Customer Reviews

Europe by Eurail 2008: Touring Europe by Train (Europe by Eurail: How to Tour Europe by Train)

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This book has very detailed information about the base cities it chooses, usually one per country, and specific time tables for trains between the base cities. It also includes a description of the train stations for the base cities, how to navigate and what facilities are offered (shopping, dining, money exchange, luggage storage etc.). For the cities that are designed as "day excursions" from the base city, there is only information about what to do there, nothing about where to stay. There are only country maps, no city maps. There is no index to help you find cities in the back, but the counties are alphabetical so the book is fairly easy to use. Also, there are as few as 5 cities covered in some countries such as Finland, Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Plus, the recommendations are not very budget oriented. For example, the hotel the recommendation for Amsterdam is a 4-star hotel that costs over 300 euros per night. The book is kind of large to carry around.

As a budget traveler staying in many different cities, this book was only occasionally helpful, I looked to Europe by Rail far more often.

If you are not on a very tight budget and you plan to stay in main cities and make day excursions to cities near by (which is a comfortable way to travel, I did this in Brussels and Florence) then this book would be very useful.

I was looking for information on what to do with our luggage if we take a train fropm Berlin to Prague. This seems like the type of info the book should include and it didn't. I get the impression that the book is based more on research then actual experience in useing the trains. It doesen't appear to provide much info that is not available on the internet.

Its a facinating overview of the European rail system from Norway to Italy and Portugual to the Balkans. I've ridden on part of the rail system from Avignon to Paris on a TGV Train. They have a great system in Europe. It would be great to have a similar system here.

This looks like a very useful tool for once we are traveling, but a little less so for planning ahead.