February 20, 2004 -- Here at Frommer's, we say it loud: the French are our friends. They saved us in 1789, and we returned the favor in 1944. They gave us Louisiana. We gave them Jerry Lewis. Sure, they often have an irritating attitude of cultural superiority, but don't tell us none of your friends aren't irritating sometimes. Our mutual histories are far too intertwined to simply walk away from each other, and a poignant reminder is this year's 60th anniversary of the landing on the beaches of Normandy.
Vets of D-Day Get Free Days
To honor a war in which we fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the French, Rail Europe is offering free France Railpasses to any veteran of the Battle of Normandy in 1944. (Yes, the youngest vets of that battle are in their late 70s right now.) The free pass allows four days of first-class rail travel in a two-month period, and it's available April 15 for travel this spring, summer or fall. Veterans who want the pass should go to www.normandiememoire.com and sign up for a 60th anniversary commemorative badge; they'll then get an e-mail about how to get the free pass.
Discounts for Everyone Else
Everybody else has to pay for their passes: in this case, they can pay $199 for a special France Railpass valid for three days of travel in any two-month period, available April 15 for travel between June 1 and August 31.
If all you're doing is visiting the Normandy battlefields from Paris, don't bother with the pass. Round-trip second-class tickets for the two-hour ride are €46.40 ($58.93) if you buy them at the train station, and a mere €30 ($38.10) if you buy them online in advance.
The pass comes in handy if you plan to take long trips on France's high-speed TGV, though, or if you're bouncing crazily around the country taking multiple trips per pass day. For instance, if you intend to check out Provence -- a mere two-and-a-half-hour ride on France's bullet train -- that'll cost you at least €100 ($127) if you buy tickets in advance, and €135.40 ($172) if you buy them at the station. And that's in second class. You get to travel in first class with a pass. Combine a trip to Avignon with a trip to Tours -- normally €70.20 ($89.15) roundtrip via TGV -- and the pass starts looking like a very good deal.
You'll still need to pay $11 reservation fees for your TGV seats, but there are plenty of ways to make the $199 pass deal work out financially for you. If you're interested in this special pass, wait until April 15 and call 888/382-7245 or go to www.raileurope.com.
More Ways to Buy Rail Tickets
After our mini-exposé on buying point-to-point European rail tickets on Monday, we got an e-mail from Railpass.com president, Mike Fuller, letting us know about their excellent point-to-point ticket prices.
Fuller showed the way to a slew of routes where Railpass.com's point-to-point prices are lower than Rail Europe's. They'll shave $7 off tickets from Munich to Berlin, Paris to Avignon, and Rome to Venice. Their shipping charge is lower, too -- $9 to Rail Europe's $15. And their prices for railpasses are the same as Rail Europe's. (It just proves the point we keep repeating; it's prudent to comparison shop.)
One area where Rail Europe seems to pull ahead, though, is with sleepers and train reservations. Railpass.com doesn't give immediate price quotes on sleeper journeys -- you have to submit a form and wait to hear back from them. They also tack on a $20 processing fee for handling sleepers or seat reservations. Yes, that means if you're trying to make an $11 reservation, they'll charge you a $20 processing fee on top of that. Icky. Rail Europe charges no such processing fee, and neither do reservation offices in Europe. (You can make your reservations when you get to Europe, after buying the tickets, but you take the risk of finding out that your train is sold out.)
We still hold that for relatively short journeys or for trips in cheap countries like Romania and Slovakia, tickets are almost always cheaper in Europe. But if you're looking for a long-range, high-speed ticket or railpass, definitely compare Railpass's prices to Rail Europe's. You may find yourself saving a handful of Euros.
Check them out online at www.railpass.com or call 877/RAILPAS.
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