21 Day Eurail

Okay, my friends and I are going to Europe from Detroit on June 26, and we are returning July 30. We are buying the Eurail Pass for 21 days, and the remaining days will be spent in a friend%26#39;s house in Aachen, Germany.

The places we want to visit consist of:

1.Aachen

2.Brussels

3.Amsterdam

4.Paris

5.Bordeaux(Maybe)

6.Barcelona

7.Pisa(Maybe)

8.Rome(Friend in Rome)

9.Venice

10.Innsbruck

11.Lucern

12.Brig

13.Maybe some German towns before we head back up to Aachen

Now, I think this could be way too many places to visit in such a short period of time, but the others say it will be fine, what are your views?

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WAY too much.

If all you want to have is a %26quot;Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt%26quot; trip I suppose you *could* manage to make this circuit in 21 days by train. Frankly I wouldn%26#39;t see the point and you certainly woud need a vacation by the time you were done.

To begin with, here is what I would regard as a *minimum* number of FULL days to spend in each place on your list if you were actually going to do much more than take a photo of each other at the train station, have a meal, spend the night and move on to the next place: Brussels — 1 day

Amsterdam — 3 days

Paris — 5 days

Bordeaux — 1 day

Barcelona — 3 days

Pisa — 1 day

Rome — 4 days

Venice — 3 days

Innsbruck — 2 days

Luzern — 1 day

Brig — why bother?

So already we have 24 days. Now take a look at the logistics. Up to Bordeaux it is not too bad. The longest trip you would be making would be Amsterdam-Paris, a little over four hours. (Incidentally I would go Aachen-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris, but it doesn%26#39;t really change things, just makes Aachen-Amsterdam the longest travel day so far.) From Bordeaux the wheels start to come off. Bordeaux-Barcelona is a 10-11 hour trip and there are no night train options. So scratch Bordeaux. Paris-Barcelona is a 12.5 hour trip by night train, incidentally the only direct train. (Note: overnight train accommodation can be expensive, especially in first class.)

Barcelona-Pisa is a 17 hour journey, Barcelona-Rome about 18.5 hours with a night train from Barcelona. I%26#39;d skip Pisa. In any case Florence is a much more worthwhile place to visit than Pisa.

All your trips from Rome until you get to Luzern will range between 4.5 and 6 hours, IOW each of them will eat up a good chunk of a day. Luzern to Brig is about a 3 hour trip and Brig to Aachen about 8-9 hours. so between Bordeaux and Aachen on your itinerary you would eat up three full days and a night travelling and the major part of three more days.

IMO Aachen-Amsterdam-Paris-Rome-Venice-Aachen is realistic, possibly adding Florence between Rome and Venice and maybe stopping in Innsbruck between Venice and Aachen.

My suggestion would be that you re-plan your itinerary using www.bahn.de (there is an English language option) to scope out actual train routings and timetables. Put together a detailed itinerary with each day covered at least in broad outline including travel time and allowing yourselves time to actually visit the places you are travelling to. And do not forget to allow time for getting between the stations and your hotels, checking in and out, and unpacking and packing in each location. A four hour train trip doesn%26#39;t leave you with much time to do anything that day but have a quick first look round and a meal when you take all the other bits into account.

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Thank you very much for taking the time to tell me all of that.

I figured it was way too much, but I didn%26#39;t know how much over the limit we were.

We also figured that we%26#39;d spend about 75 Euro each day, and I don%26#39;t know if this is anywhere near correct. Also, do the High-speed trains add additional prices to the ticket even though we have the Eurail Global pass? We planned on staying in hostels, and booking some of them ahead, but we don%26#39;t know which ones.

One other thing, I am wondering if 6 people is too much, because I would think most rooms are 4 person, and we may have other conflicting things with the 6 people, one who is not under 18.

It seems we still have some problems to work out before we head out.

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