I%26#39;m starting to plan a 2 1/2 - 3 week Europe trip for mid-May %26#39;07. Right now looking at booking flight from Denver to Dublin, then from Athens back to Denver. I saw that a 15-day Eurail pass is US $600. The cities I have in mind are Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, then spend the last 5 days in Mikonos and fly out of Athens. Can somebody help me with whether the Eurail pass is worth it, or if I should look at flights or individual train tickets between cities? And if anybody has any suggestions for Paris over Prague, or vice versa? I definitely want to do Dublin, Amsterdam and Mikonos, the other two are up in the air.
Thanks,
Rick
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Rick -
Go to www.ricksteves.com. You%26#39;ll find a downloadable file that will direct you to the decision. Not only will you know if a railpass is a good value for you, you will know which one to choose. Then, you can order the pass directly from the web site.
While you%26#39;re at it, check out the books, Euopre Through the Backdoor which will help you with all your trip planning and then his guide books for individual countries or cities. I always use at least two guide books: Steves and The Rough Guide. My husband, howeve,r prefers Frommers. There are plenty of others, see which one does the best job for you.
As far as Paris and Prague go - Paris would always be my choice. I%26#39;m sure you%26#39;ll get lots of other posts saying the same thing.
Recently I have heard and read comments about the rudeness of the folks in Prague. I haven%26#39;t been able to tell whether or not these reports apply only to the hospitality industry, or whether they apply to the general population, but I would be inclined to give it a miss until they become a little more accustomed to tourist traffic and realize that most of us travel because we%26#39;re interested in the world and not because we want to show off that we can afford to do it.
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If you%26#39;re wanting to visit these cities without stopping off along the way, then check out low cost flights on www.skyscanner.net/ Book early, as prices never come down - you might make yourself enough time to do both Paris *and* Prague!
Prague got a bad press a while ago - not their fault - as it became a destination for stag and hen weekends. I think the party is moving on now, but check on the Prague forum.
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For %26quot;down to earth%26quot; guidebooks, I second the recommendation of Rick Steve%26#39;s (get the books relating to a specific set of countries rather than the total Europe Back Door one) and the Rough guide, sold in the US as the Real Guide, also for individual countries. Rick S. also has guides for individual cities, which might work well for you. Steves gives you a choice of one book for free if you purchase one of his passes, at least he did last year.
In both, you get lots of background as well as affordable accommodation possibilities. Great for armchair traveling before you go!
IMHO, if you have some distance to go, a pass is usually worth it, and also saves you waiting in line for a ticket, unless you need a reservation for a high-speed train.
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%26gt;%26gt; Go to www.ricksteves.com
Go there if you like biased results, favouring the rail passes that they try to sell you.
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For train fare between Paris and Amsterdam/Prague, go to http://www.voyages-sncf.com . ricksteeve site based their comparison on inflated Eurail individual ticket prices thus favouring the passes.
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Hi Rick -
I wouldn%26#39;t even think about doing this itinerary by train with all the budget airline options available.
You can use www.bahn.de to check my guesses here, but I%26#39;d estimate that it would take about 12 hours to get from Dublin to Paris by ferry and train, about 14 hours to get between Prague and either Amsterdam or Paris and probably well over 30 hours to get from either Paris or Prague to Athens.
If you fly you will save a heck of a lot of time and probably a fair bit of money too. I%26#39;d look for a flight from Dublin to Paris with Aer Lingus, probably almost as cheap as Ryanair and much more convenient. Then use the site Diz already suggested to find a budget flight from Paris to Prague, then to Athens and finally to Amsterdam from which it should be much cheaper to fly back to Denver than from Athens. You might have to use Munich and train to Prague rather than fly direct to Prague. And you could always take the train to Amsterdam, then fly to Athens stopping in Prague along the way and flying home from Athens. (Or you could even look for flights home from Munich — all kinds of options...) Play around with the choices until you come up with the best/most efficient/least expensive itinerary.
One tip: If you take the train from Paris to Amsterdam or vv. use thalys.com to research fares and buy a RT ticket with a bogus return date and you will probably save money. You can only book this leg up to 90 days ahead, and some budget airlines may not yet have published fares and timetables for May %26#39;07.
If you are going to choose between Paris and Prague definitely pick Paris. Then you could easily manage three full days each in Dublin, Amsterdam, and Athens, and five days each in Paris and Mykonos.
Check for flights to Mykonos also. It is a popular destination so you might find something useful there.
Last word, for 1BCTraveller. How many times do you have to be told that the Steves site is NOT a good place to determine whether a rail pass is a good buy? The site is HEAVILY biased in favor of the passes which it sells. You have been told this many times by several different people, yet every time someone mentions rail passes you trot out the same piece of flawed advice.
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