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Travel plans, routes and timetables / Rail Pass or Point to Point?
« on: July 31, 2010, 06:11:02 am »
I am using this site for the first time and grateful to have found it. I hope you will be patient with me as I try to explain our circumstance.....We are in our 60's and trying to travel as independently as possible (no tours.) I was in Europe 10 years ago, and my husband has never been -- so we are unshophisticated travelers. Over the course of 38 days, our itinerary is, briefly, Istanbul - Bucharest - Budapest - Vienna - Prague - Paris - Brussels - Frankfurt - Venice - Rome - Florence - Pisa - Nice - Lucerne - Zurich. We plan to take night train from Istanbul to Bucharest and from Bucharest to Budapest. I understand we cannot purchase tickets from Bucharest to Budapest until we are in Bucharest. From Budapest, I read that a bus may be a simpler and less expensive way to get to Vienna. And I found a very low cost plane fare from Prague to Paris. I cannot seem to get to a place of comfort in making decisions about the trains, whether to purchase a Euraiil pass. I have looked at the Global Pass, which would cost $885 each, I believe, and I do understand there would be additional surcharges. But I have not been able to navigate the websites sufficiently of the individual countries to make a good comparison. I would appreciate any help you may offer.