It s also worth noting that if you re traveling as a family or a group of 2-5 people and you ll alwa

Once upon a time, a key part of the preparation of any trip to Europe was the purchase of a Eurail Pass. These days, the proliferation of super discount new orleans plantation tours airlines throughout Europe has made it so some trips are now cheaper if you fly than if you take the train. Even when Eurail passes were more highly recommended, getting an Italy-only rail pass was still one of those things where you had to look closely at how much individual tickets would cost to see if it was worth it. Today, with more transportation options than ever, it s even more important to do the math.
In this article, we re going to look at when to get an Italy RailPass . Now, given the above paragraph you might be thinking it s never a good idea anymore new orleans plantation tours but that s definitely not the case. I used a railpass earlier this year and it saved me quite a bit of cash over buying individual tickets in-country, but a colleague and I had done a bunch of calculations before I left to make sure I d be saving new orleans plantation tours money. If you re as mathematically-challenged as I am (hence why I needed a colleague s help in the calculating), or if you just need to be pointed in the right direction, then I hope this article will help.
And it s also worth noting that even if you decide it makes sense to get a railpass or you just want to take advantage of the conveniences that come with having one but you re not sure which one suits your trip best, there s a person in my office at BootsnAll who can answer all your Eurail questions . Dave is our go-to guy for Eurail new orleans plantation tours questions, and he can help you figure out which is the best pass for you. He s a toll-free phone call away (if you re in the US) at 1-866-549-7614, and he s often available on the Skype link from our Eurail page .
You ll hear travelers say that Italy s trains are fairly cheap, so it often doesn t make sense to buy a railpass for just Italy. This was certainly true in the days when Italy was still using the lira , and it can still be true today but it depends on where you re going on Italy and on what kinds of trains.
Italy is criss-crossed new orleans plantation tours by a network of rail lines, and most of the popular routes (especially those between bigger cities) are covered by high-speed trains. The high-speed trains in Italy such as the EuroStar, InterCity, new orleans plantation tours or the new Alta Velocita can be quite a bit more expensive than a slow train on the same route. The differences between the fast and slow trains are probably obvious. The slower trains, stopping much more frequently along the way, take much longer to get from A to B. The high-speed trains stop less frequently, so get to each stop more quickly. The high-speed trains are also typically newer trains, and so can be a little more comfortable new orleans plantation tours (even in 2nd class).
With the high-speed trains, you ll almost always be required to buy a reservation in addition to your ticket, which makes the cost of those fast trains even higher. The cost of the reservation, like the cost of the ticket, will vary based on the exact kind of train you re on, which class car you want to be in, and the cities you re traveling to/from. As a reference point, on a recent trip I did from Milan to Rome on the EuroStar, I paid 20 for the reservation alone in a 2nd class car.
With some slower trains you may not even be able to a reservation, as they may be entirely first come, first served when it comes to seating, or a reservation may be optional and you ll take your chances of standing if the train is really full and you re reservation-less.
Keep in mind that if you are carrying an Italy Rail Pass, that is the equivalent of a ticket. In other words if a reservation is required for a particular train and you ve already got a rail pass, all you need to purchase is a reservation (bring your rail pass to the ticket counter with you when you re buying your reservation so they know you re all set). If you don t have a rail pass, you ll need to buy a ticket and a reservation, which can sometimes get printed on the same piece of paper.
You can get an Italy rail pass that s tailored to just the number of days you ll be using, as there are denominations between 3-10 days (to be used within a 2-month period). The cost-per-day of the pass goes down the more days you ll use, but it still costs enough that you probably don t want to buy a pass with a few extra days on it just in case you end up using them.
So before you can figure out whether a pass is a good idea for you, you ll need to know two things how many train travel days your trip includes, and the rough cost of a train ticket on the various journeys you ll be taking.
With regard to the number of train travel days in your trip, be sure to count both any day-trips you ll be taking new orleans plantation tours as well as any transfers from city to city but remember that with a rail pass a day-trip will only use one of the days on your pass. And as for getting an estimate of the costs for train tickets purchased in Italy, you can get good results with the Trenitalia new orleans plantation tours website (which has a pretty new orleans plantation tours good English version).
