Ask Away: Rail your way around Europe

Rail is one of the best ways to see Europe. Photo / Getty Images

Eli Orzessek finds the answers to your travel questions.

I've recently booked a trip to the Netherlands, France and Germany for next year for me and my partner. While we are there, we'd like to travel by train as much as possible, so we've also booked Eurail passes so we can be flexible with our travel dates. We're going for first-class tickets, but were wondering if it's necessary to reserve seats, which attracts an extra charge?
Aneta

I think rail is definitely the best way to see Europe. My father and I got first class Eurail passes through Rail Plus when we visited Germany and Denmark in May.

While one of the bonuses of travelling first class is that the cabins are often not as jam-packed as second class, they can fill up with business travellers at busy times. When this happens, it can be hard to find two seats together. For this reason, I definitely recommend reserving seats — though there were times it was unnecessary, at other times if I hadn't reserved, we would have missed out on seats. If you download Eurail's Rail Planner App, or a similar country-based app such as DB Navigator in Germany, it will warn you when a train trip requires a reservation or is expected to be busy. But it's definitely worth the extra euros to ensure you're not sitting on your suitcase for a long train trip.

During a round-the-world trip is it terribly ridiculous to backtrack? I want to do a New Zealand, Sri Lanka, US and Europe trip, but it's very expensive getting from Asia to the US. Should I just pay and do it? Or go somewhere else?
Kelly

This sounds like a journey of epic proportions. I asked my contact at Expedia for some help with this one and their flight specialist had these suggestions:

"Round the world tickets can be an affordable way to fly to multiple destinations on different continents, particularly when you are flying between big cities that have a number of routes and carriers flying in and out of the airport each day. For instance, Auckland to Los Angeles (US) or London (Europe). When you add a smaller country, such as Sri Lanka, into the mix it can impact the overall price.

"There are some conditions that need to be followed in order to achieve the best value for money with round-the-world fares, including following a direction around the world and not backtracking.

"We recommend considering replacing Sri Lanka with another hub destination in Asia such as Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. And, if you are desperate to go to Sri Lanka, it could be worth booking an additional return fare, outside the round-the-world ticket to Sri Lanka on a low-cost carrier. Air Asia and Sri Lanka Airways fly direct to Colombo from Kuala Lumpur. You could also look at Hong Kong or Bangkok."

Email your questions to askaway@nzherald.co.nz

Eli cannot answer all questions and can't correspond with readers.

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