I'm taking a four+ month backpacking trip through Europe and am extremely confused as to whether I should get a Eurail pass or not.

I'll be in:

France
Spain
The UK
Ireland
Croatia
Italy
Germany
Austria
Czech Republic
Amsterdam
Belgium

And possibly Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Denmark.

Would I be better off not getting a pass at all, and winging it, or getting a couple one country passes for expensive places like Germany? I'm trying to find rates for long-distance train tickets but they're hard to find on the internet. Does anyone have any experience/advice with the full 3-month Eurail pass? Worth it? Not worth it? I read the Eurail pass thread, but it didn't solve my dilemma. I hate to throw away $1300 if I'm not going to get my value, but I also don't want to be stuck paying a bunch of exorbitant ticket prices. And even with the 3-month pass, there will still be a full month that's not covered that I'll have to pay for.

I never purchased a pass during my trip, so I can only say that unless you are planning on being in certain places and at particular times, buying an exprnsive pass seems like an unwise choice. Suppose you connect with others on you journey and find yourself traveling using another mode of transport. Anyway, like I said, the manner in which I traveled allowed me to purchase as I went along. And don't forget that buses are likely choices.

i found that it was pretty cheap to just show up and get a ticket that day. Also, flying is pretty damn cheap and you could probably find 20 euro plane tickets. I'd say that if you were on a set schedule, it might be of some value but like the other person, i wouldn't recommend it. People i know who have bought them said it only saved them like 100 bucks.

Skip the pass. Looks like you're doing a similar course to a trip I did in 07. That, or check the rail sites for the various countries. You can pretend to book a few legs to price out distances and look at the variations between fast/regional trains.

France - no experience.
Spain - Relatively cheap.
The UK/Ireland - Expensive, but you'll want to book a day ahead to cut a major portion of the cost off.
Croatia - This is a bus country.
Italy - There's a seat reservation fee, just stick to regional trains. The fee is usually more/as much as the tickets.
Germany - Expensive rail system. I believe Berlin -> Frankfurt cost 80+ Euro and Munich to Prague cost 119 Euro. If you check online and are careful about what train you take you can cut about 20-30 euro off these prices. There are also major carpooling services you can tie into. Friend set one up from Frankfurt to Munich.
Austria - Similar to Germany.
Czech Republic - Pretty cheap. Just as likely to use a bus as a train.
Amsterdam/Belgium - not cheap but not terrible.
Greece - You won't do any train travel here.
Portugal - not sure. Similar to Spain I believe.
Denmark - no experience.

Also, keep in mind that you can do bus trips in a lot of the really expensive countries as necessary if you need to keep it down.

Problem with a Eurail pass is the feeling that you need to use it, and added booking/reservation fees.

This is where I get confused. I'm not sure what country you all live in but is there not a 90 day limit on travel within Schengen countries? If that's the case how can someone do a 4 month tour? Is there an extended visa you can purchase in order to travel longer?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, if anyone can clarify this I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

By the way I am from Canada so I'm not sure if there are different rules that apply to travellers from different countries.

Quick answer:

Officially, its practically impossible to do a four month tour legally, unless you get student visa or something like that. Unofficially, they don't seem to mind if you leave teh country after 3 months, then come back a few days later, as long as you don't overstay the second time. If you wanted to stay legal, you could work your way to spain at the 3 month mark, then hop off to Morocco for some more culture, then come back. Croatia is not in the Schengen zone yet. Bosnia definitely isn't,yet, and I can't think of a nicer country to visit than Bosnia.

Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark
Estonia Finland France Germany
Greece Hungary Iceland Italy
Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta
Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal
Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden

http://www.axa-schengen.com/english/sch ... tries.html

This is where I get confused. I'm not sure what country you all live in but is there not a 90 day limit on travel within Schengen countries? If that's the case how can someone do a 4 month tour? Is there an extended visa you can purchase in order to travel longer?

In the countries mentioned above, 3 are not Schengen countries, so they get their own 90 days (180 in the UK) each. In order to do a 4 month tour legally, you just have to arrange it so that UK, Ireland and Croatia add up to at least a month. (You could easily spend well over a month in any one of those countries)

It all depends on how you want to travel: have you ever thought of hitchhiking? I just came from France where I did a tour for about 24 days hitchhiking all the time saving a lot of money. Actually, based on my experience in France, with 1300 euros I could stay on the road about three months and 10 days.
In France train it is really expensive compared to Italy.

Thanks for everyone's advice!

I think I'm going to skip the Eurail pass. I might get a one-country pass for Germany, since I plan on staying there for awhile, but other than that I don't see myself saving a lot of money with a Eurail pass.

Hitchhiking--I'm a woman traveling alone, so while I'm not going to rule out hitchhiking, I'd prefer to not do it unless I have to or I have a traveling companion at the time.

Schengen countries--I actually plan on spending at least a month in Croatia, Ireland, and the UK combined so the 90-day limit shouldn't be a problem. But I'm not too worried about overstaying, since when I looked it up (this is probably dependent on country too) the worst that will happen is you'll be subject to a fine and not allowed to return to the Schengen countries for 90 days.

I travel everywhere by bus myself. I find it cheaper and a little less stressful. Me and trains never got on very well and Eurolines runs a great service all over Europe. I'd definitely rule out getting any transport pass though, since there would be nothing more furstrating than being under pressure to be constantly on the move. However, if you want to see as much as possible and are limited on time, you may find a pass not a bad idea. I know a lot of people tour western and central Europe on Busabout, thought Eurorail is very common too.

I prefer the train to the bus. Sometimes rail passes are good options - I'm looking into some myself.
Do your research though. There are many types of passes so you can choose to get them for the part of the trip where they are most useful. And they also contain discounts and other facilities.