In-Depth Europe Travel Guide Part Two: To Eurail Or Not To Eurail

Have you read part one? Read this first.

What’s the best way to travel around Europe? Sure riding an airplane could give you an unparalleled view of the country but how about taking a more intimate way to travel Europe? Nothing beats the scenic views of Italy or France as you ride on one of the trains using a Eurail pass. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Good news is Europe is well connected (how you wish it were like this in the Philippines) and you can just jump from one country to another hassle-free. You just need your visa, money (yeah you gotta have some of those), eurail pass and you’re ready to go! But what is a Eurail Pass?

These babies look like this

Eurail passes are train passes/tickets that give you unlimited number of times to ride the rail system and travel around 24 countries in Europe.

The different kinds of Eurail Passes:
1. One Country Pass
Get This When: You’re just stuck in 1 country for a long time
Price: Starting from 37 Euros, varies among countries
Validity: 3-10 days within 2 months

2. Regional Pass
Get This When: You only choose to roam around 2 countries
Price: Starting from 131 Euros, varies among countries
Validity: 4-10 days within 2 months

3. Select Pass
Get This When: You plan to hop between 3-5 countries
Price: Starting from 234 Euros, varies among countries
Validity: 5-15 days within 2 months

4. Global Pass
Get This When: Europe is your oyster and you are king
Price: Starting from 369 Euros – 1018 Euros
Validity: Choose from 10 days within 2 months, 15 days within 2 months, 15 travel days in a row, 21 travel days in a row, 1 months of travel days in a row, 2 months of travel days in a row, 3 months of travel days in a row

These are also only available for non-Europeans and are cheaper alternatives when one needs to hop around MULTIPLY countries in a few weeks. But there’s actually a debate whether Eurail passes are necessary or not. Sometimes if you think about it, you only save a hundred bucks (you could use those 100 bucks somewhere else though, it’s still helpful). I mean wouldn’t flying from Berlin to Spain be easier and faster instead of taking a 24-hour train ride? In this case, yes by all means please take the flight instead because it would be a time saver for your trip. But if you need to go to a lot of places in just a short time, the Eurail pass is definitely for you.

Let me break the pros and cons down for you:

Pros:
1. A more relaxed traveling experience. There’s absolutely no checking in or anything here. You just board the train on time and GO GO GO!
2. Practical for those going to 3 or more places. For example, going from Paris to Berlin could take about 400++ euros because you still need to buy the stopovers from Paris-Lyon, Lyon-Berlin etc. trains so it’s really pricey. With the Eurail pass (depending on which you choose, one eurail pass can already be availed at 365 euros), you can hop in any number of trains for one day or for consecutive of 15 days. Imagine where you can go and how much money you’d save.
3. UNLIMITED BAGGAGE WEIGHT
4. Simple to use, please look at this photo again. You just need to let the conductor fill this out on the first day (PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THIS, we almost forgot this and it would have been very embarrassing if we didn’t fill this up). After that, you just fill in the card the day you rode on the train. Another conductor inside the train will then check your passes or if they’re really strict (WHICH THEY ARE NOT) will puncture a hole to show that that particular has been used. But seriously only trains in Switzerland have very strict conductors, otherwise, you’re ready to go! *wink* Actually in general, Europeans practice the rule of honesty and hardly anyone checks your tickets. So guys, remember to emulate them and always be honest

Cons:
1. You still need to reserve a seat and sometimes there’s even a RESERVATION FEE. I know it’s outrageous since you’ve already booked a eurail pass and then you still have to pay, but this is one of the downsides really.
2. DO NOT EVER TAKE COUCHETTE/OVERNIGHT TRAIN WITH BED. It is cramped and sometimes it smells. Imagine the single bed in your room, multiply that size by 2 and you’ve got the overnight train compartment size. Then add 5 more beds so you can fit 6 beds (no bunk beds here! Only triples) in that compartment. GEESH. I actually like the seats better for overnight rides.
3. If there’s a strike, you’re kind of doomed with your plans and let me tell you, there’s ALWAYS a train strike in Europe. ALWAYS. I remember last time we had to go from Paris-Berlin and our train got delayed 2x I thought we were never going to get there. Good thing is they had us transported to an overnight bus and we got to go to another place in Germany (Manheim! With their amazing yummy breads <3) but bad thing is, our reservation fees because we booked a Couchette/overnight bed couldn't be revoked and we lost some money there :/ Plus European bus drivers drive really fast. But they're kind of funny too. Okay wait I'm getting sidetracked.

