After not having a Eurail pass for the beginning of the semester and traveling by purchasing separate tickets, I have to say that it is very much worth it to invest in a pass. Metz is a very nice city, but it’s not a place you’ll want to spend a lot of weekends while you’re in France. It has been my experience that most people travel every weekend, and the Eurail will save you a LOT of money, as well as provide you with a good amount of flexibility in your travels. It allows you to get on any train on a given day, so if you miss the first one you’re not out the price of a ticket. Also, you can travel virtually anywhere you’d like to using your pass, and it can give discounts on other things as well, although I’ve never used it this way. The website, http://www.eurail.com/ , contains all of the information you need.
I would suggest getting a Global Pass: it allows you to do an unlimited amount of travel in a certain time period, as well as letting you travel to any country you’d like. However, it is on the more expensive side, with a Global 3-month unlimited coming in at around $1600 dollars. You will still save money, however, if you travel most weekends. I would suggest not getting an “X days in Y months” global pass: if that’s what you want, buy a select pass.
If you feel that that is too much money, you can get a Select Pass for significantly less. The down side is that it cannot offer unlimited travel in a certain amount of time: you get a certain number of “days” to travel to some select countries. I bought the 4-country select pass for 10 days in 2 months, and it was very good for me. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemborg all count as one country, and you will probably want to travel to Belgium, so it can be a good choice. Note that you can write down the next day if you’re travelling overnight, allowing you to use the same day for your following trains, as long as you leave after 7:00pm.
After you get your Eurail pass, it will be valid for X number of months after you “validate” it at the train station. Just go to a desk and ask them to validate it for you, and then you’re ready to use it. Another helpful fact: you can purchase reservations for trains on the trains! If you really have to get somewhere on a certain train, and the people at SNCF won’t give you a reservation for your Eurail, get on the train, find a conductor, and tell him that you don’t have a reservation yet and that you’d like to buy one. They are 15 euros instead of 3, but at least you get where you need to go.
Don’t travel without a reservation for the TGV, since you’ll likely incur a heavy fine. While they don’t always check tickets on some other lines, they almost ALWAYS check tickets on the TGV.
Posted by lacelle 