We're considering the savers pass but we are having doubts about it...can you tell me how it actually works?
I noticed that there are many different railways (like Eurail,Eurorail,RailEurope and etc) are they different from each other? what's the cheapest one to use?
We'd like to have out time flexible so do the trains go around every 2 hours?What's the best way to travel from Paris-Amsterdam-Belgium-German鈥?and back to Paris?
Eurail and Eurorail are two names for the same rail pass, RailEurope is a ticket seller who also sells that pass.
Non of them run trains in Europe, nor anywhere else.
The trains are run by the rail companies in the different countries, traditionally most countries had one rail company, but now most countries have several different ones. But all or almost all sell tickets for all travel within the country and often also for travel abroad.
If you decide to buy a rail pass you will find that the prices are the same.
There are many more ticket sellers for Europe and most of them are cheaper than RailEurope:
This page lists a lot of them, but when they say 'within' you should read that as going into and out off the country, in many cases.
http://www.seat61.com/railshop.htm
Some countries have different sites for travel within the country and for international travel.
The Netherlands for instance has this one for travel within the country: http://www.ns.nl/cs/Satellite/travellers
and this one for international travel: http://www.nshispeed.nl/en
If you go for a Eurail pass it can be an '3 country' pass, France Benelux and Germany, as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg count as one for the Eurail passes.
http://www.raileurope.com/rail-tickets-p鈥?/a>
I do not know much about the savers pass, as far as I know you get a pass for two people, forcing you to travel together all the time, the seat 61 page on rail passes should have the information for you: http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurai鈥?/a>
Some trains run twice an hour, others run twice a day, as you do not mention where in Germany you want to be it is a little difficult to tell you how often the trains run there. But on most of the European rail network international and long distance trains run every 2 or 3 hours.
Be careful with the travel between Paris and Amsterdam, the fast train, Thalys, is not included in your pass, you can use it, but at a big surcharge. There are other trains and when you do short hops those are a good alternative.
In Germany the fast trains are more often free or for only a small seat reservation fee.
The German rail planner, in English, is a good one for planning purposes, it knows most or all trains in Europe and will show you the prices for those where much of the travel is within Germany:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.e鈥?/a>
By the way, the order in which you have stated the cities/countries you want to visit is a bit strange, as you travel from Paris through Belgium to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. From Amsterdam you can get trains to Germany, so there is no need to go all the way back to Belgium.
A good site with a lot of information on train travel in Europe is: http://www.seat61.com/ I put links to some of its pages above.
Just select one of the countries and you will find a lot of information on train travel there. Or select the words in the heading of the page, like rail passes.
There are more ways to keep your costs under control, like booking ahead for hostels, even when you book a few days before arriving it is mostly much cheaper than just walking in hoping to find a place to stay.
For booking hostels ahead, google the name of a town and the word hostel and see what comes up. often you have choice of several sites. Hostelworld is a well known one, but not the only good one.
Couch surfing is cheaper, might be your thing, I have never done it:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Cooking your own meals is mostly the cheapest option, but all big and most small towns have cheap options to eat. Try the local version of fast food, not the American chains.
Do remember to eat a good meal every now and again, it is worth it to splurge on a fancy dinner once in each country.
The links below will give you a better insight on European train travel.
Train is by far the cheapest and most reliable way to travel between cities if time is abundant.
From Paris you take the train to Brussels or any of the cities in Belgium that you want to visit. Then from there you take Amsterdam as a must and from there go to Koln Germany.
I propose that you do the Koln - Frankfurt run preferably at daytime. It is a trip worth enormously as in most parts runs next to Rhein and some of the famous castles in Germany.
Then from Frankfurt you can take the Basel to Paris train.What's the best way to travel from Paris-Amsterdam-Belgium-German鈥?and back to Paris?
We just booked tickets the day before if we were travelling a long way on the train. The trains are great over there, and cheap (compared to Australia anyway). We looked at a train pass where you can get on and off but it would have worked out more expensive than just buying tickets as you need them.
Most people speak English in the tourist areas (especially the younger people), it is a bit harder in smaller country towns but most major railway stations in those areas you shouldn't have too much trouble, and most people will help you out if you need it - just ask.
Make sure when you get on a train that you sit exactly where the ticket says to sit - carriage/seat etc. Because over there sometimes the carriages split off and go different directions, it nearly happened to us, so just make sure you have the right seat!!!
When you get to a city, you can purchase tourist city passes (I think from tourist shops) that are cheap and they give you triple day passes on any public transport and also discounts for some Art galleries, Cathedral tours etc. they are a good deal if you want to travel around on the trams etc.
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