Hi, I%26#39;m trying to book a trip for multiple city visits. The hotels are the easy part! I am not sure what is the best most economical option for travel.
we need to go from
London-Brussels-Brugge-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Bern-Paris-London
There is a global rail pass: 10 days in 22 days £330.00 each, but I have no idea if it includes the trip to and from London. Also, if it includes all the cities I need to go to.
In anyone%26#39;s experience was it a better idea to get a pass like this or wait and buy your ticket at each train station? Is it cheaper? What about bus service? Has anyone taken a bus from and to any of these destinations?
Thanks in advance for any help.
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From the UK (or within Europe) you can only buy an interrail pass. Is that the one you mean?
I don%26#39;t think you can use this pass on the Eurostar (certainly with the Eurail pass available outside the EU you can%26#39;t) or within your home country so that would be an additional cost. Also supplements are payable on high speed trains and these can be substantial. Reservations are also compulsory for the likes of the TGV in France, The ICE in Germany and the Thalys between Belgium %26amp; Amsterdam.
£330.00 is quite a lot of money and you may get the trips cheaper by booking in advance. Also some of the sectors might be cheaper and easier by air. Amsterdam to Berlin by Transavia and Basel to Paris by Easyjet comes to mind. By train it is always better to book as far in advance as the system will let you (normally 10 to 12 weeks prior to travel). For some trips though like Brugge to Amsterdam there is the option of taking the normal IC train to Antwerp and then to Amsterdam. One way fare for this is 44.40 euros and you do not (actually cannot) make reservations and the tickets can be bought at the station giving you some flexibility.
You can check out these websites for an idea of how much point to point journeys are and seat61.com is a good site for info about train travel in Europe.
www.nshispeed.nl/en
http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/
www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml
The German BAHN site is probably the most user friendly. www.raileurope.co.uk are agents for SNCF %26amp; TGV in the UK. You can also Google the likes of Austrian rail, Swiss rail etc for the individual countries.
If you do decide to travel to Berlin from Amsterdam by rail then there is a night train citynightline.de/nachtzugreise/…index.shtml
The only bus service I know of is Eurolines however journey times can be VERY long and they are not always the cheapest option.
Hope this helps, regards, Ron
P.S. you may not be aware that there is atrain travel forum on TA where your questions might be answered by more posters. This forum is really only to deal with Brussels/Belgium etc
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Only the segments London-Brussels-Brugge-Amsterdam fall within the remit of this particular forum! You CAN use a multi-country rail pass for the Eurostar, assuming of course that it covers the countries concerned, but you have to pay a supplement. Wherever you found the information on global passes (Rail Europe?), you must also find the conditions. It is up to YOU to research which countries and trains are included, and whether this is better than the cost of point-to-point tickets, although I believe all the agency websites include a calculator; a pass covers specific countries, not cities. In any case you would have to pay extra for those trains requiring supplements, which include Eurostar (London-Brussels and Paris-London), Thalys, TGV and any overnight trains. The official advice from Rail Europe is that passes are not worth it for one international trip into and out of a country, but it may be in expensive countries like Switzerland.
Note that if you buy a Eurostar ticket from London-Brussels, this includes onward travel to Brugge, as long as you continue your journey within 24 hrs. As you don%26#39;t say how long you would be staying in Brussels I can%26#39;t tell whether this is the case. For Brugge-Amsterdam you will have to change in Antwerp and if you are using a pass, make sure to take an InterCity train between Antwerp and Amsterdam (not the faster Thalys unless you are prepared to pay a supplement and make a reservation).
Even if you buy point-to-point tickets you don%26#39;t have to wait to do it until you arrive at the station you want to leave from, you can buy online from the national railway companies concerned, e.g. for Brugge to Amsterdam, b-rail, for Amsterdam-Berlin, www.ns.nl (but try the d-bahn site recommended above also, and use this for Berlin-Prague). You may also be able to buy tickets from a local office in the UK, e.g. French Railways has an office in Piccadilly.
For buses see www.eurolines.com (in the UK you would be using National Express coaches) but note that between London and Brussels and Paris and London this will take virtually all day. I don%26#39;t know how much time you have.
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the simplest and probably cheapest way to do this in advance is to speak to people who know what they are doing. call railbookers.com if you want service and people who know what they are doing or if you want to be confused raileurope.co.uk. point to point tickets will almost certainly be cheaper
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