A personal anthology of Everything Eurail. Everything I wish I knew before traveling around Europe by train (info that even TikTok won’t be able to help you with).
If you’re studying abroad in Europe, and want to travel as much as you can, you may want to consider the Eurail pass.
If you are currently a sophomore, or a junior reading this (and planning on studying abroad in the winter/spring, or even fall) Eurail pass does Black Friday sales. Which is absolutely worth it to buy in advance. It is a really good deal. You can buy your pass in advance, then you have up to a year to activate it whenever you want.
Here are some considerations and tips for choosing the best Eurail pass for you, and to help you decide if it is the right choice for you. As someone with a more limited abroad budget, it was absolutely worth it for me.
First, consider how close your host country is to the places you want to go. Or where you could travel to by train. For example, I was in Florence, Italy. I traveled around Italy by train, and to Slovenia, Austria, Germany, and took a train from London to Edinburgh/Belgium. As well as by train in the UK and the Netherlands. The train station was central in Florence, and easy to access, making trains a great, budget friendly travel choice.
If you’re planning on studying in the UK or nearby, I recommend the Eurail pass! Trains and transportation are VERY expensive in the UK. No matter the time of year. For example I traveled from London to Edinburgh, the train I took would have cost $150 for a 2nd class ticket. Which would be around 35% of my Eurail pass cost, but for just ONE trip.
Also consider how many trips you’ll want to take, and if you need to take high speed trains or not.
A great option for a semester abroad is the unlimited Eurail pass for 2 or 3 months. This is an amazing option for flexibility, budget, day trips and weekend trips. When you’re traveling by train in Europe , flexibility is KEY. It may seem like a lot up front. But it is worth it if you are going to be traveling every weekend (or almost every weekend). Plus it’s nice to get one travel expense out of the way. Take advantage of the Black Friday sale!
It may been intimidating or hard to know what Eurail pass to choose at first, but if you do some quick calculations you can decide which one is best for you.
For example, I had the 10 trip Eurail pass over two months. But I think the perfect pass choice would be 15 travel days over two months. Having the extra travel days for more flexibility and longer travel days is worth it.
Something else important to note, is the amount of months/days the pass will be valid for! If you want to spread out your trips, you definitely don’t want to do the limited number of days in one month. You will get a better value by doing the 10 or 15 days over two months, or unlimited. For example, I decided to extend my last trip by one day. But I forgot that my pass expired that next day. So when I got on the train I had to pay for a full ticket price, even though I still technically had a travel day left on my pass, it didn’t matter because my pass was expired.
Obviously Eurail pass is best for going location to location, not back and forth from one place (like weekend trips). However I was able to make it work no problem, and I really recommend it, as individual train ticket prices can be more expensive and change a LOT. Some people took 3-4 trains in Italy and it cost around the same price at my 10 day trip pass.
No one really talks about train strikes or warns you about them. Italy particularly, was a bit notorious for train strikes. I was not expecting them, didn’t know much about them, and wasn’t warned about them (even by my program in Florence). SO PSA: If you’re studying abroad in Italy and planning on taking trains, look in advance for train strikes. Most of them will be scheduled, but sometimes it’s hard to find specific information. Important lesson that I learned the hard way, if there’s a possibility or uncertainty of a strike, schedule around it. Or arrange backup plans. When I was in Italy, there were particularly many strikes, significantly more than other countries.
Other countries may also have train strikes. If you’re taking a train somewhere to/from a major city, check this before planning your trip. For example Netherlands, Germany, Paris, etc…
However this should not deter you from traveling by train, and you can easily avoid any issues by planning ahead.
Always book trains with at the MINIMUM 10 minutes between each other. But if possible, aim for 20-30 for transfer time. Most trains (especially regional ones can easily get behind schedule), and some train stations may be hard, or crowded to navigate. So most times you won’t even have to wait 1hr – 30 mins between trains, if you’re taking a regional train in any country.
A great pro of using a Eurail pass is having stop overs along the way to your destination! This is how I got to see multiple cities from just one trip/or travel day use. For example, I had a 6 hour stopover in Rome, a 4 hour stopover in Venice. So I got to explore them without using an extra travel day, or buying another ticket.
Lastly and most importantly. Travel days. Something I learned the hard way, is what was considered a ‘travel day’ for Eurail. I had to rework all my trips, and take more high speed trains, to try and just use two travel days for each weekend trip. This is a pro of the unlimited pass, you don’t need to worry about the number or travel days or taking late trains. But let me break it down for you:
When you get your Eurail pass you ‘activate’ it when you’re ready to take your first trip.
From that first activation, your month(ly) period begins. For example if you have a month long pass, and activate it on the 1st of September, it will expire on the 1st of October. Even if you don’t use all your travel days. So use your days before it expires!
You can choose what travel days to activate your pass on (if you have 10 or 15 travel days for example). You need to activate your travel day before getting on the train, or else you risk a fine.
A travel day is a period of 24 hours. Try to take trains earlier in the day to avoid having to use two travel days to get somewhere.
So let’s say you’re taking a train at 8pm, and then you have to take another train at 12am (you’ll need to use two travel days).
You need to activate your pass and get your seat reservations BEFORE getting on the train. This is how you avoid fines or not being allowed on. Some high speed trains only have a certain number of seats for Eurail pass holders. For example, when I was in Amsterdam I wanted to take a high speed train to Belgium, but it had been booked up for a month already because of this limited availability. Same with in London. And they were very strict on it.
Obviously taking trains takes longer than flying, but it’s also a beautiful way to see different countries. I only had two days of classes, so that’s how I was able to take longer train journeys. But even if you have class 4 days a week you can make it work. If you take night trains or high speed trains, it is possible to make a short weekend trip happen. Or you can use your pass for day trips explorations. Everyone should experience a train trip at least once on their abroad experience, especially since it is something we don’t have in the US.
I hope this is helpful if you are considering the Eurail pass for studying abroad, or at any point in the future!
Overall, I do recommend the Eurail pass if you’re studying abroad (in Italy especially), for flexibility, seeing MANY places around the country you’re in, and visiting countries nearby. It is a better rate than flying or buying individual tickets.
Happy travels! 🙂
DU Abroad 