Slow down

Speed is not compulsory. Eurail is great for travelers keen to cover a lot of ground, but it may not always be the cheapest option. For example, if you book well in advance, stick to main routes and commit to a fixed itinerary, then the aggregate cost of a sequence of point-to-point tickets bought direct from the various European rail operators may, for many itineraries, undercut the cost of a rail pass.

Stopping off on a whim. Photo © hidden europe magazine

Dynamic pricing (often dubbed “market pricing”) means that for long hops between major cities in Europe there are nowadays some super deals available on point-to-point tickets. Shift to lesser routes, frequented by slower trains, and you may find little or nothing by way of discounts on international journeys.

Our view is that these slower trains are often a far better way of seeing Europe than the high-speed services. You’ll meet locals along the way, rather than just other tourists following similar itineraries to yourself.

Fast can be cheap

But expect to pay more for a journey with local trains than you might on the parallel high-speed services. Book in advance to ride a fast TGV from Paris to Marseille, and you can pick up a one-way ticket for less than €50 — if you are lucky and can travel off-peak perhaps even for just €20.

But if you take the slower TER trains from Paris to the Mediterranean, there is just the Tarif Normal. And that is more than €100 one-way. No discounts for pre-booking. No discounts…. full stop.

Best use of Eurail

Has slow travel thus become a privilege of the rich? Well, not quite, because a day on slower trains can be a very wise use of a Eurail or InterRail pass. And that applies equally to the global and flexi variants of both passes.

Budget-conscious holders of flexi-passes now appreciate that pass days are better reserved for journeys on slower trains where you want to preserve total flexibility. If you know you need to make a fast hop on a high-speed train (where you might in any case need to make a seat reservation and pay a supplement with a rail pass), then perhaps that’s the day to plan ahead and book a discounted point-to-point ticket on the Web site of the relevant rail operator.

So how slow is slow? Well, it’ll still be a lot faster than even the fast trains of yesteryear. European train services have so improved over the last 30 years that devotees of slower trains will still be making faster progress than those of our parents’ generation who clanked across Europe on what were, back in the 1970s and 1980s, acclaimed premium high-speed services.

Stop off and explore

The beauty of slow trains is that you don’t need to book. If a spot takes your fancy, just hop off and explore — then continue with the next train. On many routes, slow trains run hourly.

We have made long international journeys like this. True, it took us 12 hours to get from Switzerland to Spain. With premium fast trains we might have trimmed three or four hours off that. But we had that ineffable pleasure of trundling through vineyards, watching birds on lonely marshlands and stopping at little rural railway stations. The journey became an event in itself.

Eurail is a marvelous product, and that goes equally for its sister InterRail which is geared to European residents. Both families of rail passes can offer great value for money. But, contrary to what you might assume, it is the devotees of slower trains and more rural itineraries who get the most handsome return on their investment in a rail pass. If speed is more your style, and if all you aim to do is hit the big cities, then think carefully before buying a pass.

Taking slower trains which don’t require supplements or advance reservation is much more fun and preserves what is, after all, the prime benefit of a rail pass: its total flexibility.

You can read more about rail passes in two other articles published this week by the team from hidden europe. The full text of an article on InterRail, published on 16 July in hidden europe magazine, is available online. And another article on the hidden europe website, published on 17 July, questions some of the mythology that has developed around rail passes.

The post Slow Down to Make the Most of a Eurail Pass appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

1972 saw the launch of InterRail, an initiative of a consortium of national rail operators across Europe to fill up empty train seats during the slack summer period.

Chance meetings

Greg and Émilie live just outside Geneva. They enjoy gorgeous views of Lake Geneva and the trains that pass their front door. Their children have fled the nest, and both Émilie and Greg are looking forward to the day a few years hence when they will retire. “It’ll be a chance to explore Europe by train, just as we did in the late seventies,” says Greg as a train to Lausanne rattles past their balcony.

The couple, he Scottish and she French, met on a train traveling up the Rhine gorge in the summer of 1977. “The train had a romantic name,” recalls Émilie. “It was called the Loreley Express,” she explains. “I was on my way from Cologne to Rome and Greg was bound for Florence.” The Loreley Express was the springboard for a lifelong partnership.

Rites of passage

What was first seen as a one-off promotion quickly evolved into a long-term program that marked a generation of young travelers.

“I had little concept of Europe, before setting off from Lille with my first InterRail ticket,” recalls Émilie. “Those summer explorations, several of them, allowed me to explore Europe. And they were a chance to discover myself.”

For young Europeans from 1972 onwards, InterRail became a rite of passage. It marked a milestone in their personal development. For many, it was a first chance to travel without their parents. They set out with their rail passes and too little money. They slept on trains to save funds and they relished the freedom and uncertainty that came as part of the InterRail package. Some set out to go to Copenhagen and ended up in Cádiz.

A partner for Eurail

Americans had enjoyed the benefits of Eurail passes since 1959. For American visitors to Europe, Eurail was all about minimizing risk and uncertainty. They followed well-trodden trails, they reserved seats in advance and traveled in first-class comfort. In those early days, Eurail covered a very limited number of countries in western Europe. (It has since expanded its coverage eastward across the continent).

