Omio – the company formerly known as GoEuro – is a one-stop shop for booking trains, buses and flights in Europe. With so many different train and bus companies in Europe, booking with individual companies proves to be challenging which is why we decided to put together this Omio review.
Not only do you have to deal with various quality of translations for each company’s website but it can also be hard to find the right company to book with, particularly if it’s your first trip to Europe. Omio’s aim to help travellers get around these problems by having one easy to use website that aggregates results across all the main transport companies in Europe.
In this Omio review, we’ll look out how the website works, the pros and cons of using them for different modes of transport and help you determine whether this is the best way to book transport for your upcoming trip to Europe!
What is Omio?
Omio is an aggregator for European transport including trains, buses, planes and ferries. It is a safe, legitimate and reliable platform that allows you to have a consistent user experience when booking transport in Europe and ensure you find a great deal.
How Does Omio Work?
The concept of Omio is incredibly simple. Put in the route that you want to travel and Omio will display results for all the options available for trains, buses and flights. This is incredibly helpful if you don’t have a preference over buses and trains and are simply looking for a one-stop shop to see all the schedules.
What I particularly like about the platform is that it displays the cheapest times and routes at the top (which is incredibly helpful if travelling Europe on a budget!) and also has a handy icon that tells you if a mobile ticket is sufficient for the journey.
You can also easily filter results including choosing to only display non-stop routes, indiciating your preferred departure or arrival window and even filtering by price or duration range.
Once you’ve decided upon on the route, click through and you’ll be taken to ‘Ticket Options’ screen. Make sure you read the terms and conditions of the fare you’re booking so you know what you’re rights are in terms of getting a refund or changing your ticket if your plans changes.
You might have options between various fare types (e.g. non-refundable or refundable), class selection and possibly the option for seat reservation if your route allows it or it isn’t mandatory to begin with.
You’ll then proceed to enter in your personal and payment details. The first thing to pay attention to is that at the top it will once again tell you what you need to present when boarding the train or bus. For example, it might say that showing the ticket on your phone with a valid ID is sufficient.
You’ll also notice that the fare here will be slightly higher compared to what has been quoted when you did your initial search. This is because there is an additional fare that Omio charges as a service fee which is a small portion of the ticket price.
While it might be possible to avoid paying a service fee by booking directly with the bus or train company, this can often be easier said than done.
On our recent trip to Spain, we found that payments wouldn’t go through if you had a foreign bank card and also that a lot of websites had quite a poor user interface and experience, making it incredibly difficult to book transport directly from the train or bus company.
If you’re comfortable with the small additional fee, then simply enter in your personal details, review your journey information and then enter process your payment. Omio currently accepts credit cards, PayPal & Google Pay. You will then get emailed your tickets and are ready to go on your next journey!
If this Omio review has convinced you to try them out on an upcoming trip, then click here to check train and bus schedules for your upcoming trip or simply enter the details into the box below!
Pros of Using Omio
While we’ve touched on some of the pros of using Omio already in this Omio review, here are some of the main reasons we think they’re one of the best options for booking transport in Europe.
1. Great Customer Experience
Omio’s website is incredibly easy to use and makes it straight forward to book tickets for buses, trains and flights. There is no need to deal with poor translations or wonder whether a foreign company will accept your credit card. Each transaction is seamless and easy no matter which country you’re booking from.
Once you’ve booked your ticket you can easily log in online to make any changes to your journey or even if you need to cancel your tickets.
2. Aggregation of Results
A lot of countries in Europe don’t simply have one bus or train company. That means if you’re going somewhere regional, the bus company might be different from the one you’d use if travelling between two major cities.
Omio gets around this problem by aggregating results from different companies into one search so you don’t need to spend hours working out which company is the right one. I also really like the ability to see train and bus results in the one search so you can decide on the best (and cheapest!) way to travel for you.
3. Easier to Plan a Trip
Rather than booking train and bus tickets across a number of different platforms, Omio lets you keep all your tickets on in place. This makes it seamless to stay organised when travelling throughout Europe.
There is an Omio mobile app you can download that allows you to keep track of all your tickets and easily find them when boarding a train or bus in Europe. You can also book tickets through their mobile app.
4. Customer Service
Omio offers customer service in 12 different languages and can either be reached by phoning them (they have local numbers in a variety of countries) or via e-mail.
As mentioned previously, you can also make a lot of changes yourself their online booking platform but you’ll be happy to know that you can speak to an actual person if something goes wrong!
Limitations of using Omio
Despite Omio being a great platform to use, there are a couple of things to keep in mind in this Omio review when considering whether you should use them or not.
1. Not all European countries are covered
The main limitation with the Omio platform is that a lot of off the beaten path destinations either have incomplete information or no information at all.
The latter isn’t so much of a problem as you simply know that you need to look elsewhere. For example, if you search for popular routes in Georgia such as Kutaisi to Tbilisi or Batumi to Tbilisi you’ll find that you can’t book tickets and the information is very limited.
However, for other destinations such as the Balkans, they only show a limited number of results which might give travellers the impression that those are the only routes available.
In popular destinations such as Croatia, a lot of regional bus companies are missing, which means it’s not a complete resource.
Nevertheless, if you’re predominately travelling through the UK or popular Western European countries such as Germany, Italy or Spain then it is undoubtedly a good resource for booking transport.
2. Finding Cheap Flights Isn’t Easy
While Omio does offer the ability to search for flights on their platform, it’s not as simple to use as many of its well-known competitors.
You’re not able to search based on a calendar of dates or have flexibility in the destination in order to find the best prices for the route you want to take.
While the flight search is a useful feature to have if you want to compare prices and journey times compared to trains or buses, Omio is best used to book trains or buses rather than flights.
Is Omio Legitimate & Reliable?
A lot of travellers looking for this Omio review tend to wonder whether a company like Omio is legit and reliable. There are a lot of aggregator sites that are undoubtedly dodgy companies out there that can take advantage of unsuspecting customers.
However, what makes Omio stand out is that they have direct relationships with a lot of major train and bus companies in Europe and they simply provide a better service and user experience to book tickets. This means that Omio is a trustworthy and safe company to book your European transport with.
Omio undoubtedly makes it easy to book trains and buses in many popular European destinations. If you want to avoid the hassle of booking in multiple different places, then Omio is arguably the best way to book transport in Europe! Click here to check schedules for your upcoming trip!
