First, Have your mom or dad buy you one as an early or late birthday or Christmas present or just tell them to buy you one because they love you and want you to have an awesome time on your journey of self discovery and this is the best way for them to contribute to your plight.

Or, do what I did and charge it on your credit card and pay it off when you get back (if you over budget for your trip, you will return from your trip with extra money).

As an example, you can take a trip from Paris to Madrid, then later go from Madrid to Rome and those two trips alone will cost around $400 2nd class ($600 1st class)! Imagine how much more you have to budget by buying more individual train fares to travel to Portugal, Amsterdam (Holland), Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, London, Other parts of Italy and Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Hugary, Luxembourg, and Greece. Four of those trips (only 2nd class)and you would have paid as much as it cost for a 1st Class Eurail Pass Flexi giving you 15 days of travel anytime within a two-month period! Do the math folks! Not only does the Eurail Pass save you money, it saves you tons of time, especially if you don't know the language of the countries that you will be traveling to.

BOTTOM LINE: I could never go to Europe without a Eurail Pass. I've saved too much money and time by buying them.
Taking the Eurail works like this. You're heading to Paris from Los Angeles and have your money belt filled with cash, credit cards, passport, plane ticket, and Eurail ticket. You arrive in Paris and take in the sites for a few days. Then, you've decided that you've had enough of Paris and want to check out Amsterdam. It would be wise to go to the train station and make your reservation to Amsterdam, at the very least, the day before. Let's say that you bought a Eurail pass, back in LA, that gives you eight days of travel within a two month period. You pull this Eurail pass out to show to the person at the window at the train station. This attendant will check your pass to see if it is valid and if you've bought a 1st class or 2nd class pass. They will then ask you what day you would like to travel to A-Dam. You tell them "tomorrow at 3:00pm(or, whatever)." They reserve a spot for you (providing that there is availability, of course), and YOU WILL BE CHARGED A LITTLE FEE. This fee is nominal. It's a few bucks for, I believe, taxes. Don't worry about it as every time you do this in any country, you should expect to pay this small amount.

One thing, If you travel at night and want a "sleeper car" or "couchette" it will cost extra money and can range in price, depending on how many people you will be sharing the couchette with. Share it with friends or they'll find a car with four beds and sell you one of those beds, not knowing who you'll be bunking with. The more beds per room, the cheaper price you will pay. I paid around $40 for my own room on the train from Paris to A-Dam.

It was cool! Had my own sink, mirror, racks, window, privacy, and the guy came around taking drink orders! Four beers, please! I woke up and we just got to A-dam at 9AM. Traveling at night, by way of train, serves two purposes. One, you didn't waste any site-seeing daylight hours. And, two, you didn't have to fork out money for a hostel/hotel that night as you slept on the train.

Now, the normal seats in both 1st and 2nd class are big and comfy and you can sleep fine there too. I just figured, well, how often in my life will I be traveling by train in another country and get to have my own room. What's that experience like? So, I pulled the trigger, had a nice, relaxing time, and got first-hand experience.

Back to business, during the train ride, a guy will come around to every passenger and ask to see your passport and ticket or Eurail pass. You pull it out for him to check it, and he will have YOU write down the DATE (ie..06/03) in ONE OF YOUR EIGHT ALOTTED SLOTS on your 8-day Eurail pass. You will have seven available slots left. You can travel as much as you want in a 24hr period using ONE slot. Make sense? Let's say you left A-Dam and went a few hours south to Bruges, Belgium. You get off the train, having used one slot on your pass. You run around Bruges for 3 hours and decide that you don't want to stay there, but move on to Paris. You can then hop on the train again, without using another slot on your pass, since it's still the same date as you wrote down in one of your slots. If you are traveling quite a distance, there will probably be a stop or two on your way. Sit tight. The guy will come around again once the train stars moving again, to check tickets again (since there will be new passengers at every stop).

Rail Europe- This is by far, the most popular site for purchasing your Eurail Passes. They offer all different types of passes catered to your specific travel destinations. Rail Europe is also the leading online supplier of Eurail Passes. Many visitors of our website have purchased their passes through their online website and have had great success with them. This is why we highly recommended that you visit the Rail Europe website if you will be traveling throughout all of Europe or just parts of it.
They offer Eurail Selectpasses, BritRail, France, Swiss, Single Country, Multiple Countries, Eurostar, Point-to-Point, and France n´Spain passes. Special discounts on "Youth Passes" for people under 26 yrs old (if you haven´t had your 26th birthday yet). Their interactive maps are extremely helpful when routing out your trip.

All online orders will be processed within 24 hrs and can be delivered within 2 business days!
Tracking your order: There is a link on the Rail Europe site that says "Track Your Shipment." Once you have placed your order online, you will be sent a Reference Number on your confirmation email. This number can be typed into their site and you will be able to track exactly when your pass was processed, where your pass is, and when you should receive it.

**The main Rail Europe.com website, is for US residents only. For residents of Canada, UK, and or other countries, you will see links for you to purchase Eurail tickets, towards the upper part of the Rail Europe website.

• AVE- Travel in Spain is a dream with AVE high speed trains. The AVE operates on the Madrid-Cordova-Seville route and can whisk you to/from Madrid and Seville in just 2.5 hours (with many other routes available).
• Eurostar- The world's most advanced train, Eurostar whisks you under the sea through the famous Channel Tunnel taking you to and from Paris, London and Brussels in record time and in luxurious surroundings.
• Talgo (in Spain) Similar to the 168 mile per hour AVE train between
  Madrid and Seville, the new 140 mile per hour Talgo
  200 trains connect Madrid-Cordova-Malaga and Madrid-Cordova-Seville-Cadiz, with five and two trains, respectively, running daily.
• TGV- For 20 years it has regularly linked more than 150 destinations in France and Europe safely, quickly and comfortably. The TGV is the cornerstone of the European high-speed rail network connecting France to London, Brussels, Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Torino, Milan, and more.
• TGV Med- Travel at speeds over 186 mph from Paris and Lyon to the French Mediterranean destinations such as Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Montpellier, Nimes and Nice with the TGV Med. This brand new high speed line provides frequent service from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea.
• Thalys -Also known as the "red train", Thalys links Paris to Brussels, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam. There are 18 Thalys trains per day that take you from Paris to Brussels in under 1 hr 25 min.