The InterRail experience created by young Europeans for the first time in 1972 was the complete antithesis of the classic Eurail tour. It covered a much larger area than Eurail. It dramatically changed personal mobility. Nothing was pre-booked or pre-planned. “I can remember standing at Cologne station and seeing Americans joining one of the sleek TEE trains. They all had very smart suitcases, preferred the first-class-only TEE trains, and knew exactly where they would be sleeping that night,” says Émilie.

InterRail created a very different breed of traveler — a veritable flood of young people who cared little where they went and never planned in advance. Backpacks and guitars were the norm.

The journey matters

The journey mattered more than the destination. British travel writer Tim Locke, a veteran of many InterRail adventures, reflects on the heyday of InterRail: “There really was a charming spontaneity about the whole affair. Things went wrong, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter. It was all part of the InterRail experience.”

Some devotees of InterRail took this philosophy to extremes. Manfred Weis left his Karlsruhe home in 1987 with a one-month pass valid for the whole of Europe. Over the following 31 days he traveled over 30,000 kilometers. He slept on trains for 26 nights of his journey. We met Manfred just last week, when he was en route from Spain to Poland. And yes, you guessed it. He was traveling on an InterRail Pass — some habits, it seems, are just too hard to kick.

Irishman Mick MacO set out to break records in 1995. He had never before left his native country and was keen to discover this place called Europe. The journey took such a toll on Mick that he then needed a dozen years to publish an account of his journey to 28 cities in 30 days.

InterRail: First class and senior passes

Recent years have seen an evolution in both the Eurail and the InterRail schemes. There are fewer night trains, and those that remain are not quite so tolerant of casual travelers looking for a free place to sleep. Most levy supplements for pass holders. And even daytime travel is not always free. Many premium services (eg. TGVs in France and AVEs in Spain) require compulsory advance reservation. The hop-on-and-ride mentality has been tamed.

Both the Eurail and InterRail schemes are managed nowadays by the Utrecht-based company Eurail Group. The age limits on InterRail have been completely dropped and there are even discounts for seniors. There are now second-class options on many Eurail passes, and a first-class InterRail product is now available.

The latter is a canny move. The first InterRail generation are now well settled into careers and the pioneers will soon be collecting their pensions. Eurail Group’s Marketing Director Ana Dias e Seixas is quick to point out that the freedom to roam is not limited by age. “While InterRail has long been associated with the youth market,” she says, “it has clearly evolved into a product for all ages. Travel by rail offers a sense of freedom and independence not associated with any other form of transport.”

So a big happy 40th birthday to InterRail, the rail pass that helped shape a generation and one that looks set to continue making its mark on Europe over the next 40 years.

The post Happy Birthday InterRail: 40 years of travel adventure appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The Bernina option

But let’s say you are in St. Moritz. As one Cheapo, commenting on our post last week, nicely put it “the Bernina route is more amazing and a lot cheaper.”

Tirano (via the Bernina Pass) makes a superb day out from St. Moritz. Trains run hourly and a return ticket from St. Moritz to Tirano costs 58 Swiss Francs ($68). If you have a Eurail or InterRail Pass valid in Switzerland, you’ll ride for free. By contrast, a return run to Zermatt on the Glacier Express is 338 Swiss Francs ($398) and neither InterRail nor Eurail will get you a free ride.

If you do ride the Bernina route and it’s a fine day, opt for the 10:45 a.m. departure from St. Moritz which until August 31 carries open-top carriages. Allow a couple of hours for lunch in Tirano, where the Ristorante Sale e Pepe (right by the station) is a great choice, and take the 3:40 p.m. train back to St. Moritz.

Zürich to Lake Geneva

But let’s assume you are a real rail-hound, keen on long journeys and want to see a lot of Switzerland through the train window. If you are in any of the main cities, and are pressed for time, you could do better than the Glacier Express.

Our favorite Swiss rail route is the seven-hour journey from Zürich via Lucerne, Interlaken and Gstaad to Lausanne on Lake Geneva. The journey is often dubbed the GoldenPass route. It requires changes of train along the way (as the track gauge switches from standard to narrow and back again).

For a map and a table showing the main stages of the journey from Zürich to Lausanne, just follow this link. Distance-wise, this route is much the same length as the Glacier Express, though the overall journey time is about an hour shorter.

The one-way fare from Zürich to Lausanne by this route is 89 Swiss Francs ($104). The Swiss Pass, InterRail and Eurail Pass are all valid for the entire route. And there are no nasty supplements. Major agents such as Rail Europe UK or their US representative can give helpful advice on ticket deals and packages or simply buy your ticket on the Swiss Railways Web site and hop on the next train.

Route highlights

The first part of the ride south from Zürich is tame, but south from Lucerne the hills close in and the train climbs steeply to a summit station at Brünig-Hasliberg, which happens to have in the station building what must surely rate as one of Europe finest bric-a-brac shops. With trains running every hour, it is easy to break your journey.

From Brünig, it’s downhill all the way to Meiringen, a town that claims to be the birthplace of meringue (the confection rather than the Caribbean musical genre of the same name). Then west to Interlaken and Spiez — with fine views over the Thunersee — before climbing the Simmen Valley.

