Traintravel Europe


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Traintravel Europe

Traintravel Europe

Yes, I’ve got a first-class pass good for all travel within France, so I’m doing it a bit swankily by some travel standards. But the ease and comfort surely makes it worth it. Unless you’re planning a backroads, in-depth holiday where you’ll need a car to get really deep into the French countryside, using a rail pass to bop from city to city in France (or in most countries in Europe) is a fairly unbeatable way to do it.

Like I said, I’m zipping along in a comfy seat through ridiculously scenic hills dotted with castles and green expanses, and I’m getting from Marseille to Paris is just barely over 3 hours. C’est magnifique!

RailPasses come for just France or for any combo of Euro countries that you can pretty much scheme up. The more countries, the higher the price, of course. But if you want the ease of just training around and getting from city center to city center all across Europe, plan ahead and snag a pass.

One note: If you take the high-speed TGV as I have, you can’t just jump on any old TGV train with your France Rail Pass and grab a seat. You must purchase a reservation for the specific train you want in advance. But it’s easy to do this online at RailEurope.com in the States before you depart. And, I found after missing my train from Paris to Lyon by about a minute when my lunch ran late (Urgh!), you can zip right into the main ticket office (as I did at the Gare du Lyon), present your rail pass and the attendant behind the ticket counter will reschedule you for the next possible train. Maybe I got lucky and did this without charge or incident (the next Lyon TGV train left exactly one hour later), but it was done with ease. Crisis averted!

Norman,

I'm not aware of a single Railpass that will cover all trains and local buses/tubes. I believe you would need to buy a Pass in each city for each family member (ie: an Oyster Card or similar in London).

Railpasses typically only provide a pass holder discount on EuroStar tickets, rather than covering the entire cost.

You might find it helpful to download the free PDF Rail Guide from this website. Click on the "Railpasses" tab at the top of the page and then look in the lower right corner for the download link.

One tip to mention......

The term "chunnel" is rarely used, so you'll probably find more information on it by using the "proper" term - "EuroStar".

Good luck and happy travels!