4/28/10-5/17-10
The reason we even started looking into doing this trip is due to the Eurail pass.
The Eurail pass entitles you to travel by unlimited rail to a pre-set amount of countries and/or in a pre-set amount of time. We were going to do a 21-day pass and try to squeeze in as many countries as humanly possible. Turns out, as many countries as humanly possible in 21 days isn't a whole lot of countries if you actually want to see anything. Still, we narrowed it down to the six country/seven city trip we are planning today.
What then became the biggest deterrent to me was the fact that with a Eurail pass (or any other Euro-train type pass) you are not guaranteed seating on international trains. In fact, many international trains AND overnight trains require that you have a reserved spot. So then you are paying an arm and a leg for a pass, to then have to go and purchase reserved seats.
Eurail passes would then still be alright, if say, you were staying at hostels or with someone, or if you had a whole month or two or three to see everything. First, we decided against hostels. You can't lock doors, and you can't protect your valuables. We are not backpacking - we are bringing (small) luggage. Therefore, we had to purchase regular hotels (see previous post) which means then that we *have* to be in each city on a certain day at a certain time. I don't know about you, but we are not comfortable enough with Europe or its train system yet to be risktakers, and we wanted to have reserved spots. Also, in our 21 day trip, we realized we would not be needing very many trains at all. Purchasing our point-to-point tickets has been very easy and efficient.
Perhaps in the end a pass would have been cheaper. I do not know. But what I do have is peace of mind of knowing when exactly I'm going to be where I need to be.
Now, just to back track a little bit, let me tell you about our plane.
We decided to go with Iceland Air. The reason is simple enough. They are the cheapest way in and out of mainland Europe that we could find. Granted, there is a layover. In Reykjavik. Even with the layover, this is the quickest non-direct flight we found, for a reasonable price.
Plane Tickets To and From Amsterdam Schiphol, 4/27/10 and 5/17/10, with a layover in Reykjavik each way = ~$1050 including tax (each)
Back to inter-Europe travel...
Our first international trip is on 5/2 and is between Amsterdam and Berlin. After doing extensive research, it turns out that a train ride between the two major cities could take up to 8 hours. And booking for those fill up fast, and are prone to be expensive. This is one of those times then that we opted to follow our time budget rather than our financial one (tho it remains to be seen if we actually spent more). We chose to fly from Amsterdam to Berlin. A plus, a layover in Copenhagen!. We are stopping in Copenhagen because we are using Scandinavian Airlines, the cheapest and quickest non direct flight we could find. (Direct flights are ridiculously expensive.) The flight, with layover and airport check in and security time, will probably take a total of 5 hours.
Quick note: There are many major airlines that do inter-Europe flights besides SAS. A key thing to remember, however, is most will stop in their home port as a layover. You can use British Airlines to fly from Prague to Munich, but do you really want to fly all the way to London in between? Picking a major airline with a hub 'on the way' can help to save time, and money.
Also, you will hear a lot about budget airlines within Europe. We found one that would take us from Amsterdam to Berlin, Transavia, but it would not accept my American card, or any card that I reluctantly then tried. Other lines (Ryanair is a popular one) have very limited places that they fly to. If you find one, go for it, but we could not for this trip.
If you want more info on Budget Airlines and more reasons why or why not to use them, read my favorite European Expert Rick Steve's take on the matter
Plane Tickets To Berlin Tegel from Amsterdam Schiphol, 5/2/10, with a layover in Copenhagen= ~$212 including tax (each)
Here is the information for the rail that we have used for the rest of our trip:
Berlin to Prague: 5/05. ~$125 (each)
Munich to Bern: 5/9. ~$200.00 (each)
Bern to Paris: 5/11. ~$83.00 (each)
Paris to Brussels: 5/15. ~$37.00 (each)
Brussels to Amsterdam: 5/16. ~$48.00 (each)
Quick Note: No. We do not have Prague to Munich yet. Some trains in Europe you can buy 90 days in advance, some 60, and some 30. So, as of right now they are not purchasable. We can view schedules, but cannot get fares. We are hoping they come up in a couple of days at the 60 day mark.
We used RailEurope.com for our rail needs. They are very American/Foreigner user friendly.
When you travel with RailEurope, you get your tickets in about 2 days, with free shipping if you spend over $250.00.
When you get your tickets, they will look like this:
And this is what a reservation will look like:
Overall Total spent on Travel (so far): ~$1755 (each)
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