Hills roll into more hills and the train traverses several ridges, passing the resort town of Gstaad, before a spectacular descent down to Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. The final part of the journey to Lausanne traverses the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, a wonderful sweep of ancient villages and vineyards that is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Options

From Lausanne, you can continue to Geneva, with five fast trains each hour taking about 40 minutes. Or you can return north on the main line with trains that run every 30 minutes to Berne (1 hr 10 mins travel time) and Zürich (2 hrs 10 mins travel time).

If you want to spread the journey over several days, obvious places for overnight stops are Lucerne, Interlaken, Gstaad and Montreux.

The post Switzerland by Train: Alternatives to the Glacier Express appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Riding the Glacier Express in Switzerland

Yes, the 180-mile journey from St. Moritz to Zermatt is a very fine trip, though hardly the express run implied by the name. The Glacier Express journey takes a shade under eight hours, and the route’s summer season is now in full swing. Departures from St Moritz are twice daily through September 25, with the schedule dropping back to one departure daily until late October, when the glitzy trains with their panorama coaches are shunted off into the sidings for a fall break.

A panoramic view aboard the Glacier Express. Photo: Mark & Gideon

The route: Tunnels, bridges and gorges galore

Travelers have a tendency to flock to well-known sights, and the Glacier Express, which has been particularly heavily promoted in the North American and Japanese markets, now features on the “must do” list of many non-Europeans visiting Switzerland.

Don’t misunderstand us. It is a super journey, but we are far from sure that it is the best on offer in Switzerland. The views while the train is in 191 tunnels are not great. And it would be difficult to contrive a route of similar length elsewhere in Switzerland that is so utterly devoid of lakes. The Glacier Express is very much a route in the mountains, much of it through deep gorges or barren high terrain.

Some who know the route well comment that the two stretches of industrial valley scenery (around Reichenau and later at Visp) come as a rather welcome relief from dark, forbidding crags and brooding snowfields.

Go local

Our issue with the Glacier Express is that it is promoted outside Europe as an up-market “exclusive” tourist experience with a price tag to match. That drives away the locals. And there are plentiful local trains that serve exactly the same route which have sensible prices (no hefty tourist supplements, no need to reserve seats in advance) and are often very much less busy than the Glacier Express.

Seven daily departures from St. Moritz on those regular local trains provide connections through to Zermatt in just over eight hours — so just 20 minutes slower than on the so-called “express.” The only downside with the local services is that you do need to change trains along the way, but the connections work perfectly in a way that only the Swiss can manage.

And the big advantage of the local trains is that on some of them you can open the windows (great for photography, and also a chance to enjoy the fresh mountain air).

The fares

It is not that locals despise the idea of traveling with tourists. But the prices drive them away. The one-hour stretch of the Glacier Express from Disentis to Andermatt is in our view one of the finest parts of the entire route. The trains chugs up over the wild Oberalp Pass. On the local trains that ply this route, generally once each hour, the one-way fare is 19 Swiss Francs (about $23). But use the Glacier Express — which isn’t any faster on this stretch—for the same journey, and the fare hikes up to 52 Swiss Francs ($62).

The regular second-class fare to ride the full Glacier Express route from St. Moritz to Zermatt this summer is 169 Swiss Francs ($202). This includes the compulsory seat reservation fee.

Travellers with a Swiss Pass may ride the Glacier Express by just paying a 33 Swiss Franc reservation fee. Holders of InterRail and Eurail Passes receive a discount, with fares for travel this summer as follows (always including the seat reservations): Eurail passes 94.50 Swiss Francs ($113), Adult InterRail passes 115 Swiss Francs ($137.50), Youth InterRail passes 74 Swiss Francs ($88.50).

Is it worth the ride?

In our view, it’s a fun day out and certainly a journey through magnificent scenery. If you are tempted, ride the local trains on the same route which have far more character. But eight hours is a long time, and the unremitting diet of gorges and glaciers can pall. There are, we think, other rail journeys in Switzerland which are cheaper, shorter, and—by virtue of being more varied—much more appealing.

Next week we shall review one of our personal favourites.

Have you boarded the Glacier Express?

Share your Glacier Express experience with us in the comments section. How much did you pay for your ticket? Was it worth it?

The post Switzerland by Train: Is the Glacier Express worth the ticket price? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Sure, everyday small charges like cafe cremes in Paris (€2-4) and vaporetto rides in Venice (€6.50) do add up and can make a Cheapo panic. However, these are relatively minor charges when compared to the big-ticket items in your budget: flights, hotels, car rentals and train tickets.

Luckily, there are simple steps you can take right now to minimize these big expenses. Some of these tips may be old news to you, bien sur. But even if one tip comes in handy, it could save you a whole wad of euros.

Kayak’s price alert

1. Set up airfare alerts

Haven’t booked your airline tickets yet? Set up airfare alerts to find a flight deal on Web sites like Kayak.com and Airfarewatchdog.com.

On Kayak, do a search for your desired travel dates and then click “Get a price alert” on the left side of the page. Once you register, they’ll email you with daily or weekly airfare deals for your route.

