Eurail Tips: Read All The Mistakes I Made So You Can Avoid Them

First time Eurailing? Let me tell you a brief story of my first Eurail trip. I had it all planned out. A long journey from Istanbul to Cork and then all the way back home in the north of Italy. Eighteen trains, two ferries, four days and 23 hours!

A couple of nights before my trip, I opened my laptop, looking forward to booking all the necessary reservations for my trip. It was then that I discovered with a mix of misbelief and rage that there was no seat left! Eighteen trains became thirty, five days became over six travelling days… Only the number of ferries remained unchanged.

That’s how I learned you need to book your trips in advance. Long in advance at times! Ok, ok. No need to panic. This won’t happen to you. Below, you will find all the Eurail mistakes I made so you can avoid them. But first, let’s discuss a few things.

• Who Am I and Why Should You Trust Me?
• What’s Eurail?
• Are Interrail and Eurail The Same?
• 9 Eurail Mistakes I Made, So You Can Avoid Them
  • 1. Book Your Reservations (Now!)
  • 2. Beware of Splitting Trains
  • 3. Eurail Is Not Always The Cheapest Option. Heading To East Europe? You May End Up Paying More
  • 4. Don’t Activate Your Trip Unless You’re About To Board
  • 5. Avoid Deutsche Bahn Or Get Ready To Laugh and Cry (At The Same Time)
  • 6. Make a Plan B of The Plan B, Or Go With The Flow
  • 7. Sleeping On Trains Is A Blast
  • 8. Buy Your Ticket During Black Friday!
  • 9. Get Familiar With The Eurail Filters
• A Few Common Eurail FAQs

Hello there! I’m Cristina, full-time traveller, train-lover, and European citizen. I’ve been on three Eurail trips, travelling over 22,000 km in 12 countries! Ok, enough bragging. Let’s move on.

What’s Eurail?

Eurail is a train pass allowing you to travel to 33 European countries. You can usually use your Eurail pass for a fixed number of days within one or two months. You can check this page to see all the passes currently available. You can also get a pass to travel to a single country, such as Sweden, Italy, or France. Interested? Check this link.

Are Interrail and Eurail The Same?

Yes. The only difference is that Eurail passes are for non-EU citizens, while Interrail ones are for EU citizens. So, all the information you’ll find on this page is valid for both.

9 Eurail Mistakes I Made, So You Can Avoid Them

Let’s start with the worst… Reservations.

1. Book Your Reservations (Now!)

Here is the first hilarious contradiction of Eurail. The whole idea is to be spontaneous and travel from one European city to the next whenever you feel like it. How nice to be able to run to the station at the last minute and jump on a train heading to London, Amsterdam, Athens… Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

Most trains require you to buy a seat reservation, which must be booked in advance. I’m planning to write a whole post on the matter as it’s more complicated than it may seem, but here is a good summary.

• All night trains and high-speed trains require a reservation. Unless you want to take 24 hours to go from Paris to Milan, you will need to travel on a high-speed train. Regional trains are SLOW as they stop at every city, village, settlement… everywhere.
• You can book your seat reservation on the Eurail official website but not on the app. How? Go to the time-table page and select your route. The platform will tell you whether you need a reservation and give you the option to book.
• Some train reservations need to be physically posted in your mailbox. Yes, it’s also the 21st century here in Europe. Yes, we’re aware of it. Yes, we’re just as angry, baffled, and frustrated as you are. Of course, this will require you to book your ticket months in advance. Yey!
• Not all tickets can be booked online. Why? Some countries simply don’t have this option. Check the country’s official train website and try there. For example. Are you heading to Italy? Type ‘Italy national trains’ on Google, and you’ll quickly find Trenitalia’s official website. If you try to buy a ticket for your train, you may be given the option to buy a ‘reservation only’. Spoiler alert. Trenitalia often doesn’t allow you to do it online, but other train companies do. Your only option in this case? Book your reservation in person at the train stations.
• Tickets run out! Wait a moment! Some seat reservations run out… But not all countries allow you to book it online… You got it! There is a chance you may arrive at the station, try to buy a seat reservation for a train departing in one hour and find out there are none left. Embracing uncertainty is the only solution. From personal experience, this is extremely rare unless you’re booking a highly popular route during the high season (July and August). If this is not the case, you’ll probably be fine.

2. Beware of Splitting Trains

It’s not a Harry Potter anecdote. Trains split. This is why there is no reason to panic if you’re waiting for your train to head to Vienna, but the screen says it’s going to Munich. It’s probably just a splitting train. Some wagons will go to Austria, others to Germany. Check out the train code and see if it’s the same as yours or very similar. If yes, you’ll be fine. Just make sure to enter the right wagon. How? Check your seat, and if you don’t have one, ask around.

