France no longer included in Eurail Select Pass

Hello train travelers,

As of 2013, France will no longer be included in Eurail Select Passes. If you're planning a trip across Switzerland, France and other European countries, you can still order a Eurail Select Pass and include France until December 31, 2012. You will be able to start using the pass until 6 months after your purchase. So you may include France for trips until June 2013 if you order in time. As far as we currently know, France will still be included in the other Eurail passes for 2013 and onwards.

If you're interested in the Eurail Select Pass, please also review this topic about a $50 discount on that pass.

For pass details and resellers, please review the Eurail Select Pass page.

I am surprised people haven't learned that Eurail passes are a very expensive way to train through Europe. If you avoid Rail Europe you can usually buy and print your ticket online for less than you pay just for the price of the seat reservation required for pass holders in many countries. That is if you can even get a seat reservation without buying another full price ticket since the number of reservations allowed for pass holders is limited and causes many problems for those traveling especially in France. Buy and print your France train tickets at www.tgv-europe.com and put as country Antartica or Great Britain so it won't transfer you to the expensive Rail Europe. Save loads of money on train travel by not using Eurail passes. If you need each countries train web site and how to buy them go to www.seat61.com

Hi NCandFL,

Well, Eurail passes indeed are not always the most economical choice. For people just traveling in Switzerland, we usually recommend one of the national passes or regular tickets. But there are exceptions, e.g. if people planned a lot of multi-country traveling and prefer 1st class seats. But that's not what his topic is about.

It is more accurate to say that Eurail passes are seldom the most economical choice. Our frequent flyer miles get us nonstop from Miami to Paris and we spend a couple of nights there. At current prices we can train direct from Paris to Nice for only 25 euros buying and printing at www.tgv-europe.com and putting Great Britain so it doesn't switch me to the high priced Rail Europe. From Nice we take the local train to the Italian border for 3-5 euros and I can buy and print 3-4 months in advance from www.trenitalia.com a Smart fare ticket from the border to Milan for only 9-19 euros which includes the seat reservation that Eurail pass holders have to pay 10 euros for. From Milan I buy another 9-19euro Smart fare ticket to Brig which includes the seat reservation that Eurail pass holders must pay 10 euros for. Switzerland where I begin using the half price card which I will buy 2 months before travel on www.sbb.ch/en for about 110 CHF and will use in Switzerland for trains and other transport at half price until our frequent flyer miles takes us from the Zurich airport back to Miami with an overnight in London. The half price card is a big savings since just to go from Lauterbrunnen or Interlaken to Jungfraujoch is about 180CHF round trip so the half price savings on that one trip almost pays for the card not to mention half price on the other trips on trains, boats, lifts and other transportation to and from our 2 nights each in Zermatt, Lauterbrunnen, and Luzern. I have said on the forums of www.tripadvisor.com that the only train passes usually worth buying are in Switzerland. It is fantastic the price on the Swiss Pass the months you have 2 passes for the price of one.