Here are a few more tips from the man in Seat61 (please go to his website, IT COVERS EVERYTHING. He helped me a lot in planning for our trips.

1. The first thing to realise is that many European trains are now priced airline-style. Just like the budget airlines, trains in much of western Europe now have variable prices. If you are willing to pre-book 1 to 3 months in advance on a no refunds, no-changes-to-travel-plans basis, you’ll easily find some unbeatable ‘budget train fares’.

So it’s not a 2-way decision, it’s a 3-way decision.

Option 1: Pre-book cheap point-to-point budget train tickets online from the relevant train operator’s website.
Option 2: Buy flexible regular-price point-to-point tickets at the station as you go. You certainly don’t need a €70-per-day railpass to go from Florence to Pisa, a €7 hop, but in this case a pass will save money over the €130 full-price fare from Paris to Amsterdam, even with the passholder reservation fee added.
Option 3: Buy a railpass for unlimited flexible travel. Usually the gold-plated option. Ultimate freedom and flexibility, but you pay for it. May or may not save money over option (2), but usually more expensive than option (1).

2. Why not mix-and-match a railpass with budget train tickets, to save money on key pre-planned parts of your trip? For example, for 11 days of train travel in Europe, it’s cheaper to buy a 10-day Eurail Global pass plus one point-to-point ticket for the shortest/cheapest of all your train rides, than to buy the next pass size up, which is a 15-day Eurail pass. If the start of your trip is known and fixed, but you want to stay flexible for the rest, you could buy a cheap ticket for the first one or two journeys, then start using a railpass.

3. Are you just making a few short trips? To state the obvious, if all you want to do is make a few short €10 train trips, why buy a $700 Eurail pass? For example, Florence to Pisa costs around €7, so why buy a railpass costing around €40-€50 per day just to make a €7 journey? The only way to know for sure whether a railpass or point-to-point would be cheaper is to work out the point to point prices for most of the trips you’re planning using the various European train operator websites (not overseas ticketing agency websites which often charge more or ignore the cheap deals, I mean buying direct from the French railways website, the German railways website, and so on, at European prices with all the European special deals).

4. Passes seldom make sense for Italy! Italy deserves a special mention as it’s such a popular destination. Rail passes seldom make financial sense here, even compared to buying full-price tickets at the station on the day.

So what’s the final word? RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. You gotta work out the pass-price-per-day as this will help you determine which one is more affordable. Saving a little money goes a long way in Europe.

Some helpful links:
Austria www.oebb.at
Belgium www.b-rail.be
France www.tgv-europe.com
Germany www.bahn.de
Italy www.trenitalia.com
Netherlands www.ns.nl
Portugal www.cp.pt
Switzerland www.sbb.ch
Spain www.renfe.com
Sweden www.sj.se

So you ask, did it help me save money? A STRONG RESOUNDING YES! Imagine I was able to travel to 3 cities in France, 4 cities in Netherlands and 2 cities in Germany.(Unfortunately France isn’t available/included in the Regional passes anymore because… I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. You need to purchase Global Pass if you want France to be included) It saved me a fortune on train tickets. I did purchase tickets individually in Italy and just flew to Spain because Easyjet gave us a really good price. Don’t forget to plan ahead and purchase your tickets as soon as you have made an itinerary because it will definitely save you a LOT.

Speaking of budget, wait for my next post… it’s all going to be about

How To Cure Cancer

Lately I’ve been thinking of whether to shut down this blog and start anew. I feel like I’ve “evolved” the past few years and I want to declutter and just fix everything around me. This blog is a hodgepodge of stuff that are just waiting to explode. From all the mess probably. My blog has been a movie blog, music blog, travel blog, news blog, personal blog, food blog, etc what-have-yous and I felt that it’s about time to stop spinning around and stop forcing myself to become lost. Don’t you ever get that feeling?

