Frommer's Europe by Rail - European Travel Books

Paperback - 02 April, 2004 - Frommers
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By: Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Donald Olson, Darwin Porter, Hana Mastrini, Joseph S Lieber, George McDonald, Sascha Segan and Theodora Tongas
ISBN: 0764541102

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Reviews by readers

Frommer gets the substance right!

I found this guide very useful in plotting out where I wanted to go, how to get there, and what to visit. It was also nice to know about the student discounts at various attractions. I didn't use it for the hotel recomendations, and I used a few of the restaurant ideas, which were usually excellent choices. I traveled all over Europe (12 countries) using this book, the maps provided, and my Eurail. It was helpful in figuring out the ferry options to get from Western Europe to Scandinavia as well. I definately recomend this book to anyone traveling to Europe, as I found it very easy to use as well as useful.

Not a useful guidebook

Not a safe bet, this European rail guide offers a strange mix of up-to-date and completely out-of-date information. It also tries to do too much, providing page after page of hotel, restaurant and museum listings by city but only a page of two of specific rail tips by country. The guide pushes Eurailpasses, as is to be expected from a publication endorsed by Rail Europe, the main stateside pass vendor.

Points to watch out for...

The guide is too optimistic about reservations and supplements. As the various continental railways move toward inevitable privatization, more and more premium services are being introduced. Most of the trips that tourists are likely to take will require reservations and supplements, in addition to Eurailpasses.

The guide doesn't give point-to-point tickets a fair shake, listing full prices and only the most basic discounts. For example, SNCF's "Prem's" specials (advance purchase online tickets to French and international destinations) aren't mentioned. For many tourists, these specials would make point-to-point tickets cheaper than Eurailpasses.

The guide lists only expensive, tourist-class hotels. I didn't see a single listing below 100 Euros in Paris, for example. There are many excellent, if humble, hotels throughout Europe. Use the Web to get current hotel information.

My favorite example of out-of-date information in the guide has to do with the regional express train ("RER") from Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle aiport to Paris. The guide lists both first and second-class ticket prices, even though the first-class designation disappeared years ago.

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