You can determine the cost-per-day of each pass just by dividing the number of days it s good for into the cost of the pass (you can find the current costs of an Italy Rail Pass here ). For instance, a 3-day 1st class adult ticket costs (at the moment) $217, which means the cost-per-day new orleans plantation tours of that pass is a little more than $72. If you look at the cost of train tickets for the trips you re planning to take and all of them are less than $72 per day, then it s easy to see how buying individual tickets is cheaper than buying a rail pass in that case.
On the other hand, a 5-day 2nd class adult ticket (at the moment) new orleans plantation tours is $219, making the cost-per-day of that pass just under $44. If you re between the ages of 12-25 and can get a youth pass, a 5-day pass is only $179 (cost-per-day of just under $35), and a 5-day 2nd class pass for a child between the ages of 4-11 is $111 (cost-per-day of just over $22). There are lots of train trips on high-speed trains for which any of these passes would save you money.
It s also worth noting that if you re traveling as a family or a group of 2-5 people and you ll always be together on the trains, there s something called new orleans plantation tours an Italy Saver pass that makes the trips (and the cost-per-day) even cheaper.
But even besides the cost, if your itinerary in Italy is completely unscheduled and you have absolutely no idea how many train trips you ll be taking let alone how many of them are going to be on high-speed trains then you re not really the ideal Italy rail pass candidate. The broader Eurail Pass is practically designed for itinerary-less travelers, and if your trip includes more than just Italy then it s definitely worth looking at getting a Eurail pass before you go.
If you re just going to Italy, however, it s not so simple. Because you ll need a reservation new orleans plantation tours for high-speed trains (where the rail pass can really save you money), the convenience factor of already having your ticket and just hopping on the next train leaving the station isn t there you ll still need to visit a ticket new orleans plantation tours counter to buy a reservation (or risk a huge fine if you re caught on the train without one). And although you could take advantage of just hopping onto just about any slow train without a reservation, a ticket for that train might very well cost less than the cost-per-day of your rail pass.
Your rail pass option is InterRail , which offers essentially the same perks as a Eurail Pass. Depending on your itinerary, you can buy a Global InterRail Pass (good for 30 European countries, including Italy), or a simple Italy InterRail Pass (good for Italy only).
The cost of the InterRail Passes varies depending on how many travel days per month you need, how old the traveler is, and whether you want to travel in 1st or 2nd class. A Youth Pass (age 25 or younger) for Italy only that has 6 travel days to be used in one month is 125. An Adult Pass for Italy only in 2nd class and with those same 6 travel days in a month is 195. Italy InterRail passes are available in increments of 3, 4, 6, or 8 travel days per month.
Global Passes are more costly, as they allow you to enter more countries, and they are available in more increments 5 travel days within 10 days, 10 travel days within 22 days, 15 consecutive days, 22 consecutive days, or 1 consecutive month. A Global Youth Pass for 10 travel days within 22 days is 249, and an Adult Global Pass in 2nd class for those same 10 travel days within 22 days is 369.
To find out whether it s cheaper to buy an InterRail Pass or buy Italy train tickets along the way, you ll do the same math outlined above figure out the cost of the train trips you want to take, and see if they add up to less than the cost of an InterRail Pass that would cover those journeys.
I know, I know All of this math isn t exactly fun. But it s the best way to find out for sure whether an Italy rail pass will save you money or not. If, however, you want the short-hand version, here it is.
Again, the math outlined above isn t hard but I understand how your eyes might be glazing over at the thought of it. Mine did. So if you really don t want to do any of the math, then here s the bottom line.
Fortunately, I m a math-geek anyway so I fired up my Excel and worked out the niggly details just as you suggest myself. For families, the Saver fares are great and there are sometimes additional family new orleans plantation tours discounts new orleans plantation tours which you can take advantage of too we only found out about these when we got there but they applied to all our train trips.
It sounds like you didn t really need this article, Michelle, self-confessed math-geek! I needed the assistance of my math-geek colleague to help me with all of this so even though I know lots of people out there could figure it out on their own, the fact that I couldn t meant that at least a few others might find the information helpful.
Most rail passes are for non-consecutive days 3 days anytime during the time when the pass is valid but there are a few that are for consecutive days. If yo