By Sinaiyouth 
When my parents got married in the 1960s, they spent their honeymoon traveling across Europe. Graduate students with great curiosity and little money, Arthur Frommer Europe out of $ 5 per day was their bible and an Eurail pass allowed them the freedom to get on a train and cross the continent with a tight budget. Decades after their trip, my parents have always talked about authentic experiences that European train travel presented.
I am sure that the emblematic European sites have delighted these two children of the Bronx. However, it was the people they met in the trains, of the friendly Italian family who shared their simple meal of bread and cheese in the Spanish pro-Franco with whom my anti-fascist father argued for hours, which were engraved in their memory. The trains were – and are always – how many Europeans travel, facilitating an organic way of connecting with the inhabitants.
As a teenager, I also traveled across Europe, with nothing other than Wanderlust and a cheap Eurail pass in my hand. Traveling with an Eurail Pass allowed me to expand my horizons, meet a variety of people and visit several countries with the money I had saved from the weekend baby-sitting.
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In adulthood, some of my family’s best travel adventures were in the trains. I also appreciated solo trips with a Eurail Pass, chatting with his passenger colleagues while breathtaking landscapes take place. Here is what you need to know using the Eurail Pass to see Europe on a budget.
What is an Eurail Pass?
Do you want to get on the train in Paris and wake up in Rome? No problem. How about crossing the Swiss Alps or heading for Andalusia to watch the flamenco dancers at midnight? A Eurail pass facilitates and economically to see as many Europe as you wish.
With the Eurail Pass, you pay a price for an unlimited trip through a huge rail network. For non -European residents, it is a great way to visit 33 European countries, and for more convenience, you can buy it online before your trip. Since its deployment in 1959, more than a million travelers have used an Eurail pass, so it has resisted the time test.
Large discounts for families
Up to two children under the age of twelve receive a free Eurail pass with each adult eurail collar purchased. For example, if you are a family of two adults and four children, the four children travel for free. Children under the age of four do not really need an Eurail pass, although they may have to sit on your knees if the train is wrapped and they don’t have their own free Eurail collar.
If you travel with adolescents or young adults up to 27 years old, there are a variety of discounts for young people up to 25% reduction on the success rate of adults. And if you plan a multi-generational train vacation with grandparents, adults over 60 receive a 10% discount on all Eurail passes.
What Eurail Pass is right for you?
There are several types of available passes. The continuous global Eurail pass is valid for a continuous travel period ranging from 15 days to three months. There is also the Flexi pass, which allows four, five or seven days of train travel within one month, or 10 or 15 days of travel within two months.
Eurail also sells passes valid exclusively in a country for travelers looking for a deeper dive in a single country. You can buy an Eurail pass for first or second class trips, with a more expensive first class leave.
Reserve or not?
Many trains do not require reservation, although high -speed night trains and certain panoramic routes require a reservation. The seats reservations lead to a variety which varies, but which has a cost between 10 and 20 euros per seat on it. Keep in mind that even if the children do not pay an Eurail pass, they have to pay to book a seat or a berth, a comfortable berth with several beds, in the night trains.
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I kiss spontaneity and I often travel without reservation of a seat. If the train I intend to take has no available seat, I pivot and get on a later train or a train to a different destination. However, unless you are super flexible, I would not recommend traveling without reservations of seats with children, especially during peak and vacation travel seasons, when trains are often wrapped.
Get the application
Originally, an Eurail pass was made of paper. While Eurail always offers the pass of nostalgic paper, the Eurail Rail Planner mobile application is free and easy to download on your phone. The application makes the planning of your itinerary, the verification of train schedules, the finding of real -time delays and the reservation of childcare reservations. If you are traveling with your family, you can connect accounts and reserve seats next to each other, particularly important when traveling with children.
Is Eurail Pass just for your family?
The train trip is the slow trip to its best, because travel is a key element of experience. This is my family’s favorite way to get around Europe. My children are now young adults, although they always have good memories of childhood travel to explore trains, eat in the dining car and watch superb landscapes ride while we hug in our comfortable seats.
The environmental impact of travel weighs heavily in my travel choices. The train trip is a greener option, which has a great attraction.
A Eurail pass offers the freedom to make as much or as few stops as you wish. We used our Eurail pass to visit tourist cities such as London and Paris as well as less known jewels like Cologne, Germany, where my family and I spent hours seeing the collection of pop art at the Ludwig Museum; And Locarno in Switzerland Ticino, where we splashed in Lake Maggiore for hours. Without traveling by unlimited train, we would probably never have stopped at destinations more under the radar that were so enriching.