On Airfarewatchdog, “Deal Hounds” sniff out the lowest ticket prices for your route and send similar email updates. On both sites, you stand a much better chance of scoring a deal if your travel dates are flexible.

2. Pack lightly

As we mentioned last week, most transatlantic airlines have introduced ridiculous baggage fees for checking a second, third or overweight bag. For flights from the US to Europe, these fees can be as high as $200 per bag (one way!).

Check out our roundup of airline baggage fees and only check one bag.

The RoissyBus taks passengers from Paris to Charles de Gaulle.

3. Take public transportation to and from the airport

Alas, how many people have we dissuaded from taking a taxi from Charles de Gaulle to their hotel in Paris! Every one of the major European cities we cover on EuroCheapo offers public transportation from the airport to the center of town, and the majority offer both train and bus options.

Whether you’re getting from Charles de Gaulle to Paris or Schiphol to Amsterdam, there’s a budget-friendly (and usually quite efficient) way into town that doesn’t involve an expensive taxi. Check out our city guides for more information.

4. Think twice before booking a rail pass

For Americans, the lure of the Eurail Pass is strong. Just reading the descriptions of the passes on their Web site can get you excited and ready to hop on board!

It’s easy to forget that these rail passes are not always a good deal. Sure, they offer some convenience and peace of mind, but they don’t always save you money over simply buying individual point-to-point rail tickets (like the millions of Europeans who take trains daily).

Aboard the Renfe train between Cordoba and Granada. No need for a rail pass.

To find out if a rail pass offers “rail” savings, compare the pass price to the point-to-point ticket prices found on the railways’ official Web site (and not the Web site of a rail pass re-seller).

For much more information on this, read these posts: Read this before you buy a European rail passes; Extra charges for rail pass holders; Deutsche Bahn fares better than rail agents; How to book French rail tickets (in French)

5. Book major train tickets in advance

If booking rail journeys directly with the European railways, like the SNCF (France), Deutsche Bahn (Germany) and Renfe (Spain), book those seats in advance. For long-distance train travel, ticket prices climb as the travel date approaches, so advance booking is essential to getting a deal. Most of these railways release tickets three or four months in advance. (Local trains for small jaunts, however, do not need to be booked in advance.)

For more information, read our post on the “three-month rule.”

The EuroCheapo gang rented this car in Berlin. We weren’t smiling two weeks later when we paid the bill.

6. Know the real cost of renting a car

How much will that rental car really cost you? When you do a quick rental car search online, the rates you see will most likely not include taxes or insurance, and certainly won’t include the price of gasoline or the tolls you’ll pay on major highways.

Read our quick guide to calculating the real cost of renting a car in Europe. Then weigh those costs against other options, like trains or budget flights.

Then, use EuroCheapo to search and compare car rental quotes from competing agencies.

While you’re at it, know whether or not to buy extra insurance for your car. (And for that matter, know if you should buy travel insurance for your entire trip!)

7. Choose your hotel wisely

Your hotel expenditure will probably be the most expensive part of your trip. Here at EuroCheapo, we’re obsessed with hotel values. That’s why our editors spend so much time snooping around hotels, taking photos and writing reviews. We can tell you that two hotels sitting side-by-side can charge radically different rates for remarkably similar rooms.

The Hotel Tiquetonne in Paris is central, clean and cheap.

When choosing a hotel, consider “losing a star,” downgrading perhaps from a three-star to a two-star hotel. Decide which amenities you require in a room: Do you need a minibar? cable TV? elevator? If you’re open to a simpler hotel, you can save a bundle and you might find the hotel to be more charming, as well.

Also, give careful consideration to the hotel’s location. If you decide upon a hotel located outside the city center in order to save money, will there be an easy and affordable way home at night? We usually opt for simpler hotels near the center, within walking distance of nighttime activities, if possible.

Read our reviews of budget hotels all over Europe and take our advice–we’ve been there!

8. Know what’s for breakfast

This may sound minor, but breakfast is a big business for hotels. Whether or not breakfast is included in your room rate can add a jarring amount to the bill or save you in the end. It’s a tad confusing, too, as breakfast offerings tend to change by city.

These water bottles in Venice are cheaper at the supermarket.

In Paris, for example, most hotels do not include breakfast in the room rate. When you pay for breakfast, you’ll often be disappointed by what’s set down in front of you: a croissant or piece of baguette, butter and jelly, coffee and juice–for about €10. You’d pay about half that if you headed to a neighborhood cafe, stood at the bar and enjoyed breakfast with the locals.

In London, meanwhile, hotels and B&B’s pride themselves in their included breakfasts, which often come with eggs, bacon, sausage, beans and toast. It’s not necessarily healthy, but it’s good for your budget! (It also helps you eat a lighter and cheaper lunch.)

In many cities, hotels sometimes include breakfast in the room rate, depending upon conditions when booking. The only way to really know if it’s included is to check when reserving your room.

There’s another easy way to eat a healthy breakfast and pay a fraction of the price: Head to a neighborhood supermarket after checking into your hotel to pick up the essentials (bottles of water, oranges, bananas, etc.). If your room has a mini-fridge, you could store yogurt, milk or juice. Bon appetit!

