Eurail pass, is it easy to use ?

Hi. I have a couple of US friends coming over next year for a few months. Their plan was to fly to Zurich to visit relatives, then to UK and then back to the US. I mentioned the possibility of train travel from Zurich to UK although looking at the route (via Paris) it doesnt seem particularly scenically attractive and although it can be done in a day its not really cost effective compared to a budget airline. My thoughts then turned to perhaps finding a route up through Germany (along the Rhine maybe) stay in Amsterdam a night or two and then head for the UK.
Is the Eurail pass a good idea as I see it allows xx days travel in a period. Is it valid for any trip as far as you can get in a day. Are overnights allowed or would that then be two days ? Being unfamiliar with European railways do you need to reserve a seat as my experience on Eurostar says you cant just walk up. I assume its valid in the UK and as we have walk up fares can they just hop on say in Southampton and head to Aberdeen via any old route as if it was an all line rover or do they need to book ?
Thanks in advance for any help.

IIRC

an overnight train is counted based on the day of boarding.

If the train allows travel without reservations you can travel with just the pass. If the train requires reservations you must make one and this may or may not be chargable. If you book reservations through the interrail/eurail site they slap on a booking fee.

Eurostar reservations for interrail/eurail are relatively expensive and limited.

I did a journey from Greater Manchester to Marsellie on an interrail pass and I think in total I spent about half the cost of the pass again in reservation and booking fees.

plugwash said:

IIRC

an overnight train is counted based on the day of boarding.

If the train allows travel without reservations you can travel with just the pass. If the train requires reservations you must make one and this may or may not be chargable. If you book reservations through the interrail/eurail site they slap on a booking fee.

Eurostar reservations for interrail/eurail are relatively expensive and limited.

I did a journey from Greater Manchester to Marsellie on an interrail pass and I think in total I spent about half the cost of the pass again in reservation and booking fees.

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Thanks for that so a bit like budget airlines then, base fare looks good but add on reservations may make it more expensive than booking a specific train in advance. I doubt they would really make use of the pass as best route I can think of would be Zurich to Frankfurt (stay a day or two), then Amsterdam (for a day or two) and then UK and probably easier to do just as separate tickets. Out of interest, is the Frankfurt to Amsterdam route one of those that would parallel the Rhine for part of the trip ?

Switzerland, Germany, and UK are expensive for trains and don't need reservations (except Eurostar), so an Eurail seems a good opportunity for these people. Admittedly a flight might be cheaper.

A Eurostar passholder ticket is 30EUR in Standard, 38 in Standard Premier (with a first class pass). This is similar to the supplement from Zurich to Paris, but this year they have sold out a couple of weeks or more in advance, even from Brussels - Amsterdam seems particularly bad!

Unless they particularly want to visit Paris, I would route them via Brussels - or via Strasbourg to Paris Est which is a few minutes' walk from Nord.

Obviously it might be worth costing this out against Advance-type tickets.

Graham H said:

Thanks for that so a bit like budget airlines then, base fare looks good but add on reservations may make it more expensive than booking a specific train in advance. I doubt they would really make use of the pass as best route I can think of would be Zurich to Frankfurt (stay a day or two), then Amsterdam (for a day or two) and then UK and probably easier to do just as separate tickets. Out of interest, is the Frankfurt to Amsterdam route one of those that would parallel the Rhine for part of the trip ?

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The Frankfurt to Amsterdam ICE takes the high speed lines to Köln so while quick, it doesn't take the route along the Rhine.

There are a few services which run via Mainz that'll take the slower route to Köln where they'd need to change. At a cursory glance there's there's an InterCity leaving at 06:43 from Frankfurt Hbf and an ICE leaving at 07:42.

Alternatively there's regular RegionalExpress trains to Koblenz for onward connections to Köln which is the slowest option but no reservations needed. They can simply hop on board and take a seat on the right hand side of the train.