3. Eurail Is Not Always The Cheapest Option. Heading To East Europe? You May End Up Paying More

Is Eurail more convenient than buying singular tickets? There’s a quick way to find out. Are you travelling to Western Europe? Probably yes. Are you heading to Eastern Europe? Probably not.

In countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, trains are cheap. Crazy cheap! You want an example? A night train from Sofia to Istanbul, roughly 500 km, will cost you about $30. Berth included! Check each country’s official website to see the prices and figure out whether a Eurail ticket will help you save money.

For Western Europe, Eurail is often cheaper. However, travelling by bus will probably cost less. The most popular bus company here is Flixbus, but I don’t recommend it unless you really need to save money. Buses are often late, and it will take you ages to go from one place to the next.

4. Don’t Activate Your Trip Unless You’re About To Board

On the Eurail app, you get to look for all the trains available, save the ones you’re planning to take in a folder, and then activate them. Make sure to do so a few minutes before getting on your train. If you decide to change your plan but forget to deactivate your train ticket, you will inevitably lose a travelling day. Whether you get on your train or not.

So, keep all the trains you want to board on the ‘My Trip’ section, and click the ‘activate’ button on the right only a few minutes before boarding. You can do this even when you’re on the train, so no reason to rush.

5. Avoid Deutsche Bahn Or Get Ready To Laugh and Cry (At The Same Time)

I could write an entire book about Deutsche Bahn. I’m not entirely sure how we all convince ourselves German trains are the most efficient system in the world because, trust me, they aren’t. Mauritania has a better system.

“But Cristina, Mauritania only has a cargo train that locals use to catch a free ride!”

“I stand behind my statement.”

Throughout my years travelling with Deutsche Bahn, I experienced:

• The lack of a sleeping berth I booked in advance, paying 40 euros. “I’m sorry, this train doesn’t have sleeping berths…” “But I booked it online!” “You can TRY and ask for a refund…” It took two months to get my money back.
• One hour under a massive storm after our train stopped in the middle of nowhere, a few kilometres from the Dutch border. Of course, nobody told us what to do, and we all ended up taking a random bus.
• Countless delays and cancellations.

At times, you simply can’t avoid Germany. Yet, if you’re travelling there by train, be mentally prepared.

6. Make a Plan B of The Plan B, Or Go With The Flow

The chance of things going wrong is high (especially if you’re travelling to Germany!). So, make sure you have a plan B. (If travelling to Germany, I recommend also a plan C). Otherwise, go with the flow! Especially when travelling to Eastern Europe, where trains and hotels are cheap, I often end up reserving everything last-minute.

7. Sleeping On Trains Is A Blast

Yes, you can sleep on trains and yes, it can be more convenient than booking a hostel. First of all, it will help you save time; second, it will help you save money. Will you have a good night’s sleep? It depends. Some trains (for instance, the one connecting Bologna to Vienna) have sleeping capsules so you can have your own private experience! Others are definitely older, and you will have to share a wagon with random people. Yet, I think it’s worth it as it gives you the opportunity to meet fellow travellers and connect with locals. If travelling off-season on the Sofia-Instabul train, you’ll probably get a whole sleeping berth for yourself. I did this three times, and I was alone twice.

8. Buy Your Ticket During Black Friday!

Eurail tickets are discounted only a few times per year. Some of the sales are completely random, but there’s a 100% chance you’ll get a discount on Black Friday. Funny enough, I’m writing this on November, Friday 29th. Yep, Black Friday! And guess what? They are offering a 25% discount on all passes! Keep in mind that you have 11 months to activate these. So, if you’re planning to go to Europe in April, you can still use a pass you bought in November! “But Cristina, why didn’t you publish this article during Black Friday?” “’Cause I’m a serial procrastinator, okay!? Now let me finish my article.”

9. Get Familiar With The Eurail Filters

When checking your route on the Eurail app, you will often be given the fastest option, not keeping the budget into account. At times, you may have a 10-minute change in a massive station. I don’t know you, but I’m not eager to run with a humongous backpack on my shoulders. So, make sure to check all the available filters on the Eurail app when trying to find the perfect route for your trip. You can decide whether to choose only options without train reservations so that you can travel for free, select how much time to get when changing trains, and more.

These were all the mistakes I made on my Eurail trip. Hopefully, you learned something useful and will be able to do a better job than I did. Below are a few common questions people often ask before backpacking in Europe.

A Few Common Eurail FAQs

Cristina