Reasons to Experience Europe with a Eurail Pass 7

BY: MICHELLE LAWSON

A Eurail Global Pass is a flexible train ticket that lets you travel across 33 countries in Europe, using more than 35 train companies and includes more than 30,000 destinations. But why bother with a Pass when you can easily buy a pointto-point train ticket as you go?

How about the sheer joy of boarding Europe’s trains on a whim? The reasons don’t stop there. Read on for seven reasons why Eurail offers one of the best ways to discover Europe at your own pace.

The Options Are More Flexible Than Ever

If you buy individual train tickets, you’ll need to book in advance for the best prices. These usually restrict you to a specific train. What if your plans change?

The Eurail Pass doesn’t pin you down like that. The Global Pass is adaptable, offering 15 days, 22 days, a month, or even two or three months of continuous travel.

If you don’t plan to travel extensively, some Eurail Passes offer noncontinuous travel, such as 7 travel days per month. You don’t need to decide on the travel days in advance.

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Eurail is Cost-Effective for Families

Each adult Eurail Pass allows two children under 11 years old to travel for free with a Child pass. Accompanied children under 4 years old don’t need a Pass at all.

The Mobile Pass is Super Cool

The Eurail mobile Pass uses the Rail Planner app, which is a great toy for armchair traveling. You can play around with it for hours, experimenting with trains and destinations. It’s only when you’re ready to board that you make a journey live.

The Rail Planner app gives you a daily QR code that includes all the trains you’ve made live for that day. If you decide at the last minute to make a lunch stop in Pisa before arriving in Florence, you simply add the journey, generating a new ticket.

Some turn up their noses at the mobile Pass, complaining it isn’t as romantic as the old Eurail paper ticket. The app, however, generates a map of your route as you travel along. Screenshot it at the end, print it, and frame it if you need a physical reminder of your trip.

Slow Travel Is a Growing Trend (for the Right Reasons)

Are you tired of ticking off the mustsees, bucket lists, and Insta hotspots? Liberate yourself with a Eurail Pass and take a gentler approach to travel.

Slow travel doesn’t have to be slow. You’re allowed to take one of Europe’s comfortable high-speed trains. Slow travel is all about experiencing a region by traveling through it -- rather than flying over it, or speeding down a freeway.

Ditch the over-saturated tourist areas and focus on connecting with places and their people. On a train, you’ll get a genuine sense of going somewhere, along with opportunities to strike up conversations.

Eurail Makes Expensive Countries More Affordable

Countries like Switzerland, which is stunning however costly, are included in the Global Pass. A Eurail Pass also gives generous discounts on many of the private Swiss mountain railways, such as the one that climbs to the foot of the mighty Eiger.

If it’s raining, use the Pass to hop on the train and take a day trip to Lucerne or St Moritz for free.

It’s About More Than the Destination

Salzburg, Budapest, Prague, and Turin are all cities worth a journey in their own right. You’ll reach many of them via unbelievably scenic journeys. Look out for routes that cross the Alps or hug the coast. The Arlberg route, for example, takes you from Salzburg to Innsbruck through famous Austrian ski resorts such as Kitzbühel.

You Can Be Spontaneous - or Not

The appeal of a Global Pass is flexibility, right? Does this mean you don’t reserve any trains or accommodation?

Not exactly. The faster intercity trains usually require seat reservations. This applies particularly in countries such as France, Spain, and Italy. You can reserve seats via the Eurail site, but it’s sometimes cheaper to make the reservation on the train company website.

Take Poland, where you can open an account (in English) at PKP Intercity and make the reservations online for a few cents. Sounds complicated? Go to the Seat 61 website, where you’ll find instructions for making Eurail reservations across Europe. Think about reserving accommodation in popular cities and at peak travel times. You can still take advantage of the Eurail’s flexibility by changing plans.

Let’s say you’re traveling from Salzburg (Austria) to Augsburg (Germany) on unreserved slower trains. You plan to leave the train at Munich to visit the famous Hofbräuhaus beer hall. But when the train pulls into Munich, it’s pouring rain. The Eurail Pass allows you to change your mind on a whim and stay on the train.

If being spontaneous appeals to you, then travel light and ideally just take a backpack you can carry across a city and lift on and off the overhead racks.