Euro-Pass

[Blkcasanova247]

Hey there FF gang,
        I have a question that I hope somebody will be able to answer for me. My wife is traveling to France for business on monday and during her trip she'll be going to Amsterdam and Belgium. My question is what exactly is a Europass? Does it take the place of a train ticket or is it something that allows her to cross borders with out papers? I've looked at Eurail, Rail Europe and Rail Pass websites but none of them really explain what the pass is. Can somebody shed some light on this for me?

[captainspud]

I don't believe in God, but I do believe She invented Wikipedia. It is the only possible explanation for the endless bounty of gumdrops, happiness, rainbows, and useful information which flows from it.

:wub:

[afterburn]

I personally have used an Eurail pass and it was great.  It basically is a ticket.  You can just jump on a train, as long as it is on the europass system, and you have a ticket right there as long as there are seats, if not, you're standing, but you are on that train.  You can also use it to upgrade to better seats right there.  However, there is a catch.  There are many different types of Eurail passes you can get.    You can get 1 week, 2 week, month, 2 month, not sure, but a whole lot, so it depends on when and how long she needs it for.  You can also get one for a certain amount of countries, like a 5 country pass or something, and I'm sure those countries can be included on there easily. 

That being said, if you are going to get one, I'd buy it in the states, as the dollar is weaker than the euro and you'll save some bucks.  However, if she is just going to take 2 or three trains at normal times and not worried about just a seat, I would suggest just buying tickets at the train station and going on it.  They usually aren't terribly expensive, and if you don't ride the train enough, you're not taking advantage of Eurail Pass, and you'll just be wasting money.  It's a great thing, and it made so much sense to get one when I was backpacking around Europe, but as they say, it's not for everyone.

P.S. yeah I remember those websites.  They are terrible, and incredible useless.  I have never seen so much information that had no practical informative use.