Subject: Re: Europe trip advice needed
Hi Sherill and Linda,

It's pretty hard to justify a Eurailpass on the basis of cost alone. And using the point-to-point fares at Raileurope doesn't help, since those fares area almost always the full fare. Every rail system in Europe has a lot of different fares available, most cheaper than those quoted at Raileurope. Some systems have special cards you can buy to get discounts, some have special discounts for certain days of the week or for seniors, etc, etc.

Here's an example: last summer we, my wife, daughter and I spent two weeks in Germany. DeutscheBahn has a special card called the BahnCard, in two flavors, one giving you and the rest of your party 25% off and the other 50% off. The BahnCard50 costs EUR 200, but it's only EUR 100 if you're a senior. So, being a senior, I got one, and the savings on our first trip from Koeln to Munich paid for the card. The card is good for a year by the way.

Using the DeutscheBahn schedules and fares at http://bahn.hafas.de , I was unable to justify any pass at all.

Of course, we were travelling second class, and if you're all grown up your Eurailpass will be for first class. We had a full Eurailpass in 1996 and the first class was pretty easy to take.

Dave Hatunen Tucson AZ