9. Be careful with American iPhones

Americans heading to Europe should be careful before powering up their iPhones abroad. AT&T offers various European travel plans, and almost all of them are too expensive to be a serious option for budget travelers.

We recommend leaving your iPhone set to “Airplane Mode” throughout your trip, and only using it when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Read more in our guide to “Using an American iPhone in Europe… without going broke.”

10. Understand bank fees before using your credit cards or an ATM

How much will your bank charge you to use your credit or debit card abroad? How about withdrawing money from an ATM? When’s the last time you checked?

American banks have “adjusted” their fee structures during the past few years, so we’d recommend checking in with your banks before heading to Europe. If you have multiple cards at your disposal, chances are that they’ll charge different foreign transaction fees. Knowing who charges what will save you money in the end.

Read our quick overview to ATM, Debit and Credit Card charges abroad.

Your tips for saving on European travel

What tips do you have for saving on your “big ticket” items when traveling in Europe? Have a question about any of the tips mentioned above? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

The post Cheapo Basics: 10 ways to save on the “big items” in your travel budget appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

1. Pick the route less traveled

Paris, Vienna and Switzerland are luxury gems worth seeing when you have the budget, but penny pinchers should lean more towards Mediterranean marvels and Eastern European beauties like Dubrovnik, Krakow and Budapest.

2. Avoid travel packages

Seven-day bus tours and vacation packages are carefree ways to roam, but extra costs for meals and side attractions add up fast. Europe can be a traveler’s playground in most cases, so be independent.

3. Couch surf

The hotel industry, even in cheap Euro destinations, knows tourists will easily pay high costs for beds. Couch surfing communities, like couchsurfing.org, provide a network of inviting hosts offering their couches to travelers for free. The wave has notably hit Europe, and the option is a big money saver for the adventurous traveler.

4. Fly

Eurail passes are still good deals for backpackers on an unplanned continental whirlwind. Yet those with a decided destination can search dozens of low-cost airline companies carting passengers for pennies. Long-distance flights, like Istanbul to Morocco and London to Rome can be as cheap as $20 to $60 one way. Visit our flight section for budget airline information, and also check out the Skyscanner Web site.

5. Pack light

Those who’ve traveled in the past five years know that checking in luggage is an annoying extra cost. Strip your pack to less than necessary and throw it on your back. Aim to carry around 10 percent of your body weight. You can buy whatever you need upon arrival.

6. Take photos

The best way to document your journey is not through trinkets and t-shirts. Small digital cameras allow sightseers to capture hundreds of frames (and memories) while saving some precious cash. Plus, photos have a lifetime warranty!

7. No. 1 souvenir: Postcards

Everyone loves postcards because they’re a novelty, collector’s item and personal greeting all in one. The old-fashioned task of sending postcards only highlights the charming surprise one feels when receiving them. Postcards keep the souvenir tab low in cost but high in sincerity.

8. Two’s company

While three’s a crowd and solo style can get pricey, traveling with a buddy sheds cost in unexpected ways. From two-for-ones to special offers for couples, it’s surprising how much you can save when “going Dutch”.

9. Walk

Trams, buses, metros and taxis are a city’s biggest rip-off. Walking has so many advantages—exercise, more photo-ops, and overall a better and more exciting view of a city and its surroundings.

10. Eat light

Munching on smaller meals and going grocery shopping for snacks can keep your energy high all day, plus it keeps you away from big bills at tourist trap bistros. Don’t forget that ordering to go costs less, and eating in a park with a bottle of wine is more romantic than a busy terrace with sub-par service.

Bonus Tip: Avoid summer travel. Europe can be just as fun and beautiful in the spring and fall. Even the winter can make way for romantic wonderlands in the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Scandinavian Mountains.  Traveling during the off-season means cheaper prices—and less crowds.

The post Travel Tips: 10 ways to travel Europe for under $1000 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Victor posted on March 11, 2010:

“Hi, three of us have planned a trip to Europe from 27th June 2010 to the 10th July 2010. Our itinerary will take us from London to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Berlin and back to Paris and London.

We wish to travel extensively by rail. Please help us make a schedule that would enable us to touch all or most of the cities as planned above and at reasonably priced rates. We are all adults above 40 years of age and most likely do not qualify for any discounted fares. Please also inform us when and where rail bookings could be done in the UK. Thanks.”

________________

Reply from Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner of hidden europe:

Hi Victor,

We cannot help you with all you ask, but we can venture a few comments that will perhaps inform your thinking, as you and your friends plan your journey. In responding to your question, we hope these thoughts will also be of broader interest to folk here on EuroCheapo.

The key thing here is to think very carefully quite what you and your two traveling companions want to get out of your upcoming journey. Is the journey the centrepiece or are your hearts set on getting to know the various cities you plan to visit? We rather sense the latter.

1. Too packed an itinerary

Europe is a lot larger than many outsiders imagine, and your itinerary touches only a small part of western Europe. You have fourteen days for your explorations (including your days of arrival in and departure from Europe). Let’s assume that you spend at least a couple of nights in London after flying in, and you want to be back in London on the eve of your departure. That brings the time available for the round trip through continental Europe down to ten nights.

