As you are sitting back in your comfortable chair right now, relaxed and at ease, imagine yourself in Paris, France the "City of Lights," relaxing in a cafe sipping espresso watching the locals walk busily to their destination with baguettes under their arms, cafes next to the one you are hanging out at as well as the ones across the street filled with other locals in deep and amusing conversations, waiters rushing back and forth taking and delivering orders, a street performer on the corner filling the sunny afternoon air with the sounds of a classic French song played to perfection on his aging accordian.

What a blast you had in Paris!

Now imagine that as you wind down your last few minutes in Paris, you pay your tab, strap on your backpack and head to the train station on your way to your next destination.

You're excited. The anticipation is building as you've drawn up your rough plans on how you're going to take the next city you're visiting by storm.

Because of your witty pre-travel tactics of strategizing your travel routes, arranging your accommodations, and buying your Eurail Pass before your travels began, you're at ease.

You'll be at the next city in a few hours.

The smile on your face grows bigger and intensifies as you are calm and far from the mental chaos that you may witness from other travelers at the train station paying a premium for "on the spot" fares to popular destinations and watching their travel budgets dwindle.

Not you. You've got a grin on your face, because you did your due diligence and had the foresight to get your major necessities out of the way, so you can relax and enjoy while you're on the road.

Now, imagine yourself 10 years from now how much you've grown as a person and are culturally diverse in your ways, all because of that ONE well prepared trip that started it all!

A badly managed trip, your first time out, can give you heebie jeebies on pulling the trigger a second time out, in the near future.

Why it matters that you buy your Eurail Pass BEFORE you leave.

When you buy your pass before you leave and have the majority of your accommodations reserved ahead of time, you prevent future "messes" that you would have encountered on your trip, had you not gotten them out of the way ahead of time.

We all have messes in our head each day- "I gotta finish my homework," " I have to send my mom that gift," "I need to get the car tuned up," "I need go to the dentist," "I need to file my taxes," "I need to look for a job," "I got to catch up with my friend," "I have to start looking for another apartment," etc...

Can you imagine being on your trip and going, "I gotta find a hostel," "I gotta call the train station and check on prices..Hello, do you speak English?! Does an-knee-wun-speaka-Enngggglesh?!" Crap. Oh shiznit, I gotta see these two museums too, but I gotta get this crap out of the way because I want to catch a train to Rome in two days and I can't understand them on the phone. Now I got to go to the train station to check out prices and find a reasonable ticket (if there is one). I'll try to see these museums, but don't have much time. Maybe I have time for one of them, then I'll just have to come back to this city another time to see the other one. Crap. Why did I wait ill last minute to do everything

So, as you can see, when you get to your destination you will have things swirling around in your head like what sites and museums to see, when to see them, what clubs to check out, and where are the best value restaurants, etc... There are more touristy things, but you see my point.

These things are enough to keep your brain occupied, trust me, so eliminating the hurdle of taking care of the majority of your accommodations and the majority of your transportation before you leave will add dayyyyys to your trip.

I say majority because there may be some "mini trips" that you'll take within your main plans that you may want to do (like see a nearby city) and in those times you will improvise "on the fly" and rather than use a "day" on your Eurail Pass, you can just pay a nominal charge with cash and reserve your Eurail Pass for the "main" travel routes (Paris to Berlin, Berlin to Milan, Milan to Rome, Rome to Barcelona, Barcelona to Madrid, Madrid to Amsterdam, etc...)

Buying the Eurail pass before you leave will leave the majority of your budget for the fun stuff.

Plus, you'll know exactly how much you have to work with and not have to keep deducting train fares from your budget as you're traveling. That can be a scary proposition that can leave you reaking the bank before your trip ends and having to call mom and pop to bail you out.

How's that for still looking irresponsible to your folks? You can't take care of business at home, what makes you think you can do it in a foreign country?

If you have been getting any help from your folks or have parents that always worry about your safety, then the best way to put them at ease on about your trip is to have your mom or dad buy you a Eurail pass before you leave.

Tell them that it can be 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.

This actually takes care of three things.

One- It puts your parents at ease knowing that you will get to your destinations safely on a very well know transportation system and images of you hitch hiking and getting kidnapped will be put to rest. Any parent will tell you that your safety is PRIORITY and elimintating this major obstacle and expense will be putting them at ease. Trust me.

Two- As mentioned above. It eliminates a MAJOR MESS out of your head, and you'll be able to rest and enjoy your trip knowing that you can go "to and fro" at will, without scrambling in every city to buy transportation.

Three- Your parents, in addition to knowing that you're covered on your transportation, will feel good at contributing to your journey. Every caring parent or guardian wants their children to have great experiences and they want to take part in as many of them as they can. They know that you may be struggling with money, so rather than just giving you cash, they want to know that their hard earned money went to something tangible that forever they'll be able to say, "Yeah, when my son/daughter went to Europe, we gave the a gift by buying a Eurail pass." Thats as good as buying a plane ticket. It goes with that old theory of "Don't give cash as a gift because it's impersonal. Buy a gift so it shows you put some thought into it."

Lastly, you can 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).

So again, I say imagine yourself on a trip where all your worries were resolved BEFORE you left on your trip. Dealing with them ahead of time will prevent your worries from starting once you get to your destination.

Buy the Eurail pass and travel with a confident grin on your face during your entire trip=)

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.
• Book your rail tickets with the European Rail Experts!

Another note from the Editor.

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 at least 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. 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 current DATE in ONE OF YOUR EIGHT ALOTTED SLOTS on your Multiple Country Eurail pass. You will have multiple 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 Brugge, Belgium. You get off the train, having used one slot on your pass. You run around Brugge 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 the way to your destination. 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.

If time is valuable to you too, then without a doubt, get your Eurail pass and book accommodations ahead of time.

With so many Eurail passes to choose from, which one is right for you? BUY IT NOW! Rail Europe: Specials & Promotions
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