Eurail Pass

I think Paris to Rome will take at least 10 hours by train. Do you plan to travel that way rather than flying? If you exclude that trip, your train legs are mostly either short (the Amsterdam-to-Paris section), relatively cheap because they're in Italy, or within Switzerland, where either the Half Fare card or a Switzerland-specific pass might work out better for you.

I'm just thinking out loud here; I happen not to have taken even one of those trips in recent years, so I certainly don't have a good feel for how much they would cost.

Are you traveling soon? How confident are that the trip will come off as presently planned? Do you think any of those trips are solid enough at the moment, schedule-wise, that it would make sense to look for bargain-priced early-purchase tickets even though they might not be changeable or refundable? Rail passes are always more expensive than a stack of advance-purchase tickets, but it's not always practical to make those early purchases.

I think that a good point was raised about the possibility of flying from Paris to Rome instead of the train. If you want to stick with the train, perhaps you would like to break that into 2 travel days instead of one?

I am not sure that a Eurail Pass will make sense in terms of cost. It is a bit of a pain, but the only way to tell is to actually price out what you want to do and then compare prices. Italian trains are generally not that expensive. Swiss trains, particularly some of the mountain railways you mention, are. The 25% discount with Eurail Pass may be of less value than a 1/2 fare card or a Swiss Rail Pass.

One possibility might be to do point to point tickets until you get to Switzerland and then use whichever pass (1/2 fare card or Swiss Rail Pass) that would save you the most money.

This is hard to figure out and I don't blame you at all for being confused. One excellent source of information on rail travel in Europe is the site man in seat 61 https://www.seat61.com/ You might want to spend some time there if you have not already done so.

This page is specific to Eurail Pass Information https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-a-eurail-pass.htm

Thank you and I should have stated that we do plan to fly from Paris to Rome. I have tried putting the costs on paper and it seems to me, that the costs, minus reservation fees are pretty close. I just thought the Eurail Pass may provide some convenience. We're pretty set on dates, provided the unrest doesn't escalate, so we may just go ahead and pre-book.

I'm not positive (things keep changing), but I think France has quotas for pass holders on some of its fast trains. If that is still going on, it would be possible to be locked out of a train even though someone without a rail pass could easily buy a ticket for it. That would be frustrating.

you'll have to buy reservations for the Rome - Verona (nothing in between?) and Verona - Milan trains. And for the Italian portion of Milan - Luzern.

Was your plan to copy the Rick Steves Best of Europe and do it on your own? The stops look familiar...

I hope you are not using RailEurope or the Rick Steves train map to compare the cost of a pass vs. point to point advance purchase tickets. Always go to the website of the actual train operator, not a travel agency like Rail Europe.

How much is the pass?

You also might want to read up on the Man in Seat 61 website for some great train advice.

I have tried putting the costs on paper and it seems to me, that the costs, minus reservation fees are pretty close.

If it's already close before adding the reservation fees in, it's going to cost more than point-to-point tickets; in addition the hassle factor with a Eurail pass would have me running for the hills.

It's possible you need point-to-point tickets plus some sort of pass for Switzerland. It seems from people who travel there that passes are really useful there, but I can't speak from personal experience.

(And yes France definitely has limits to the number of pass holder reservations. When you have your pass, but can't get on a train because there are on reservations available no matter the extra fee, that pass just got a lot more costly.)

We are working this trip on our own, using Rick's books, of course. I've been using the Trainline app to estimate prices. I will, definitely, explore Seat 61 for more info.
Thank you all.

up the thread you said you are pretty sure on the dates. When is the trip?

Nigel, We arrive in Ams 4/15 and return to the US end of May

I would definitely buy a separate Swiss Flexi-Pass to cover your trains in Switzerland. For CHF 384 each it will cover you for six days of your choice AND give you half-off the Scenic rides such as the Jungfrauhoch, Schilthorn and Pilatus. Those tix alone will run you more than $400 each! For your other half dozen or so long-haul tix, you can save a lot even now if you can commit to early morning high-speed trains and buy non-refundable tickets. This would include Brussels to Paris after Ghent and Brugge; Rome to Milan ( buy a Frecciarosa train ticket on the Italiarail or Trenitalia train websites). Go to Verona from Milan and return to enter into Switzerland.
You can get more discounts for being over 60 which qualifies for senior ticket discounts. Check the German train website “Bahn.de” for your German and Austrian tickets. For the other short-haul rides, just buy them as you go.
Pre-buying discounted train tickets will save you a bundle as long as you are OK with giving up the flexibility of changing your mind about your itinerary. But it seems as though you have a solid itinerary and can do just that. For more details see the site “Seat61”
Have a great Trip!

FYI If you choose to go with the point to point tickets in Italy, you can get senior discount rates on Trenitalia by joining the CartaFreccia program as a senior. There are specific steps you need to take to get this discount card as a non-resident. It can't be done online!

Here is the website page and some general directions.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom/Cartafreccia/Assistenza-ai-soci#6

Don’t be put off that it is in Italian. Scroll down the page a bit to the 5th arrow where it refers to non residents in both Italian and English. If you click on this one, the information on the next page is in first Italian and then in English and gives directions as well as the form you need to complete.
Basically, you complete a form and email it in. You do not need a tax ID or Italian address.
I hope this helps.

Carol, great info. Thank you