Your questions: Should we get a Eurail pass before we leave for Europe?

My husband and I are travelling to Europe, planning to stay in Ferrara for about three weeks, catching trains for day trips and overnight stays to Bologna, Ravenna, Padua, Modena, Parma and maybe Milan. Should we get a Eurail Pass before we leave Australia?
T. Dicer, Yarralumla ACT

A Eurail pass can be great value, but it depends on how you intend to use it.Credit: iStock

Eurail Passes give you unlimited travel over a single day, and they can be either for consecutive days or via a flexi pass, which allows you to stay for a few days between train trips. They can be great value for long-distance trips made in one day but not so much for relatively short trips. For example, a Eurail Pass for Italy for an adult with five days of travel within a month costs $US234 ($395). That’s an average cost of $79 a day, but using the Trainline website (thetrainline.com) a return trip from Ferrara to Parma, one of your longer journeys, could cost as little as $45. If you were to overnight in Parma, you would use two days of your Eurail Pass, and the cost would be even more disadvantageous. Even your longer journey from Ferrara to Milan could cost as little as $50 on the fastest trains using Trainline. Rather than a Eurail Pass, I’d use Trainline to book tickets: the app is convenient and easy to use. To get the best deals, book a few weeks in advance.

I am hiring a car in Europe for the first time, driving from Munich to Austria and Switzerland. Apart from having an International Driving Permit and buying the cross-country vignettes, is there anything else I need to know? I usually rely on my credit card for car-rental insurance. Some aggregator websites offer rates considerably cheaper than the actual car-rental companies. Are there any concerns?
J. Lopera, Chatswood, NSW

Summer driving in Switzerland – the Gotthard Pass.Credit: iStock

Hiring from an airport incurs extra fees, so choose an off-airport or city location and you’ll save. Smaller vehicles such as hatchbacks are ideal, since they make it much easier to negotiate narrow streets in towns and villages and to squeeze into parking spots that are typically tighter in Europe than you’re probably used to. Fuel is expensive and petrol stations along motorways charge a premium. Fuel stations attached to supermarkets often have the keenest prices. I use the Waze app for navigation in Europe – it’s reliable and warns of traffic hazards and speed cameras.

It’s easy to acquire a small dent or scrape a hubcap and your credit card insurance probably won’t cover those, but it might be possible to buy low-cost insurance specifically to cover minor incidents from your car-hire operator. For your hire, you need a physical driver’s licence and a credit card; a debit card won’t do. Aggregators will usually require payment upfront, and if you have a change of plans for any reason, they’re typically less flexible than the rental agency. Booking direct with the agency is more secure, and you can usually book with no upfront payment and cancel at short notice.

We are a group of 10 friends who will travel to Switzerland next year and spend 15 days visiting tourist towns using the Swiss Rail Grand Tour package. We know eating out is expensive there, so do you have any tips on where we could get dinner at a reasonable cost?
L. Clayton, Glenhaven NSW

Eating in restaurants in Switzerland is often eye-wateringly expensive, but there are options, especially in the cities. Look for Asian restaurants, particularly family-run restaurants. The choice includes Chinese, Indian, Thai and Japanese. The same applies to Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants, where dishes such as kebabs, falafel and shawarma are often available for about $25. Takeaways are another budget-stretcher, since high staff costs for service workers make a significant difference to the cost of dining in Switzerland. Pizzerias are fairly common.

Backerei Konditorei are bakeries and often sell affordable sandwiches, pastries and other lunch items that you can take away. The big supermarket chains including Coop, Migros and Denner offer a wide range of affordable ready-made meals, sandwiches, salads and snacks. Tibits is a fast food vegetarian offshoot of Hiltl, a pioneering vegetarian restaurant, with low-cost outlets in Zurich, Winterthur, Bern, Basel and Lucerne. I use The Fork app and website (thefork.com). It’s great for finding restaurants that offer discounts in Europe and just about everywhere else.

Do I need to apply for a Chilean visa, entering by land from Argentina and flying out from Santiago?
F. Tham, Sydney NSW

Australian passport holders need a visa to enter Chile, regardless of entry point. You can apply for a visa online at the official website – tramites.minrel.gov.cl. You can also apply for an eVisa at chile-evisa.com, which is simpler than the official website, but it is a commercial site and you will pay a professional fee for their service as well as the visa levy, which is a government fee.

Travel advice is general; readers should consider their personal circumstances.