Eurail Travel Passes At A Glance Depending on your own particular travel requirements you are able to choose from any one of the five different Eurorail passes.

The Eurail Travel Pass Network includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland offering tremendous savings on rail travel to all travelers.

Many first time travelers to Europe find themselves struggling over the best way to organize their trip. Americans are accustomed to limited rail service found in most of the United States. In fact, because of this, many Americans have either never ridden a train or have long since abandoned trains in favor of car or air travel.

This logic would be a mistake when planning a trip to Europe. The purchase of a Europe rail pass from EropRail is sure to be an eye-opening experience. In Europe, not only is the rail service very different from that of the United States, but the alternatives that many people choose in the United States are simply not practical in Europe.

The European rail system is vast and encompasses over 160,000 miles of tracks. Rail travel in Europe will take you just about anywhere you can go with a car. Even the smallest towns typically have a train station. Larger cities are served by several different European rail lines, including high speed trains, and comfortable long distance overnight trains, such as the Artesia Night and the Talgo Elipsos, that have beds and other amenities.

As for the alternatives to buying a Europe rail pass from EuropRail, they are not very appealing. Car travel in Europe has several disadvantages. For one, fuel is very expensive and can cost five dollars a gallon or more. It is also a nightmare to drive in many of Europe's larger cities, a difficulty further compounded when you don't speak a country's language and are unfamiliar with local rules of the road.

An Eurail Travel Pass is the most sensible and economical way for visitors to experience Europe. Depending on your own particular travel requirements you are able to choose from any one of the five different Eurorail passes

Eurail Classic Pass

This Eurailpass is the top-of-the-range rail pass offering anyday anytime unlimited consecutive day travel in all the 18 European countries of the Eurail Network.

You can choose from 15 day, 21 day, 1 month, 2 month or 3 month passes, and travel as many times as you want within your pass limit in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Standard Eurailpass offers 1st class travel for everyone. The outhpass offers 2nd class travel for youths under the age of 26. The Saverpass option allows travel in 1st class for 2-5 people traveling together.

If you want to see the whole of Europe and travel when and wherever you want then this pass is your best choice.

For more information and prices on the Eurail Classic Pass click here.

Eurail Flexipass

As with the Eurail Classic Pass the Eurail Flexipass gives you the freedom to travel within all the 18 European countries of the Eurail network but limits the number of days you may travel to either 10 or 15 depending on your pass selection.

The standard Flexipass offers 1st class travel for everyone. The Youth Flexipass offers 2nd class travel for youths under the age of 26. The Saver Flexipass option allows travel in 1st Class for 2-5 people traveling together.

Money Saving Tip: If you are not certain how much you will travel it may be cheaper to purchase two flexi passes with 'Pass Security' insurance on just one of them in place of one more expensive Classic Pass. That way if you do not travel as much as anticipated and only validate the flexi pass without the added insurance you are able to get your money back on the unused pass.

For more information and prices on the Eurail Flexipass click here.

Eurail Selectpass

The Eurail Selectpass lets you choose unrestricted anytime travel in any 3, 4 or 5 Eurail countries that are directly connected by rail or ship. This pass allows you to save money and only pay for the countries you need and is ideal for travelers visiting only part of Europe.

The countries you able to choose from, provided they are adjoining / directly connected to each other, are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The standard Selectpass offers 1st class travel for everyone. The Youth Selectpass offers 2nd class travel for youths under the age of 26. The Saver Selectpass option allows travel in 1st Class for 2-5 people traveling together.

Options include 5, 6, 8 or 10 days of travel in a 2-month period. If you choose 5 countries there is an extra option of 15 days of travel.

Adjoining countries are defined as being connected by either rail or ship. For example, France, Switzerland and Italy would be a possible 3 country combination, but so would Sweden, Germany and Austria. The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are considered 1 country called "Benelux".

The table below is an accurate guide as to which countries are 'adjoining' and how they are connected.

For more information and prices of the Eurail Selectpass click here.

Eurail Regional and National Passes

Recent additions to the Eurail stable of passes are the Regional and National Rail Passes.

Providing excellent value for money and far better benefit with no or very few useage restrictions these new passes are far more user friendly than those sold by the rail networks themselves.

The Eurail Regional Pass is great for travelers who want to see a smaller part of Europe in a short amount of time. It allows for unlimited travel in any one of nine different country combinations consisting of two neighbouring countries.

Very similar to the Select Pass (see above) depending on the regional pass combination you choose you will have between 4 and 10 travel days that can be used during a two month period in these countries.

There is currently a selection of 16 different Regional Passes available from Eurail giving you the opportunity to visit a specific area consisting out of two bordering countries although some bordering countries, because of their small geographic area, are treated as one.

The main advantage between the Select and Regional rail pass is that with the regional pass the cost is relative to the size of the country whereas with the select pass the price is related to the number of countries your choose.

For more information and prices on the Eurail Regional Pass click here.

The Eurail National Passes allow unlimited train travel in one European country including Finland, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.

There is currently a selection of nine Eurail National Passes available. These passes also entitle you to benefit from numerous bonuses, varying from free or reduced transportation on the tracks of private railroad companies, on national ferry crossings, and on buses, as well as reductions on car rental, hotels, museums and bicycle rental. Each country has its specific bonuses.

For more information and prices on the Eurail National / Country Pass click here.

Note: In addition to Eurail many rail networks operate their own rail pass systems. Unlike these network passes Eurail passes offer many more benefits to the traveler and have no or very few restrictions allowing far easier and spontaneous travel whereas most of the network passes restrict you to traveling during off-peak times that are not very tourist friendly. If you want to view a list sumarising all other available rail passes and compare these with the Eurail passes click here.