RailEurope: Expensive but useful for booking simple trips. Frustrating for anything complicated.
Written: Jul 25 '04 (Updated Jun 22 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: One stop shopping for rail passes, tickets, rental cars, hotels, etc. for your Europe trip.
Cons: Poor itinerary search for trains, overpriced tickets, limited to 60 most popular cities.
The Bottom Line: Useful booking service for trips with simple itineraries and no budget constraints. Sophisticated travelers and those on budget should look elsewhere.
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| jsquarejj's Full Review: Rail Europe |
A long time ago, I learned the 80/20 rule: You can accomplish 80% of your goal by doing just 20% of the work. Or, looked at another way, the last 20% takes 80% of the work. That's what I'm reminded of whenever I try to use RailEurope at www.raileurope.com . They did the easy part that handles most of what most customers need, but they didn't do the last 20% that sophisticated customers demand.
By its home page organization, RailEurope purports to be the comprehensive site for booking your European vacation: rail passes, rail tickets, rental cars, hotels, flights, tour packages, etc. Unfortunately, they really only handle the easy stuff. So, as long as you're planning to visit just the most popular European destinations, stick to simple rail itineraries and return your rental car to the same place you picked it up, you'll be OK using RailEurope. Otherwise, you'll find this site extremely frustrating. More significantly, if you're a budget traveler, you'll find its prices uncompetitive.
Best Things First: Rail Passes
The best thing about RailEurope is its comprehensive treatment of rail passes. You can buy just about any rail pass--and there are scores of different ones available. You'll also find comprehensive guidance for choosing the appropriate pass for your itinerary and using it once you're in Europe. But, frankly, the information offered at Rick Steves' web site is even better and more consumer friendly.
Prices for rail passes are fixed annually, so RailEurope charges exactly the same prices as every other site that sells passes. But it's still worth shopping around because some sites, such as www.ricksteves.com , regularly offer a 20% discount at their travel store for items purchased at the same time as your rail pass or on a later shopping spree. If you need some of the supplies that Steves offers, this can save you quite a bit of money. I've never seen such an offer at RailEurope.
RailEurope, and other sites, offer quick shipping options at a hefty price for late rail pass buyers.
Rail Tickets
My understanding is that RailEurope has a monopoly on sales of European rail tickets and reservations for delivery in North America. If you want a European rail ticket mailed to your home in the USA before you leave for Europe, RailEurope is the only sanctioned way to get it.
[Note that there are other ways to buy tickets and pick them up in Europe, but I can't vouch for the reliability of these methods. For example, the Italian train system, Trenitalia, allows you to buy tickets at its web site www.trenitalia.com , and have them held for pickup in the ticket vending machines found in large train stations.]
Unfortunately, RailEurope has two big problems with respect to ticket sales: 1) its itinerary engine isn't very good and 2) its prices are high.
I just came back from a trip to Italy that wound up with a train ride from Monterosso al Mare (a very popular beach destination) to Rome. When I searched this itinerary on RailEurope before the trip, I got two different responses: 1) an error message saying that the city pair was not in their database and 2) a list showing exactly one possible itinerary on the day of my trip. Of course, this is a very popular route, and consulting either the German or Swiss train system (at www.bahn.de or www.sbb.ch , respectively) gave me a choice of about a dozen different itineraries on any day. I couldn't get either of these sites to mail my tickets to the USA, but I could have used the itinerary information to order the tickets from RailEurope.
However, that brought up a second problem: price. TrenItalia (the Italian train system site) quoted a price 25% lower than RailEurope for exactly the same combination of tickets and reservations. A survey of other routes showed me that RailEurope typically marks up its prices 25-30% above the competitive price available to you if you just wail until you get to Europe to buy your tickets.
So, I just waited until I arrived in Italy and bought my tickets from an automated ticket machine at the train station in Rome, paying with my credit card. Unless you're worried about seat availability in the high season or on certain holidays, I would suggest you do the same, except possibly for trips you consider absolutely crucial, such as couchette or sleeping compartment reservations on night trains. Even for these, you may be able to make a reservation on RailEurope but wait until you get to Europe to buy the ticket (check requirements very carefully).
Rental Cars
Here, again, RailEurope falls short. First, they only deal with reservations for about 60 of the most popular destinations, so you can get a car in Rome or Florence but not Pisa or Siena. Second, their price quotations are misleading in that they do not include certain required charges. On the other hand, they do provide a complete price quotation near the end of the reservation process. Third, their quotations do not identify a company, so you don't know who you'll be renting from until the process is complete.
On the other hand, the prices do seem to be competitive, so if you're booking an itinerary between two popular cities, and you don't care who you rent from, RailEurope may work for you.
I recommend that you use RailEurope to get price guidance, but then go directly to your favorite rental car company's web site to do your booking. I've found that Avis offers competitive prices and handles complicated itineraries with ease.
Hotels
Again, your choice is limited to about 60 popular cities. Furthermore, the selection engine just gives you a list of hotels, star ratings, general location and price. It does not allow you to specify a location, stars or price range or to sort on the basis of location or price. The available hotels seem to be rather "random," that is, not really selected for quality, location or charm, but just those which signed up to be listed.
In general, the prices did not seem particularly competitive, and the listings appeared to omit hotels for the budget conscious.
Other Stuff
RailEurope also offers air plus hotel bookings and other travel packages, but I haven't explored these enough to comment. I recommend that you compare the deals here to those available on other travel sites and to booking your own air/hotel combinations.
Web Site Quality
Overall web site speed is pretty good. Unfortunately, there appear to be many bugs, especially links that don't work, for example, when selecting a rental car or hotel. Furthermore, the search engine often seems to grind on even after all selections have been listed. Overall, this doesn't inspire confidence that reservations and orders will be handled properly.
Overall Assessment
This may be just the one-stop shopping site you need if you're planning a simple itinerary including only the most popular destinations, and if money is no object.
On the other hand, if your itinerary includes visits outside the top 60 cities, or you're a budget traveler, other sites will serve you much better.
Related Links
-- If you’re planning your first trip to Europe or just need a brushup of your travel skills, check out my review of Rick Steves’s Europe Through the Back Door.
-- This credit card will save you 2 to 3 per cent on every foreign transactions.
-- The most popular frequent flyer miles credit card costs you 3% extra every time you use it outside the USA.
-- Everything you need to know about dealing with money during your trip to Europe.
Recommended:
No
Tour type: Individual
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Epinions.com ID:
jsquarejj
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Member: Jim J
Location: Santa Cruz, California
Reviews written: 190
Trusted by: 78 members
About Me:
#7 in Personal Finance, #14 in Travel. My goal? Saving you money.
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