Eurail pass confusion

I just wanted to start by thanking everyone with the great info provided here. I’ve been on here for a few weeks now, trying to wrap my head around things, and everyone is so helpful. I have several questions, but I think I have narrowed it down a bit.

I am trying to figure out the train thing, pass versus point-2-point ticket purchases. I understand for several trains, you need reservations, such as the TGV, so here goes:

We are looking to go from Bordeaux to Brussels for one leg of the trip. If I go on the sncf site and book a ticket, can I use my eurail pass to “purchase” it. In other words, is there any spot for my pass to be used in order to get this ticket.

The central theme of my question is whether a pass is worth it or not. We will be going from:

London to France to Brussels, to Amsterdam, to Switzerland to Italy and finishing in Greece, and traveling within these countries using the trains.

It would seem to me buying a pass would be more economical given all the locations, but if I book on the country’s train site, my pass doesn’t seem to enter the equation, which then leads one to think they’re not worth it.

If this all sounds confusing, I apologize, but I am thoroughly confused as to what to do!

Please help

Lyne

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Just like there is a plane ticket and a boarding pass, there is a train ticket and a reservation receipt. A Rail Pass is your ticket. Making a reservation is a separate transaction. When you buy an actual ticket for a train that requires a reservation both of these are done and paid for at the same time.

The national rail websites are for those wishing to check schedules, fares and purchase tickets in advance of the travel date. None of the websites are set up if you only need to make a reservation.

Yes, when traveling with a rail pass you only have to pay the additional cost of a reservation when that specific train requires a reservation. The only viable way to do this is to go to a travel agent or train station.

Pass vs. p2p tickets really requires that you do the math. One website that will give you a generally reliable idea is railsaver.com. Enter your itinerary and play around with the options. The only major problem is figuring out the spelling of the cities. You cannot always use the English spelling and sometimes have to use the French, German or Italian spelling of the city name. http://railsaver.com/railsaver.asp

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