If you are planning to travel to Europe for a long time, travel a lot, a Eurail Pass card will be an indispensable companion in your journey. If the reasonable schedule is calculated, the Eurail Pass will save you a lot of money and time.
What is Eurail Pass?
Eurail Pass is a train pass in Europe for tourists, provided by Eurail Transport Group. This card is provided for travelers traveling in 1 country (depending on the type of card) or throughout 28 countries in Europe for a given period.
If you are planning to visit Europe for 1 month or for several days in a row, this is definitely a very convenient travel amulet for you.
Currently, Eurail Pass cards have a variety of options for you to choose, depending on the time you want to use, depending on your age and depending on the European countries you want to go.
Eurail Pass vi vu throughout Europe
Why should you use Eurail Pass?
The reasons to use a Eurail Pass can be said to be many: saving you a lot of money while traveling in Europe is very expensive; save time and effort for buying train tickets every leg; giving you the opportunity to create a free travel schedule ...
Save a lot of money
Traveling by train types in Europe, if you use Eurail Pass, it will save you if you are under 26 years old. That's because there are cheap tickets for this age group (Eurail Youth Pass - about 20% discount compared to cards for people older than 26). For example, tickets for people under the age of 26 typically average between € 39- € 60 / day (for 2nd-class seats), depending on the type of card you buy.
For people older than 26, the average fare is higher, so it won't save you. However, there are occasional discounted train card deals that you can take advantage of. For this case, you should schedule carefully from a few months in advance and start ... hunting tickets.
Save time and effort to buy train tickets for each leg
Using the Eurail Pass card will save you the time and effort of purchasing each leg of the ticket. Instead of working hard to buy tickets, pay, get tickets for each journey, while your journey goes through many countries and many stages, you just need to buy tickets - pay - get a card once. Too convenient and help you reduce ... headache.
Comfortable schedule, free
With the Eurail Pass, visitors can travel anywhere for a continuous period of time (within the time period specified on the ticket). The schedule is set by me in advance, regardless of anyone.
Using the Eurail Pass card, you can freely travel around a few countries or all 28 European countries to discover great destinations.
Set your own itinerary for the Eurail Pass
Who can use Eurail Pass?
Eurail Pass is only for tourists - non-European citizens. If you are a European citizen or have a place of residence in Europe, you should buy the Interrail Pass (this card is cheaper because you already pay taxes).
When to use the Eurail Pass
There should be a plan to calculate how many days you will have to travel in Europe, how many countries and how many cities you will be able to use the Eurail Pass effectively, avoiding waste - Buy when not needed.
So when should you use the Eurail Pass?
When you plan to travel several times over a certain period of time
Why should you say you should buy Eurail Pass when you travel several times in a certain period (eg 1 month or 15 days)? Because traveling many times, continuously in a period of time, you will have to buy tickets many times, many times, very pole.
Besides, if you travel a lot, buying Eurail Pass will save money rather than buying single tickets.
When you go the long way
Should buy Eurail Pass card when you go on long journeys, so will save you. If you take the short journey, if you calculate, you will find tickets for the short journeys much cheaper. If combined, buying individually for each short leg will be more economical than using Eurail Pass.
When going to Western European countries or throughout Europe
Buy the Eurail Pass only when you plan to travel to Western Europe or across Europe. Because train tickets in Western Europe such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands ... are very high - you can save money on Eurail Pass, but train tickets in Eastern Europe are very cheap, so when you buy retail, it will save. than.
How many types of Eurail Pass cards are there?
There are many types of Eurail Pass cards depending on the destination, time, and age of the user
There are many types of Eurail Passes, it depends on the destination, the time you will use and your age. Here are some basic train cards, popular for tourists visiting Europe:
- Eurail One Country Pass: go one country
- Eurail Regional Pass or Two Country Pass: go to two countries
- Eurail Select Pass train ticket: travel to 4 countries
- Eurail Global Pass: traveling from 5 or more countries.
- Eurail Youth Pass - for people under 26 (about 20% cheaper than cards for people over 26)
- Continuous Pass Card - the card goes continuously for days in a certain period of time. For example, in 15 days, the time limit will be calculated exactly as 15 days (for example, from July 1 to July 15). During this time you are free to take the train whenever, continuously, depending on your schedule.
- Flexi Pass - flexible train card: allows you to choose a number of train days within a certain period of one or two months (for example, choose to take 10 days in a period of 1 month, no matter if you go continuous days close to each other, or go off every day).
- etc ..
The above cards have different validity periods of 5, 10, 15, and 21 days with 1, 2 or 3 months. For such a variety of cards, visitors need to plan, determine the schedule to make a decision to buy the appropriate card. Avoid buying the wrong card or buying a ticket without taking full advantage of the journey and waste.
How to buy Eurail Pass
For first-time visitors to the Eurail Pass, there will be many unknowns. Below will be basic instructions on how to buy and use Eurail Pass for your reference.
How to buy cards:
To buy the Eurail Pass, visitors can buy train tickets online and receive them by post. After completing the booking steps on the website (there are currently a number of travel agency websites in Vietnam that have opened this card) and payment, there will be a successful booking confirmation voucher sent to you.
Write the correct address to receive the card:
In the process of ordering a card, you need to be careful to enter the correct address for the card, as well as calculate where to receive the card, which is most convenient and convenient for people to send the card to you.
You can choose your home address so that your card can be sent to you before you start your journey In addition, you can also choose an address of an acquaintance or a hotel address in Europe that you will arrive on the day of your travel.
Tip: if you deliver the card to an address in some Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Macau, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam, it will be free. delivery.
Book a berth or seat with some types of train:
Some trains, such as high-speed trains, international trains, or night trains in Europe, usually require you to reserve seats or beds because these trains have limited seats or beds. This booking costs an extra fee.
The peak time in Europe is usually July and August. Trains will open for sale before 3 months from the time of departure. So you need to research in advance the type of train to go and see the schedule to book in advance, avoiding all seats.
Differences between first and second class seats:
First class seats: More comfortable, lots of space, pleasant. There is an outlet for you to charge the battery and usually there is free water.
- If you are over 26 years old, you must buy a first class cabin chair.
- People under 26 years old can buy both first and second class seats.
- Some ships do not have first-class seats but only second-class cabins.
Note when using / using Eurail Pass card
Some important notes when using Eurail Pass to not be too confused when planning to visit Europe:
Enter the travel date on the train card before boarding:
The travel date for the train card will be calculated as 24h (from 0h - 24h daily). Thus, on this day, you will be able to travel freely, not limited to any train and the number of trains you take.
Before boarding the first train of every day, you need to fill in this train schedule, which is on the ticket. Failure to do so will result in a fine and additional train fare.
Enter the travel date on the train ticket if traveling by night train:
If your train departs before 19:00, you need to fill in 2 days on the itinerary (departure date and arrival date). However, if the departure is after 7pm and arrives at 4am, you only need to enter 1 day as the arrival date.
Keep the card for the duration of use in Europe:
You should pay attention to preserving the card well during the use of the train card in Europe for the convenience of getting on and off the train at stations in other countries. Besides, every time you get on the train, you also need to show the card.
With all the convenience that Eurail Pass brings to visitors to Europe, Eurail Pass is now sold in Vietnam market through a number of online travel agents. This makes it more convenient for travelers to place orders, buy and receive cards. Because Europe is no longer a dream too far!