Tips for New Eurail Users
As many Americans do, I decided to purchase Eurail tickets for our family to travel through Europe. It seemed the most economical and flexible means of transportation. We ordered our France/Benelux Passes which enabled us to have 4 days worth of travel through the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. They were promptly delivered and off we went.
The passes worked beautifully getting us from the Hague to Paris and then down to Southern France. The plan was then to go directly from southern France back to Amsterdam to catch our departing flight 2 weeks later.
The catch came when we found we were traveling during a French holiday weekend and the trains were full. Well – not full exactly – full for holders of Eurail passes. What is not advertised on any Eurail sites I could find, is the fact that European trains have a certain quota of seats designated for pass holders. Once the quota is full, you cannot reserve a seat. Even though there were seats available on the train they were not available to us.
This was nearing crisis proportion when our French host found out the quotas were not full in first class. We purchased a first class upgrade and were able to make it to our plane. However, the upgrade cost us several hundred dollars we were not planning to spend.
If we had not been travelling on a holiday weekend, we may never have encountered a problem. However, it is important to understand this system as a potential purchaser of Eurail passes so that you can plan accordingly.
Well, all is well that ends well. We did get a lovely meal served to us in first class! And in the end, even with the extra fee we saved money over purchasing tickets for each leg of the trip.
