an "R" (reservation compulsory), make sure to still reserve your seat if you are traveling in high season and you feel the probability the seats will be sold out is high. But, in the worst case scenario, you should still be allowed to board the train and stand the whole trip if you are desperate to go somewhere.
How do I reserve my seat?
There are different options here:
- At the ticket counter – attention! – It may require a lot of waiting. If you want to avoid the queue, do not go to huge train stations at peak times, but choose small ones instead.
- On their official website: you can use their Reservation Service (you will have to create an account first).
- Using their Rail Planner app
- There is also the option of booking your seat over the phone or using some railway companies online for specific countries. Read more about these options here.
Step-by-step tutorial on how to reserve a seat using the Rail Planner app:
1. Download the Rail Planner app
2. Tap the 3 horizontal lines on the left to reveal the menu. Select "Seat Reservations".
3. Select "International trains"
4. Enter your travel details, meaning the station/city you want to depart from and the station/city you wish to arrive to, the date and preferred time, as well as the number of passengers.
5. Then you will see the available options. Select the most convenient route and time for yourself and choose if you want to make a reservation in first class or second class (if both of them are available).
6. Next, you can see what is included, compare the reservation fares and mention where you would want to sit.
7. Next, you have to select your preferred delivery option for your ticket (most of them are e-tickets which don't need to be printed; you can have it on your smartphone).
8. Insert your personal info and the number of your Eurail/Interrail pass, proceed to checkout and done!
What if I don't reserve my seat?
If you don't reserve a seat and just seat yourself randomly, it might be someone else's seat who bought the ticket at full price. You might end up without a place and be kicked out by a ticket controller afterwards.
On some trains, there are signs above the seat. If there is a paper or an electronic display with a route or name, it means the seat is reserved. You can sit in the unreserved one and then no one will bother you!
How do I avoid trains that need to be reserved?
You can totally avoid the reservation fee if you only use regional trains. But how do you plan your trip according to that criteria?
In order to avoid the trains that you need to pay a reservation fee for, I advise you to use the mobile app called Rail Planner App that I mentioned above.
It might not be so obvious how you can set up the app to only show the trains without "R" (reservation required), but here is the way to do it:
- Open the app ->
- Go to "Trip Planner" ->
- Press the Settings symbol ->
- Tick "Trains without compulsory reservation"
And voila! This way, the app will only show you the regional trains, so that you can easily avoid the reservation fee.
EXAMPLE: To go from Brussels to Paris with a direct train for the last leg of my trip, it would take me only 1h20min, but I would have to pay about 30€ for the reservation fee.
If I choose to see only the trains with the "No compulsory reservation" option, the app will give me an option to go with regional trains. In this case, I would have to change trains 2 or 3 times and it would also take me longer – about 4 hours, but this way I could save my 30€!
If I miss a connection train, do I have to pay the reservation fee again?
If this was a train you reserved and paid to reserve a seat beforehand, unfortunately, the answer is yes. It happened to me once because my other train was late.
In this case, you reserve a particular seat on a particular train, so even if the train was late and it is not your fault, you will have to pay again to reserve another seat on your next train.
Thus, I advise you to try and avoid short connections and don't be late for the trains you have reserved!
That said, if you missed a train you were originally planning to take and that one didn't require a paid reservation, you are free to hop on any next train, that is the beauty of using the Eurail pass!
Is A Eurail Pass Worth The Money
Source: https://misstourist.com/interrail-eurail-pass-is-it-really-worth-it/
Posted by: woodcrigoithave.blogspot.com
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