Taking the fastest trains, your itinerary from London to Rome and back (as specified) would take 75 hours. Are you really thinking of spending six or seven hours every single day on trains? If you use slower night trains, you can sleep from one city to the next, but your 75 hours travel becomes closer to 100 hours.

Our view is that this could so easily turn out to be the trip from hell. Of course, you could use night trains for some legs, but you are still spending much time travelling. At the pace you propose you have only one day to see some cities. Yes, that is do-able, but how much can you see in that time?

Let’s take an example. You could leave your hotel in Rome before 7 AM and be in the middle of Venice in time for lunch. You could sightsee in Venice for the afternoon, and catch a night train at 9 PM direct to Vienna. You would be in the middle of Vienna by 9 AM next morning – great if like us you sleep very well on night trains. But if you don’t sleep perfectly, you could arrive shattered and it’ll be too early to be able to check into a hotel.

The sequence in which you have ordered the cities is very sensible, but the entire itinerary is too condensed. Over a couple of months it could be fun. Packed into a few days, it might become an ordeal. You could possibly shift Amsterdam towards the end as it could easily be accommodated en route from Berlin to London, assuming you had no real wish or need to go back through Paris a second time. So the home stretch back to London would now look as follows:

Berlin to Amsterdam: 7 hrs by day (with one train change en route at Amersfoot)
Amsterdam to London: 5 hrs by day (with one change at Bruxelles Midi)

Moving Amsterdam to later in the sequence then frees you up to take the Palatino night train direct from Paris to Rome. Departure is around 6 PM each day. Lovely train – you can enjoy dinner on board as the countryside south of Paris slips by outside the window. It is a super way to spend a summer evening.

Bear in mind that our aggregate travel figure is time on the actual trains. Add in transfers in each city from hotel to train and vv, and your time for sightseeing is even more eaten up by travelling.

Our feeling is that each city on your list deserves a week – not just a few hours. At the very least, you need two full non-travel days in each city just to begin to scrape the surface. That implies three nights in each city. With the time you have you could perhaps pack in three cities on the continent (ie. apart from London) but surely not more.

2. What kind of Europe

Europe is a continent of countryside and small towns. The places you propose to visit are busy, cosmopolitan, and (dare we say) much favoured by international tourists. They are spots you can be sure of finding Starbucks, crushed ice and waiters who speak English.

But there is another Europe – the Europe favoured by many Europeans. If you could throw in a dose of small town Europe, you would find out so much more about our continent, our lives and our varied cultures. And if you are to travel so fast, then it is easier to get the flavour of a country in a smaller place. Better Bergamo than Rome; better Potsdam, Görlitz or Quedlinburg than Berlin; better Shaftesbury, Lavenham or Cambridge than London.

Why not drop some big cities in favour of smaller places? Relax. Take time and watch the sun set behind the mountains in the Alps. Less might be more.

3. Advance booking is the way to deep discounts

You suggest that you may not qualify for any discounted fare. This is not the case. Anyone in Europe can qualify for a discounted fare.

Let us take Vienna to Berlin as an example, using the only direct trains that link the two cities. These all run via Prague and Dresden (yes… more temptations Victor, we know, for now you’ll surely want to pack in an afternoon in each of those two cities as well).

If you just pitch up in Vienna and buy the Berlin ticket on the day (and that is always possible), the regular one-way fare is €117. If you purchase the ticket well in advance (we always recommend 10 to 12 weeks), then you can ride the same route on the same trains for €29. Even with the cheapest fares, you can still break your journey (in Prague, Dresden or anywhere else on the way), but you have to specify that at the time of booking. With the full fare you do not need to pre-specify stopovers.

If you book slightly in advance, say just a week or two before travel, you will still get a ticket for way less than €117, but it will no longer be €29. For a midweek off-peak day, booked a week in advance, you might pay €49. For a peak summer travel day, you might pay €99. But chances are that you will still get a discount.

But it is not as if students or seniors can somehow get privileged access to the rock bottom €29 fare. You can secure the most heavily discounted fares if you book well in advance. Advance booking is the key to cheap travel – not age.

4. Night train fares and the Eurail pass

If you take our suggestion above of using the Palatino train from Paris to Rome, bear in mind the fares structure. We give this as just one further example of how much fares can vary. That run can cost as little as €76 per person if booked in advance (using the Artesia Depart+Go fare). Or as much as €265 each if you book at short notice and opt for the highest class of accommodation (ie. sole occupancy of a sleeper compartment).

Be wary of rail passes sold outside Europe. If you are doing a very packed itinerary, spending hours each day on trains, they may be great value. But check the small print. For many routes they may not offer entirely free travel.

Let’s go back to our Artesia example above, using the Palatino night train from Paris to Rome. Book now, and as we said you could get tickets for €76. If you have a rail pass that includes either France or Italy, you might imagine you would ride for free. But actually not – a Eurailpass valid in France or Italy will give you a €6 discount on the €76 Depart+Go fare. So you pay €70 in all.

