Booking at stations for Eurail and Eurostar

Wow, I feel your stress. This is a fast moving 10 day trip that won't allow you much relief from the stress you've recently been under. Is there any way you could get a refund on your Eurail Pass too? A more sane trip might be just London and some interesting regions in the U.K. or London and Paris joined by the Eurostar. Since you are flying in and out of London on this 10 day trip these two ideas might be less stressful than trying to connect your string of cities and 1-2 night stands.

Thank you for your reply. I've been to London and Paris and could honestly do without Paris. I just looked into flights from London > Geneva and we could get them from about $200 each. Would it be more sane to do 2 nights in London, fly to Geneva and keep our bookings in Geneva and Annecy, then return to London? Still strings of short stays, but would eliminate getting to Paris, and the stress of dealing with the trains.

Quote from my husband when I told him that we were behind the ball on booking trains: "I guess I figured it would be like New York where you just buy a pass and hop on." I told him we were going to Switzerland, not Brooklyn! ;)

Edited to add: We considered eliminating Geneva/Annecy, but feel like it's going to be a highlight for us.

If you aren't that interested in Paris, I'd look at skyscanner.com for flights to Geneva or Annecy to just get to your desired destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. Don't do anything rash yet as I'm sure some others will have some strategic ideas too. IF you do book flights to and from Switzerland be sure you have many hours or a day's buffer for connecting your international flights to your European flights.

Yes, I'm seeing round trip on Swiss Mar 9, 7 am LHR to GVA, return Mar 14, 12:45 pm for 143 GBP per person.
Cash in the Eurail pass unused and just buy bus tickets for Geneva to Annecy and back.

Edited Swiss price. 143, not 173.

It's the Eurostar and Paris-Geneva trips that will be expensive at the last minute. My personal idea would be to explore Switzerland and the French Alps for the duration of your trip, as Swiss train fares and French local ones aren't sky high if bought at short notice.

Flying into London and taking the train to Paris (or anywhere) the same day - not recommended. Equally flying to anywhere the same day on a different ticket not recommended. You cannot predict what time your flight will land and when you will emerge from immigration. After landing stay in London at least two nights (until 10th March).

Also Eurail passes are the wrong way to do this. You end up paying much more than just buying tickets. Is there anyway you can get a refund for this? If you can't get Eurail reservations on the internet for London - Paris or Paris - Geneva it is unlikely you could get them on the day at the station. They give preference to travellers with normal tickets.
I would say you have left it too late to buy and cheap rail tickets. Long distance rail tickets need to be bought 2-3 months in advance to get the best fares.

Where do you actually want to go for your 10 days? London + Paris. London + Annecy? London + elsewhere in the UK? 10 days is not long enough for 4 places.
You would also (with hindsight) have saved time with an open-jaw flight (flying into one airport and out of another).

Options (all expensive as you have left booking travel to the last minute):

• London 2 nights + Paris 5 nights + London 3 nights. Book Eurostar train ASAP on https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en/
• London 3 nights + Annecy 4 nights + London 3 nights. Fly London to Geneva on a cheap airline like Easyjet.
• London 2 nights + Tour UK 5 nights + London 3 nights. You need to decide where in UK and book your rail tickets ASAP.

International rail tickets bought on the rail company websites are "print at home". You get a PDF file attached to the e-mail, you print this out and that is your ticket.

Quote from my husband when I told him that we were behind the ball on booking trains: "I guess I figured it would be like New York where you just buy a pass and hop on." I told him we were going to Switzerland, not Brooklyn! ;)

That's the way it is for city transport systems. Long distance you buy a ticket from A to B which is specific to a train, same as you would (I guess) from Boston to New York. And most long distance and international routes have pricing where it is a lot cheaper to buy at least 1 month in advance. Ticket sales open 3 or 6 months in advance, depending on company.

Eurostar fares London to Paris (from: https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en/? )
Tomorrow (1st March): €219.50 one train sold out
1st August: €50.50, €63, €77 (different trains at different prices)

Thank you everybody! I think this solidified the idea I plan to suggest to my husband:

March 8-10 in London

Fly to Geneva March 10, 2 nights in Geneva, 2 nights in Annecy (we have the ritz Carlton booked in Geneva and an Airbnb in Annecy - these are probably what I’m most excited about)

Fly to London March 14 for the final 4 nights as planned.

Flying into Geneva can work, but just for the record, you can book tix from Paris to Geneva (the bullet train, 3 hrs) at trainline.eu
The price right now is 81.10 Euros each. Of course this is unrelated to Eurail, but so is flying.

https://www.trainline.eu/search/paris-gare-de-lyon/geneve-cornavin/2018-03-10-08:00

If you fly in to Geneva, look for the free bus pass machine as you exit the baggage area. Then you can take the #10 bus into the main train station, Cornavin. Your hotel will give you a free day bus pass.
Let me know if you have questions about Geneva. I used to live there.

Regarding your original post:

Paris-Geneva on March 10: www.raileurope.com does have pass holder reservations available to print at home for the direct TGV Lyria departures.

Ignore the "extra charges" warning that you mentioned. About $35 or $44 are the standard Eurostar reservation fees if your pass includes France. The reservations available on your return dates can also be e-ticketed. So the only one I see that's not easily available is London-Paris at the start of your trip. (You're also still within the window for standard $18 shipping via UPS if you order today for delivery by March 6, but probably don't need it.)

Regarding your changing plans:

Have you confirmed that your Eurail passes are refundable? Or decided not to care? Those sold with special features like extra days or a 20% discount are not refundable.

Then you can take the #10 bus into the main train station, Cornavin.

Shoe, why is that better than going downstairs and taking the short train ride?