How To ..

How do I travel with a pass?

Your pass entitles you to travel on board European trains in a specific geographic area (defined at time of purchase) for a specific number of days. These days can be “consecutive” (say, 5 days in a row) or not (you can travel any day within a longer period of time – up to 2 months).

High-speed trains and night trains usually require you to reserve your seat or sleeper. This can be done locally or through Rail Europe. Please note that the number of available seats can be limited, so the earlier you make an advance reservation the better, especially if traveling at peak times on popular routes.

For your first day of travel, just head to any railways ticket office and have your pass validated. It will take only a couple of minutes. Then clearly write the current date on your pass. A rail day lasts from midnight to midnight. You can take as many trains as you wish during this time.

The number of days used on your pass when traveling on an overnight train will vary depending upon the situation.

  • Overnight train trips departing after 7:00pm and traveling through at least 4:00am (with no change of train) require the traveler to only enter the following day's date on the pass (which means only one travel day is counted).
  • Overnight train trips departing after 7:00pm and traveling through at least 4:00am (with any change of train) count as two days of travel.
  • Overnight train trips departing after 7:00pm and arriving before 4:00am counts as two days of travel.

 

Once on-board, all you have to do is show your pass and your passport to the conductor, along with your reservation when appropriate.

In addition to the many travel benefits our pass already gives you, you’ll find simply showing it will qualify you for discounts at many of our partners. For example, any pass that includes France or Britain makes you eligible for deeply discounted fares on the Thalys or Eurostar, without ever having to use one of your travel days.

We really have tried to think of everything. Even ways of making your trip better that don’t directly involve us. Which takes us to the next question…