5. More information and booking

Web sites are great for travel planning, and you can book most or even all these tickets online now – even before you leave the US. We would advise that, rather than waiting (as you imply in your question) until you arrive in the UK to book tickets.

And remember that the best deals will always be on the websites run by the rail operators – not those run by agents outside Europe. To get the best from those websites, use the native language versions of them.

Once your exact itinerary is clear we can advise you the best site to book each leg. You could end up using such a variety of services, that you might be looking to a mix of train companies for your bookings: Eurostar, DB, Thalys, Artesia, SNCF, Trenitalia, SBB, ÖBB and more besides.

With a packed itinerary like this, and so many trains, there will surely be a hitch or two along the way. In such cases, there is no substitute for a printed timetable – and it is good at the planning phase too. We suggest you purchase the current (ie. March 2010) issue of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable. Details are available on the Thomas Cook website. That will be a great asset in planning.

You might also consider getting the June issue in due course too – just to ensure that the schedules you have with you on the actual journey are bang up-to-date.

6. Apologia

So, Victor, we fear we have not answered your questions quite as you would have wished. But we hope that in these words there is something that will assist you in your travel planning. We wish you and your two traveling companions a fun time as you journey through Europe.

The post European Train Travel: Some important considerations before booking tickets appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Until this year, Eurail train passes did not even include the Czech Republic—although holders of Eurail passes valid in Germany or Austria could purchase a vastly overpriced add-on which allowed one return journey from the Czech border to Prague and back via the quickest route. It’s no surprise, therefore, that pass holders didn’t wander around the Czech Republic, but made a quick dash to the capital, stayed the usual two or three nights, and then headed straight back for the border.

One other Czech destination, Cesky Krumlov, developed a fad appeal for a spell, and backpackers drinking their way through Europe flocked to the small town in southern Bohemia only to find that the place also holds a magnetic pull for elderly Austrians who make day trips to Cesky Krumlov to indulge in coffee and cake.

Beyond Prague and Cesky Krumlov

Yet “Off the Beaten Path” Bohemia is a superbly good value, a part of Europe where the prices of accommodation, food, drinks and travel have scarcely risen over the last decade. Bohemia boasts some of the finest town squares in Europe and, for those who know their Hussites from their Habsburgs, some wonderful insights into the religious, political, and social history of central Europe.

5 Star Attractions in Bohemia

So, especially for EuroCheapo, here is the hidden europe quintet of perfect Bohemian hideaways. These are small towns, and are all very different places. Each surely warrants a visit in its own right, but taken as a fivesome, the quintet offer the very best of hidden Bohemia.

Western Bohemia: Horsovsky Tyn and Domazlice

Domazlice’s town square.

Horsovsky Tyn and Domazlice are our two top choices for western Bohemia. The two towns are near the Bavarian border and just a dozen miles apart. They both boast superb town squares, utterly different from each other, but very beautiful. Both spots are about three hours by fast train from Prague.

Heading North: Litomerice

The city of Litomerice in northern Bohemia combines Hussite tradition with an almost Mediterranean, laid back approach to life. With another great central square, one of the largest in Europe, the city is by far the most accessible from Prague of our quintet of Bohemian stars, being just eighty minutes by train from the Czech capital.

Spa Diversions: Frantiskovy Lazne

Tucked away in the far northwest corner of both Bohemia and the Czech Republic are several small towns that deserve to be much better known. Some travellers have discovered the spa towns of Marianske Lazne (Marienbad) and Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad). But few foreigners venture to Frantiskovy Lazne, in our opinion the nicest of the trio of Czech spa towns close to the German border. It is four hours by direct train from Prague.

Following Goethe: Loket

Our fifth and last star town is Loket, a little hilltop town which the German poet Goethe is alleged to have said was his favorite spot in world. (This might be taken with a pinch of salt as Goethe was deeply infatuated with a local girl at the time, and nothing undermines impartiality of judgement quite like being in love.) It is four hours by train from Prague with one change along the way.

Eurail and the Czech Republic

We have already noted above that Eurail has extended its coverage to include the entire Czech Republic. But train fares are so remarkably cheap that purchasing a pass is hardly worthwhile. A one-way journey from Prague to the remotest corner of Bohemia by bus and train will never cost more than a few euros.

The post Czech Republic: Five “off the beaten path” Bohemian gems appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

We took a day out from our regular work with hidden europe magazine last week and conjured up a tempting palette of trips criss-crossing the continent. And then we compared the ticket prices on a national rail website (that of the Deutsche Bahn) with the prices offered for those journeys by rail ticketing agents based in Britain and North America. We took care to ensure that the tickets we purchased were in every case for exactly the same trains.

So a straight comparison, comparing like-with-like. Same class of travel, same comfy seat, same scenery slipping by outside the window – for all five routes in our basket of European rail trips.

The five routes we tested
1. Berlin to London single (by day, depart after 9:00 AM, any route) on September 3: one adult, 2nd class.
2. Amsterdam to Salzburg single (by day, no more than one change of train) on July 14: one adult, 1st class.
3. London to Cologne via Brussels single (depart at 8:00 AM or later) on September 10: one adult, 2nd class.
4. Berlin to Zagreb single via Hamburg (2 night stop) and Munich (2 night stop) on August 20: one adult, any class.
5. Nuremberg to Dresden same day return (direct trains only) on June 20 for a family of five, 2nd class.

