Traveled by rail in europe and can give cost/time estimates?

A

andyd

New Member
Trying to see if this is a viable option for me. I'm still on the fence on whether I should spend the money on european 2 wk vaca this year because of the assumed cost it will be. Considering rail as another method of travel but not sure if it actually will save me any money if I just take a cheap flight while already in Europe. Primary locations would be France, Amsterdam and London.

I was pricing a eurorail online last night and a rail from London to Toulouse, France would be around $275+ for one way. Is that the type of prices I should be expecting?
 
You should look for some rail-passes, I know they offer some for non-Europeans. Just ask at your travel agent.
 
Don't know if this will help you much, but here's my story...

I went to Europe in early 2001 and bought a Europass, which is a rail ticket that puts you in first-class. IIRC it was unlimited mileage for a certain length of time (2 weeks I think). I believe I paid something like $200 for it at the time, keep in mind the dollar was much stronger then, and I purchased it about a month before I actually left.

It proved to be invaluable. I flew into CDG at Paris and promptly took the overnight train to Milan (about a 10 hour ride, I guess), then travelled up to Interlaken (5 hours?), Zurich (2 hours), Amsterdam (overnight, about 8 hours) then back to Paris via TGV (although the TGV was having problems and a 2 hour ride turned into a 4 hour ride). And I was in first class the whole way, including the panorama car through Switzerland. :lol:

I went back in November 2003, flying into Berlin and taking the train to Prague CZR. Here I bought the ticket at the station each leg of the trip. It was about a 6 hour ride and it cost around $50-75 IIRC for each leg.

So if you're planning a lot of rail travel, the Europass is a good deal.

EDIT: I've heard the Chunnel rail travel is quite expensive, which might account for the high price of that London/France ticket.
 
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