Lauterbrunnen to...anywhere! Help!

How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. It covers all the cities you listed. Schedules are published through June 11, so use a spring date, for now. The trains are discounted 25% between Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken, then fully covered by the pass for the rest of your route.

Don't try to look up rail journeys on Rail Europe. They only cover major inter-city routes. The German rail website at www.bahn.com can suggest journeys for many European countries. Also try the Italian rail site at www.trenitalia.com and the Swiss site at www.sbb.ch/en. Note that express Italian trains require a compulsory seat reservation even if you have a Eurail pass - see http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#Railpasses_for_Italy for details.

Eurail is a cooperative effort of the European railways to package, distribute. and promote rail passes. Their website is at www.eurail.com. They have schedules on this page of their website. I was easily able to find train connections from Lauterbrunnen to Vernazza.

RailEurope, a subsidiary of French Rail, is a ticket reseller in the U.S. They sell rail passes and tickets. They only show schedules for trains for which they actually sell point-point tickets, which is a small subset of the tickets available in Europe, usually only major, expensive trains. Like you, I could not find a schedule of trains all the way from Lauterbrunnen to Vernazza.

The Bahn website is perhaps the best site for all connections in Europe.

Eurail, by the way, is not a railroad. It does not operate any trains. Trains in Switzerland are operated by Swiss Rail; trains in Italy are operated by Italian Rail (Trenitalia). I think the train from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken Ost might be a private rail line, which might explain why RailEurope doesn't show them.

Does anyone know of a destination I can get to by train from
Lauterbrunnen that is south towards Cinque Terre where I may be able
to then get a train into the region.

How about Stresa? or Milan? Last summer, we needed to get from Freiburg, Germany to Vernazza in CT. We split that trip into two smaller trips. The most direct route went through Bern, then Spiez, Brig, and Domodossola then traveled along the shore of Lake Maggiore, stopping in the delightful resort town of Stresa before continuing on to Milan. We chose Stresa for an overnight stay. The next day, we traveled from Stresa to Milan (any train you're taking from Switzerland to CT will transfer in Milan) to grab our connection to Monterosso and then Vernazza.

So for you, simply go from Lauterbrunnen back to Spiez, then get a train from Spiez south going to Brig or Stresa or Milan or wherever along that route you'd like to stop. If you're in a hurry, go straight to Milan, and then connect to the train that goes all the way to CT (although that is one long day!)

Hope that helps.

Minimum journey time and connections following this route...
Lauterbrunnen > Interlaken Ost
Interlaken Ost > Spiez
Spiez > Milan
Milan > Monterosso

To begin with, get rid of Eurail - expunge it from your computer and don't use it again!!!

As the others have said, you can easily get from Lauterbrunnen to wherever you want to go. I know that for a fact as I've travelled that route many times. The easiest website to research rail journeys all over Europe is the Bahn.de (German Rail) site. You can also research trips on the rail operator websites in each country (Trenitalia, Italo, SBB/Swiss Rail, etc.).

Once you've established your routes, buy tickets from either the respective rail operators or at www.captaintrain.com (France, Germany, Italy and a few other countries). You can also easily buy tickets when in Europe at local stations, although you likely won't be able to take advantage of discounts.

Which of the Cinque Terre towns will you be going to from Lauterbrunnen? One of the quickest trips is a departure from Lauterbrunnen at 07:32, arriving Monterosso at 15:05 (time 7H:32M, 4 changes at Interlaken Ost, Spiez, Brig and Milano Centrale - the final segment from Milan to Monterosso is direct, which is nice).

"To begin with, get rid of Eurail - expunge it from your computer and don't use it again!!!"

Come on, Ken, you are a very prolific and respected member of this board, but that was not good advice. The Eurail (not RailEurope) website looks to me like it has very good schedule information, possibly as good as the Bahn's. They did show the connection you just cited from Lauterbrunnen to Monterosso. In fact, I think they might use the same database as the Bahn and several other websites use. No, they don't sell tickets for this route, but neither does the Bahn. But in this case, the OP already stated that they are using rail passes, so that doesn't matter. Eurail does show the trains on which additional "reservations" are required.