For each of these five journeys, we thought that the German Railways (viz. Deutsche Bahn) website at www.bahn.de would offer some reasonable fare advice, and so it did. Indeed, all five journeys could be booked online through their website.

Then we turned to agents selling rail tickets in North America and Britain to get quotes for precisely the same journeys. This was done first by online research, often followed up by telephone calls to check precise details.

The results

And guess what? The leading agencies specializing in European rail tickets always charged at least twice as much as would the Deutsche Bahn for exactly the same journey.

The key point here is that in most of Europe, rail operators have a whole raft of special promotional fares that massively undercut the regular tariffs (often with discount of more than 80% on the standard fare). But agents rarely offer those discounted fares, preferring to safeguard their hefty commission fees by selling only the full fare.

Comparing the fares

Now take a look at how those fares compared. Listed below are the Deutsche Bahn (DB) fares that were available for purchase around midday of Friday, June 12, 2009 followed by the cheapest fare quoted the same day by a leading North American or British agent (all sterling and dollar fares have been converted to euros just to make things clearer).

1. Berlin to London (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €209
2. Amsterdam to Salzburg (1st class) DB: €79 / Agent Fare: €255
3. London to Cologne (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €106
4. Berlin to Zagreb with stops in Hamburg and Munich (2nd class) DB: €29 / Agent Fare: €322
5. Nuremberg to Dresden day return for family of 5 (2nd class) DB: €37 / Agent Fare: €705

Helpful advice?

We found one leading British agent who was extremely helpful on the phone, going to some lengths to suggest that for certain routes it might be wiser to get the tickets from a German source (but declining to give the specific name of the company or website).

A well-known North American agent emphasized that their dollar fares on offer would undercut anything we might purchase in Europe – a claim which is patently undermined by the results of our survey. The North American agent suggested that a rail pass might be a better bet for some of our journeys, and hinted that we would encounter a range of problems if we attempted to purchase directly from the Deutsche Bahn website.

Booking tickets in advance

The reality is that booking train tickets on www.bahn.de is pretty easy, even without a knowledge of German. The site has a decent English language interface, though in some instances you will find additional functionality on the German language website.

Also, it really helps to have a good knowledge of European patterns of service and railway geography. A good place to start is by studying the latest edition of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable and the same company’s Rail Map of Europe.

Booking well in advance is often the key to finding cheap fares, but our research found that plenty of discounted promotional fares are still available for travel this summer. And we did not cast around trying to dig up the cheapest possible travel dates, having fixed our palette of routes and travel dates before embarking on our research. If you would like the see the full results of our survey, just click here.

And, oh yes, just in case you were wondering, we were paid not a cent by the Deutsche Bahn to publish this!

The post European Rail Tickets: Deutsche Bahn fares better than rail agents appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Plan ahead: Rail travel for next year

Rail travelers can still take a while refining their travel plans for summer 2009, for although many of the schedules are now becoming available, tickets do not generally go on sale until two to four months prior to travel.

The extension of the Europa-Spezial scheme to encompass many more countries means that canny travellers can now plan long treks across Europe with rail fares that greatly undercut even the lowest air fares.

Europa-Spezial: Great value for money

Europa-Spezial fares can be booked online at the German Railways website. Tickets generally go on sale 90 days prior to travel, so bookings can already be made for January 2009.

Choose your trains carefully and you can travel from Budapest to Cologne for just €39 one way – and you can include stopovers on the way (each for a maximum of 48 hours). We chose a Budapest – Prague – Berlin – Cologne routing, with en route stops for two nights in both Prague and Berlin, and found plenty of availability for mid-January 2009 at the lead-in €39 fare.

Other gems there for the taking are €29 one-way from Hamburg to Vienna (via Prague), €39 from Paris or Copenhagen to any station in Germany, and a €39 fare that will take you from any station in Belgium or the Netherlands to Basel on the Swiss border or to Salzburg in Austria.

First class options: Worth considering, even for Cheapos

If the lowest fare for your selected route is already sold out, you can still buy a Europa-Spezial ticket, but it will be priced at a higher tariff tier (e.g. €49, €69, and up). Europa-Spezial fares are also available for first class, and these are really worth checking.

Berlin to Vienna (either direct or with a one or two night stopover in Dresden) for €49 first class sounds almost too good to be true. If you find little availability for Europa-Spezial fares in second class, just have a look to see if the cheapest first class option is still available. First class sells out less quickly, and we have found many examples of journeys where remaining first class availability is cheaper than heavily-booked second class.

The great thing about these Europa-Spezial fares is that, subject to availability at the time of booking, you really can use them on the fast express services. The only real snag is that you must commit yourself to date and time of travel, but at such rock bottom fares that is scarcely a burden.

The new Europa-Spezial fares, along with long-standing promotions like discounted TGV fares in France, might really tip the balance as you weigh up whether it is worth buying a rail pass for 2009.

The post Bargain trains: Cheap rail fares across Europe for 2009 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.