Pass Travel Dates?
Tue, 08/12/2008 - 08:54
New Member
So yet another question. I have received my eurorail pass in the mail- and hopefully it was worth it. 
But it has 6 boxes to fill in dates of travel- can those be filled in as I go along or do they ALL have to be filled in before validation? the reason I got the pass was flexibility so to have to fill them all in now, would basically stink.
Anyone know?
Thanks
Jenn
With a Eurail Pass Flexi or Select Pass, the day and month of the present travel day must be entered onto the grid at the bottom of the pass. Black or blue permanent ink is best, and the date must be entered in the international form of day/month/year (for example: July 24, 2008 = 24/07/08). Once on the train, the conductor will check the pass and see if the correct date has been entered.
You need to have your pass validated at the train station in Europe before you use it the first time.
The rail pass will be validated twice. The first stamp is printed automatically by our office and will appear on the top right hand corner of the pass. The pass must begin use within 6 months of this validation.
On the first day of travel, the ticket/pass holder must go to the ticket office of the train station and have an official validate the pass. They should put a second stamp on the pass under the first one. This must be done in order for the journey to start and not risk having the pass confiscated. Please note that the pass must be validated at the station—a conductor on a train cannot validate the pass.
I was curious about this too. Thanks for the help.
Yes thank you very much!
Oh sweet jesus yeah, don’t write anything in beforehand! Once it’s in there, it’s IN. You can’t change the date if you change your mind, because any “modifications” will be interpreted as you trying to get extra days on your pass, and you will invalidate the whole damn thing!
Hell, I’d even advocate not filling anything in until you see the damn conductor enter your car. This might not be the smoothest move if it takes you an inordinately long time to write 4 numbers, but as long as you have your pass and passport out, and a pen at the ready, I say just wait; sometimes, the conductor never even comes through…and if that was the only train you were taking that day, well, you just got a free day of travel. Mind you, I’d say 90% of the time they DO, but sometimes they’re busy or whatever and just don’t do it before you get off the train. (It’s weird too because you never know when it’s going to happen; I was on a 3 hour-ish trip from Nürnberg to Mainz and the conductor never came by, but the train from Mainz to Koblenz I saw the guy like 6 times
) Another trick (though there’s no way to plan ahead for this) is that if your train is totally packed (I’m talking standing room only, sardine can style) it’s gotta be the easiest thing in the world for the conductor to not recognize you. I’ve never evaded using my pass in this way, BUT I have had to grab the conductor and show him my pass because he missed checking mine… and no way in hell was I going to get a free ride AFTER I had filled the numbers in the boxes!!
If you were planning on napping or something however, I wouldn’t recommend listening to me as the conductor might get a little pissed standing there waiting for your dead ass to fill in the numbers haha
Thank you so much for the feedback, I thought you filled it in as you go, but then saw all those boxes and paniced- I will wait till last minute to fill everything in.
Now to figure out how to get from point A- point B- Point C on this crazy trip! it’s all much easier said than done and in theory than planning.. and now it’s down to the wire… leave in less than 2 weeks, and still need a backpack! haha.
If you’re not familiar with it already, I’d recommend the German Rail company’s website, www.db.de/en
All you do is type in any desired origin and destination on the continent, a rough time estimate, and date, and you will get every single possible connection there is. I can’t even begin to express how unbelievably helpful this is
I always keep a little notebook with me on my trips, and at least for the more complicated-train-changey-trips, I write down all the info (times, tracks, train number, destinations, etc etc) for the connections and keep it with me. MUCH easier than having to do this shit on the fly, let me tell you 
Quite familiar with bahn.de
Not sure about db.de.en. But have been using the German website for most planning. 
BUt need to figure out times- it’s hard to know just how much time you want where, but when meeting people need to have somewhat of an idea I guess. 
I agree completely with Feicht, it’s a good idea to wait until the conductor enters your car. But you have to be careful and watch for a conductor all the time, which is not so bad if you sit in “open-space” type of cars where the whole car is a single compartment, but if you have a car that is divided into ten small compartments with a corridor on the side, you may spot the conductor too late. And you are supposed to have the date written in at the moment he asks for your ticket. And, as Feicht wrote, the conductor is more likely to come than not. So if you are in a car with many small compartments, just write the date in, so that you don’t have to stand in the corridor and monitor it for conductors like a secret agent the whole journey
If you have any questions about Prague or Czech and Slovak republics, ask me.
This brings up another point that’s noteworthy: LEARN HOW THESE CARS LOOK FROM THE OUTSIDE!!
I freaking hate sitting in those damn things, regardless of whether I’m trying to beat the system or not haha. It’s bad enough being in a car with someone with screamy bratty young kids, but its horrendous if you have to share one of those six-seat compartments with them. At least in Germany and Switzerland, it seems like most trains either have both types of cars, or just the “open” kind, luckily. Czech may be similar, but I don’t know because it was über crowded and we just had to jump in a car and stand in the corridor on the one train OUT from Czech that we took.
we are leaving in about ten days (kind of last minute thing)
for three weeks
is it worth getting the pass? can we just get it in Munich (where we are landing)? or does it have to be pre-ordered?
for three weeks
is it worth getting the pass?
We are landing in Munich and staying with my aunt (ie free)
from there we will likely take a train to my husband’s buddy in a near by town (i can’t remember where it is though). anyway, but FROM THERE
we go to Italy…Caldonazzo (his family) then i was thinking maybe Venice…
we dont have any “favorites” or things we REALLY want/need to do, except explore. but cheap. think very very cheap.
I am torn between committing the Eurail pass to several countries, or throwing caution to the wind and taking whatever cheap flights are around at that given moment. It seems there are a lot of cheap flights to be bought, the only “restriction” for us, would be to have our butts back in Munich in time for our departure back home.
Thoughts?
I think you’re better off without a pass. You can often buy cheap tickets on-line in Germany and I think it’seasier not to use a pass in Italy because so many trains require reservations.