As for CaptainTrain, I pointed out to you in this forum (on my second post on 2/17), that CaptainTrain has serious flaws and should not be used for finding the lowest fares. I should also point out that CaptainTrain did not come up with that Lauterbrunnen-to-Monterosso connection, as did Eurail, the Bahn, and you. CaptainTrain suffers from the same terminal flaw as RailEuroe, in that they only show fares for tickets they sell, which is only a small subset of the tickets available, and the most expensive tickets at that. They don't include a lot of regional passes which could save a lot of money. However, CaptainTrain does not appear to tack on a commission like RailEurope does.

Lee,

"The Eurail (not RailEurope) website looks to me like it has very good schedule information, possibly as good as the Bahn's. "

Apparently not, as the OP stated "I have tried to find trains from Lauterbrunnen to.....and I couldnt find Eurail trains for any of them." I use a variety of websites to research rail journeys, but Eurail is not one of them as I don't believe it's as reliable as the Bahn site. If they were using the same database as Bahn, why was the OP unable to find the required information?

Captain Train is relatively new, but they have been updating and fine tuning the services they offer on a regular basis. No where did I say that they always provided the lowest fares. The tickets I've bought from them in Italy have been the same price as those of Trenitalia or Italo, so I've been happy with their service. The reason they don't show the route that I suggested from Lauterbrunnen to Monterosso is because they don't sell tickets for the Swiss rail networks (yet), but I suspect that will eventually happen. That's the reason I purposely listed the main countries that they do sell tickets for.

I forgot that the OP was using a Rail Pass when I replied, as I was more focused on answering the question on how to find the rail solution from Lauterbrunnen to the C.T.

I always do my best to provide good and factual information, and it's always up to the OP whether it's helpful or not. I still don't believe the Eurail site is the best "go to" site for researching rail journeys in Europe. That's why I suggested using a more comprehensive site such as Bahn, as the OP obviously wasn't finding the required information on the Eurail site.

"If they were using the same database as Bahn, why was the OP unable to find the required information?"

Because he obviously wasn't using the Eurail timetable page, but RailEurope. There is no such thing as a Eurail train. I had no problem finding train schedules, including, in fact, the schedule you quoted, from Lauterbrunnen to Monterosso for dates up to June 11, when the schedules change, on the Eurail site, only on RailEurope's site.

Whitney: what date were using? European rail companies change their schedules on the 2nd weekend in June. You will not likely find any official schedules past that date on any website until shortly before the change. But any changes on that weekend will be minor. For planning purposes, use a date before that weekend.

If the reason the passholder was searching for trains schedules on Rail Europe was for the purpose of making seat reservations, be advised that reservations for the portions of this route that need it are easily purchased in Switzerland. Further Italian train reservations are easily purchased in Italy.

If traveling through France during the trip, then those would be routes to book through Rail Europe before you go. It's usually best to break down your request into the specific train legs that require reservations, as determined by the more comprehensive DB (or Eurail) timetables. Connections, especially to unreserved regional trains, can confuse the issue.

Whitney and Taylor,
If you want to go from Lauterbrunnen to Cinque Terre, just pick which of the 5 towns you actually want to go to (Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola or Riomaggiore) and look up Lauterbrunnen to wherever on www.bahn.de.
Do not try and second guess the best route or places to change trains, let the web search engine do that for you.

And as Lee says: There is no such thing as a Eurail train, they are merely a reseller of tickets. Although it may be too late for you, do not by Rail passes (Eurail or other brands) until you have costed your particular trips as advance purchases, and you are sure a pass is cheaper.

"they are merely a reseller of tickets"

Nowhere on their site do I see any place where you can buy individual tickets. They are not a reseller of tickets; that's RailEurope. Eurail creates, promotes, and distributes rail passes. That's all they do. You can buy rail passes on the Eurail website, or you can buy them from Rick, or RailEurope, or from other resellers.

To promote the use of their rail passes, they do show schedules, and I think their timetable are pretty complete. However, Eurail only recognizes rail travel. I just put in a route I took that started with a bus leg, a trip I took in 2012, and it routed me from a nearby rail station, without any help on how to get there. Buses are not shown on the Eurail Timetable page. Your best bet for routing in Germany is still the Bahn website. They show routing including buses, although their tickets do not include bus fares.

I still think you are best off starting with the Bahn website.

Thanks so much to everyone! This has been really helpful!
I know that Eurail doesn't actually have trains, they just sell the passes but you all knew what I meant. Also I realized that I was using the RailEurope site when I thought I was using the Eurail site. I think what I've gotten out of this is that I need to be using Bahn.com more and I really appreciate all the suggestions for the connections I could use :)
Thanks!