Should you buy a railpass when backpacking europe?

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592610668141923618.post-39726919837680246662007-09-24T21:10:00.001-04:002008-10-28T15:42:19.856-04:00Should you buy a railpass when backpacking europe?So your going to backpack through Europe. You bought your <a href="http://scottmaaronson.blogspot.com/2007/06/inexpensive-airfare.html" target="_blank">airplane ticket</a>, <a href="http://scottmaaronson.blogspot.com/2007/06/preparing-for-your-trip_13.html" target="_blank">prepared for your trip</a> and <a href="http://scottmaaronson.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-to-pack-on-your-backpacking.html" target="_blank">started to pack</a>. Now your wondering about how you will get from point to point once you are there. One very popular option is getting a rail pass. Pending on where you plan to go, rail passes may be valuable option for you. It might be more beneficial for you to combine individual tickets and discount airfare (<a href="http://scottmaaronson.blogspot.com/2007/06/inexpensive-airfare.html" target="_blank">see my past article about discount flights</a>). Should you buy a rail pass? Despite popular opinion, rail passes may not always be the best option for you. Pending on where you go it may be much more cost efficient to buy individual tickets for shorter destinations and use discount airlines for longer destinations. Recently, I went on a backpacking trip through Eastern Europe. The countries visited on this trip include Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. For this trip, most rail pass options offered would have been a waste of money. Since I was not entirely sure exactly where I would go, it would have made figuring out what pass to get nearly impossible. Out of all the places that I visited on this trip, rail pass options would only be valid for a few of those countries (only the ones that are members of the European Union). For most European travel east of Italy and Germany Rail passes are simply not worth it. Calculating individual ticket prices: One common way people determine if it is better to purchase a rail pass or individual tickets is by searching for the cost of individual tickets online. Than they see if the average cost of the individual tickets are more or less than the cost of the rail pass. If you do Google search for Europe rail tickets you will get to a variety of websites that offer you both rail passes and individual rail tickets. These third party websites often significantly inflate the cost of individual tickets and may not show you all of your travel options. I am convinced they do this (in part) to try to convince you that a rail pass is a worth wild investment. For instance, when searching tickets from Budapest to Belgrade (Serbia) using a popular online European rail booking site, a second class ticket costs $54 (around 34 euro) and leaves three times a day. In reality however, there are several trains that take this route each day and night and the price is much cheaper. When I bought my ticket, I paid only 20 euro for the same route directly from the ticket window only thirty minutes before the train departed. For many destinations (particularly in Eastern Europe) it is most cost efficient to purchase your tickets directly from the ticket window. Reservations are often not needed very far in advance (if at all). There are so many trains that leave for each destination, that the trains are never 100% full. In the unlikely event that a train is completely full, they will often simply add more compartments to accommodate the additional demand. Germany: If your travel plans include extensive travel through Germany, a rail pass might be a good option for you. German rail travel is extremely expensive. When I attempted to purchase a ticket from Dresden to Stuttgart Germany (on a Sunday night), the cheapest option cost around 104 euro. This is more money than many discount flights cost to go across Europe. When researching if a rail pass is right for you, you should also take into account the many other options available to get around the high cost of train travel in countries like Germany. For example, if you travel on weekends in Germany you can get a 33 euro pass that will allow you to take regional trains anywhere in the country. If you want to travel exclusively in Germany, for more money (over 100 euro) you can buy a pass that will allow you to get half off of train travel for any trains in Germany for a period of one year. Similar options are available in the Netherlands and many other Western European Countries. In Germany, hitchhiking has also become a popular alternative to paying the often exorbitant train prices. That same 104 euro ticket would cost only 25 euro (in gas money) to hitch a ride with two other people. There are many websites that are devoted to helping people find each other for carpools throughout Germany. This is a common practice in Germany and is considered relatively safe by most Germans. <a href="http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/" target="_blank">Mitfahrgelegenhei</a> (trying saying that five times fast) is the most well known website for hitching a ride in Germany. My good friend Nick outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages to using this service in <a href="http://thelifeingermany.blogspot.com/2007/07/hitch-ride-travel-cheaper-with-carpool.html" target="_blank">his blog</a>. He also gives several good tips about traveling in Germany that are definitely worth it to check out. Advantages to a Rail Pass: If you couldn't already tell, I am more than a little bit cautious of using prepurchased rail passes, mainly because of the often exorbitant prices that come with them and because purchasing a rail pass often gives you less flexibility in what countries you want to see and in changing your plans once your trip starts. Rail passes do however offer some very distinct advantages. They allow for more adventurous traveling. If you are not sure exactly where you want to go, rail passes allow you to get on and off the train at random places you find interesting along the way. Often times, you cannot do this with individual tickets because the tickets given to you are often for specific trains at specific times. In addition, if you plan your trip well, it could save you some money. Disadvantages: Buying a rail pass in advance means you must plan out in advance what countries you want to visit. In order to make the most use of your rail pass you must travel a specific amount of time. If you later decide you want to travel a different route or length of time, you might not get the full benefit of having the pass as you first thought. In addition, there are often individual specials for certain trains that you may not take into account when calculating whether or not a rail pass is worth it. Even with rail passes you still must pay for a reservation on many trains (even trains where reservations are not needed for passengers with individual tickets). Many great countries are not part of the euro rail program. By deciding to only use a rail pass you may be inadvertently deciding to skip a really fantastic country. Still not sure? There are many websites that can help you determine if a rail pass is the right option for you. In order for you to determine this, you must have a basic idea of where you want to go. There are also several different types of rail passes that you can purchase. One website that helps determine the most efficient pass for you is <a onmouseover="window.status='http://www.railpass.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return true;" href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-2466466-10419432" target="_blank">Railpass.com</a>. They also do a good job explaining each of the different rail pass options along with associated costs.Stay tuned for post updates on how to find the approximate cost of individual tickets.Happy Travels!-ScottAs always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding this article or any countries that I have visited, please feel free to leave a comment on this page or e-mail me at <a href="mailto:Scottmaaronson@hotmail.com">Scottmaaronson@hotmail.com</a> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5592610668141923618-3972691983768024666?l=scottstravelblogging.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16789065501037451164noreply@blogger.com7