Any advice on booking sleeper trains with a pre-paid eurorail tickets, Cheap hostels, traveling on your own with a child, etc...?Eurorail Advice..? Travelling on my own with a child, in mainland europe?
The advice from Tompin is good most of the time, but you need to know that Easter is a very heavily travelled period. It may not be so easy to get a seat on couchette on some trains with only a day or two notice during the weeks around Easter.
Here in Italy, many trains that do not normally require a reservation are mandatory reserved seats during Easter because of the demand. The regional trains will be crowded, but don't necessarily require pre-booked tickets, but the Intercity trains do. The Eurostar trains are always reservation only and can be fully booked some weeks in advance during Easter.
I recommend getting the "Lonely Planet" Guidebooks to whichever parts you're going to. They have the best listings, maps, and advice.
I've done lots of Eurail trips. Years ago it was easier, but in the past 7 or 8 years more trains require a supplement and/or reservations. But usually a day or two in advance is enough time to reserve couchettes and seat reservations. I found that reserving a German train couchette could be done in Amsterdam, but they charged more than doing it in Germany. If you try to reserve online before the trip, they'll charge a lot more than necessary.
I did not have much luck reserving couchettes on the day of travel, but as I said a day or two in advance just go to the station or a travel agency that deals with train tickets, show them your Eurail pass, and they'll only charge you the supplement for the seat or sleeping berth.
One thing to consider: Your 11 year old can get the youth pass, but you can't (unless you're under 26), so he'd have to pay a supplement to ride in first class with you, but you can ride in 2nd with him no problem. I hope you got the Saverpass, the one that is for 2 or more people traveling together.
The Austrian train website http://www.oebb.at has excellent info on train schedules all over Europe, and there's a button for English near the top middle of the home page that says "Sprache/Language".
Have fun!
P.s... I just read what Conley39 wrote under my answer, and I admit I overlooked that you said you're going at Easter. I did find trains booked up a Christmas, so at Easter I think s/he's probably right. check the website raileurope.com and see what they charge to reserve and pay for couchettes. Or, you can go straight to the websites of each national train company to see if you can do it directly with them. My guess is southern Europe will be more crowded than northern Europe at that time, especially Spain and Italy will be packed, and the south of France.Eurorail Advice..? Travelling on my own with a child, in mainland europe?
tie a rope to your kid and your own wrists and dont let them move without you ( remember MADDIE )
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