Friday 17 April 2015

Choosing The Right Travel Pass For Your Europe Trip - Eurail Select Pass / Swiss Travel Pass

Hello! Just a recap, next Friday I'll land myself in Paris (OMG!) and I'm also visiting Switzerland, Vienna, Prague and Frankfurt for a month! I believe most of us know that a huge part of the costs involved when you're in Europe will be on transportation, especially when you're visiting different countries! In this post, I will be sharing with you all the train passes which I've purchased and its costs that best fits my itinerary. After A LOT of research & hair-pulling moments, my brother and I decided to go with the Eurail Select Pass
The 4 countries I've selected for this Select Pass will be France, Switzerland, Austria & Germany. LUCKILY I'M STILL A YOUTH (25 years old woohoo)! If not, the cost of an Adult Pass is DOUBLE that of a Youth Pass leh! I chose the first category, $271euros = SGD$426.75 per pax.

Note: As the Select Pass only covers 4 countries, I will be purchasing a separate train ticket for Vienna-Prague journey since these 2 places are nearer to each other. A 2-way return trip costs around $40-60euros (~SGD$100) 
Some of my trains requires mandatory seat reservations, so I paid SGD$119.08 per pax (covering 4 seat reservations as seen below).
What I'm most impressed with Eurail is their efficiency in mailing me my Eurail Pass and reservation tickets!! SUPER EFFICIENT & TRUSTABLE SERVICE! 

<< SWITZERLAND >>
Transportation in Switzerland is slightly different because of all that mountains and lakes as compared to countries such as Paris/Vienna/Prague which operates by its metro system like Singapore. There are various passes that you can choose from, depending on how many days you plan to stay. I'd be staying there for 8 days 7 nights covering Interlaken, Montreux (1 day trip), Bern (1 day trip), Lucerne (1 day trip) & Zurich. So after doing all that calculation & literally getting my brain fried (seriously it was that tough), I decided to go for the Swiss Travel Pass!
This is the pricing from www.swisstravelsystem.com, BUT don't get turn off by the price first! I actually purchased my Swiss Travel Pass from Rail Europe Singapore which is much more cheaper (refer to image below)!
For the advantages of the Swiss Travel Pass especially the unlimited travel, it is very worth it and all I need to set aside now is just the money for food in Switzerland! Anyways, after booking via Rail Europe, you'll receive an email confirmation. Once the order is being processed, they will send you another email with your Swiss Travel Pass attached. The pass is a 'Print @ Home' e-ticket which is pretty convenient! You can print as many as you want too, just in case!

I've done most of my research via useful (life-saving) websites such as Rick Steves, Eurail.com, TripAdvisor and other forums that pop up during google search. If you are a budget traveler like me, I would definitely advice you to dedicate some time doing all the necessary calculations before you purchase any train passes. No Pain, No Gain!! It's really not easy at all but IT'S ALL WORTH IT! :D

With love,
Shirley

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