But I feel like I can’t just stop whatever… this is *points to whole blog* because of sentimentality. Mind you I am not a super sensitive person. I could just tear up any old photo or delete my facebook account and I would feel fine (okay maybe I’m kidding, I will feel enraged and hurt but I know that I will get through it eventually) but blogging has been a huge part of my life. I have decided to keep just one part of my messy self.

I will try to create a separate blog for each interests. A food blog is still in the works and I don’t know. Let’s just see what happens.

I do like to blog about important things (okay I forgot to blog about getting a new pope – HI POPE FRANCIS! – and also China getting a new president) and TIME’s cover title caught my eye. Literally. I kinda accidentally smacked myself with it on the face. But here it is.

Now who wouldn’t want to live forever? I recall creating a post a while back regarding how someone could have found the cure for AIDS and now we have SOMEONES (a team) looking for the cure for cancer. I am actually pro-life and would really like to lengthen the lives of people (whether these people are good or not… That’s a different and another lengthy discussion). I would like to live longer. I want my parents and friends to live long and pain-free so any progress in health science and medicine is a godsend. It’s a great timing for Holy Week and Easter. It’s a celebration of life and forgiveness. I do want to share the article with you all so I’m going to summarize it for you guys. Everyone should be informed and indolence is not an excuse for not reading the article. You, especially readers with relatives or friends with cancer, have to be informed about these kinds of things, I think it’s just right.

Mission: To Defeat Cancer by A Dream Team of Awesome (highly reputable and intelligent) Scientists
Who: Stand Up 2 Cancer (please visit their website!) which is founded by movie producers and celebrities) fund these teams composed of geneticists, pathologists, biostatisticians, biochemists, informaticists, oncologists, surgeons, nurses, technicians and specialists.
Why: Forgot egos and glory, it’s all about collaboration and team work. UBUNTU! (sounds like a basketball team). This probably won’t work for all cancer research though

Did you guys know that cancer research usually involves only one scientist or two? Collaboration at this scale wasn’t also possible back in the days and now progress has made them deliver deadlines faster and faster. What they could have done in 10 years, they were able to do it in 2. It’s a milestone for the history of medicine! I’m no scientist but I’ll try to break down and explain the teams and cancer in general to you guys.

1. One team’s at John Hopkins focused on the theory of epigenetic manipulation (in normal-speak, these are the manipulation of the enzymatic on-off switches on your DNA code that can regulate how those genes will be expressed) and how it can help improve the likelihood of treatments to cure cancer. It’s like a booster but it won’t guarantee the cure.

2. Team 2 plans to design and build a smart chip device that can trap/lasso circulating tumor cells (CTCs they call em) in a blood sample. Imagine how hard that is to build a super tiny chip to try to trap these little bad guys before they do any harm. They’re already trying to apply this to lung cancer. I SAY GO TEAM!

3. Cancer has been described as a “thief and biological con artist” and team 3 is trying to silence or reverse this malignant signaling. It could mean halting the growth or stopping the very lifespan of the cancer cell. They’re looking for a particular P13K which is the driver in ovarian, endometrial and breast cancer.

4. There’s the pancreatic team. They need to devote one team for pancreatic cancer because it’s described as a DISASTER. I guess more disastrous than the others because if diagnosed, it’s usually already in the late stage and inoperable. So there’s probably very very slim chance of survival Pancreatic cells communicate with stellate (star-shaped) cells that are involved in tissue repair and these bad guys kinda tell the stellate cells to conspire against the body’s own immune system. They build resistance to chemotherapies and you do know what that means. So what the scientists are trying to do is to prevent this hijacking so the tumor can starve to death.

Basically why they’re trying to make a team effort here is because cancers are usually related with each other and they’re highly complex so they need every qualified brain that they got. It gives us all hope that a cure for cancer may come soon, maybe the next 5, 10, 15 years. Who knows? It may be wrong to give hope to people diagnosed at a late stage of cancer but… I believe that hope can lead to acceptance and a positive perspective in life which no doubt can help one in pain, a lot.

Hope you guys can pick up this issue of TIME magazine. It’s worth it.