Train Pass and reservations

A,

Yes, you will need to make reservations plus pay a supplement fee, especially for high-speed trains, but it depends on what countries you plan to visit.

Before you decide to buy the rail pass, you may want to read this as it may be more cost effective to buy point-to-point tickets:
http://tinyurl.com/seat61-Railpass-p-p-tickets

I would agree with Pricilla.Rail Europe does not get a good reputation regarding its passes and in most cases it will be much cheaper using point to point tickets.

Read the advice/guide at the bold print here before any (likely foolish) commitment to any rail pass -
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#Should

To summarise the links provided above, long-distance trains in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Sweden have compulsory seat reservations, but other countries in Western Europe don't. France is particularly problematic as they have a very small number of seats on each train which passholders are allowed to use, and if these run out even if there are many free seats on the train you will still have to buy a full-fare ticket. Many people also consider that train fares are sufficiently low and reservation-only fees sufficiently high in Italy that railpasses are only worthwhile if you are doing a great deal of long-distance rail travel.

With the promotion of deep discount tickets (advance purchase, no change, no refund) it becomes hard to make a rail pass work economically. However, the rail pass will provide a lot of flexibility, convenience so that is what you are really buying. If you want to go cheap, buy advance p to p tickets. If you want a lot of flexibility, consider the rail pass. AND do your homework.

In Germany, except for the rare ICE Sprinter, such as the trains that go non-stop between Frankfurt and Berlin a couple of times a day, reservations are not required. Sometimes they are recommended, but even then a single seat reservaton only costs 4,50€.

So a rail pass in Germany is not going to have a lot of extra costs. However, since 2000, I've made 9 trips in Germany (19 weeks), and I have always compared the cost of a rail pass with Savings Fare tickets, regional passes, and point-point tickets, and a rail pass has never come close to paying.

See the issue also addressed under Do I Need Seat Reservations? and on each country-focused page of our rail pass info. Trains schedules from the DB link provide objective info about whether a particular train departure is "Subject to compulsory reservation."

If you are traveling in areas where reservations are typically not required, then the hop-on convenience of a pass has value. If you will need to reserve most trains, then you'll want to be more sure of whether the Eurail Select pass saves you money or not.

If your travel plan is still Paris-Switzerland-Venice, then the two legs crossing France and crossing Italy both require seat reservations. Instead of a Eurail Select pass for that route, I would purchase advance discount TGV tickets ASAP from Paris to Basel or other Swiss transfer point. A Swiss Travel Pass could cover your time in that country and both kids under age 16 will travel free on a Swiss Family Card. The Italian ticket can be purchased any time, including in a Swiss train station.