train tickets

Realistically or practically, all you need to do is to post the order of your itinerary first and most of the folks who are seasoned here and traveled this year in Europe will sort it out or point you in the logical least expensive direction. And if you bought your flights to and from the USA you will
save time by just saying what airport you are flying out of and returning from.

randygulley, welcome. Just taking a look at this one statement you made:

. . . if I buy them in advance here in the U.S. I will pay extra fees . . .

The thing is, that these days, when you're buying things on the internet, like rail tickets, it doesnt matter where you are. Extra fees comes from buying through a third party retailer, like RailEurope, or a travel agent. Most people here, will buy tickets directly from the service providers (like Trenitalia for Italy, Bahn.com for Germany, etc.) and thus are not subject to extra fees. It's not intuitively obvious and does take some work online. But people here will help you out if you give the specifics. There can be substantial savings if you buy in advance or with certain regional passes. But it is hard to sort out on your own.

This web site has good information on European train travel - https://www.seat61.com/

This section may help on some of your questions - https://www.seat61.com/european-train-tickets-online.htm#tips-for-buying-train-tickets

traveling from the U.S. to several European countries

Part of the answer to this question is which cities are you traveling from and to and how many trains per day are there between them? If you are going from Amsterdam to Brussels, don't worry about missing a train. Another will be along shortly. If you are going longer distances or to less visited locations, then your planning will need to be more exact.

Thanks for your replies! It sounds like showing my itinerary would be helpful. At this point it looks like this:
Lisbon September 12, 13, 14
Faro September 15, 16, and 17
(Bus to) Seville September 18, 19
Madrid September 20, 21
Barcelona September 22, 23
(Flight to) Zurich September 24
Interlaken September 25, 26, 27, 28
Milan September 29
Cinque Terre September 30, August 1,2, and 3
Rome October 4,5
I have already purchased my train tickets online for Lisbon to Faro and Seville to Madrid through Rail Ninja. I have no idea how reputable they are or what extra fees they charged. As I mentioned in my original post I would prefer to buy train tickets at the stations but I'm concerned about trains potentially being sold out. I will have bnb's reserved at each location so I need to get there relatively on time!
Any added advice would be helpful!
Thanks. Randy

I have already purchased my train tickets online for Lisbon to Faro
and Seville to Madrid through Rail Ninja. I have no idea how reputable
they are or what extra fees they charged.

That was a big mistake, if you had waited a bit we could have told you to buy the ticket from Lisbon to Faro from www.cp.pt and Seville to Madrid from www.renfe.com or www.iryo.eu.

Rail Ninja are rather infamous for being one of the worst sites for train ticket, their business model is based on scamming tourists by massively overcharging for their tickets. And then if you are lucky they will actually send you a ticket. If you are able to cancel those tickets, do it ASAP!

Specifically in Portugal CP has even stated they will no longer honor tickets sold via Rail Ninja. Get a charge back on your CC now.

While it does happen that "Trains sell out" in some countries, in other countries (eg. Switzerland) that is completely unheard off. If trains sold out regularly they would be useless as a means of day-to-day transport, and most country's citizens just will not accept that. You buy tickets in advance for the discounts, not to "secure seats".

For Switzerland: What are your plans in Interlaken? (And why not stay somewhere more interesting, like actually up in the mountains?). For Switzerland getting pass is often a good idea.

For Interlaken - Milano now is far to early to buy train tickets, as the full schedule for dates beyond September is not yet published. October is ages away, and you do not need to worry about train tickets now. In the case of Portugal for example you cannot even buy tickets that fare in advance, which is why Rail Ninja for sure has not send you a ticket yet. Which gives you an opportunity to dispute the CC charge.

For those interested, here is what CP says about Rail ninja: https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/train-times/Alerts/unauthorised-sale-tickets

Thanks again for all of the info. I wish I'd known about this forum option sooner. Going to try to cancel my Rail Ninja tickets and use the options you provided for purchasing tickets.
Thanks again!
Randy

Just to confirm what some folks have been saying about Rail Ninja. I just tried to cancel the two tickets I have purchased from them for travel from Lisbon to Faro and Seville to Madrid. I was able to cancel Seville to Madrid (for an 80% refund) but it would not let me cancel my Lisbon to Faro ticket. I suppose I will just try to use it when I'm there in September and if they won't accept it I'll just buy a new one there. Live and learn.

Another question I wanted to get back to was time in Interlaken. My daughter has been there and recommended it. She says that I can take short day trips out of Interlaken to other amazing locations...use Interlaken as a home base for a few days.
In a previous post it was recommended to possibly stay in a higher location?
Suggestions?
As a side note I have heard that Switzerland is very expensive.

Your daughter is correct on being able to take trips out of Interlaken. It all depends on what you want to see & do. For example I chose to stay 4 nights in Murren and spend my days between heading up to Schilthorn, down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley & then up the other side to Wengen & Jungfraujoch.

Others enjoyed staying in Wengen and travel from there between the valley floor & up the other side and others enjoyed staying in Lauterbrunnen Valley and do day trips between Wengen/Jungfraujoch & Murren/Gimmelwald/Schilthorn.

Yes, Switzerland is a higher cost country to visit.

As a side note I have heard that Switzerland is very expensive.

From that kind of hearsay, and knowing what costs are like in neighboring countries I went just on a daytrip to get a taste of what Switzerland was like in 2018 using just Super Saver tickets (these are the cheapest least flexible train tickets).

I went from Zurich airport to Luzern to Lauterbrunnen and up to the top of the Schilthorn (this was the one expense that made me cringe) and then flew out of Geneva to Nice.

That one short trip lead to longer trips of 4 days each in 2019, 2021, 2023, and May 2024.

People that love how a place makes them feel manage to return despite the costs; e.g. how do people live in or go to New York and San Francisco?

Thansk for the info.! Question about the Super Saver tickets: I assume I would need to buy these in advance? If so, best way to do that? And if not can they be purchased at the station the day of?
Thanks!

Super saver tickets are only made available a month in advance. They are usually half the price of a regular tickets. Most locals have a Swiss Half Fare Card that gives them 50% of an already reduced Super Saver ticket. You have to decide how many days you want to stay to make it work. And only go in the summer for the best weather.
Now whenever I go to Switzerland I splurge on a Swiss Travel Pass, which allows you to just hop on any train and gives you free admission to all museums, and boat rides on the lakes and excursions to the top of Mount Rigi and the Stanserhorn (these are favorites among some forum members). It gives you a discount to the top of other mountains. Once you ride the trains in Switzerland, you will see how superior the service is in comparison to neighboring countries .

Note that Rail Ninja couldn't even have given you a Lisbon - Faro ticket, as these are not available that far in advance. They will happily take you money in the mean time though. So all you would have is a booking request, not a booking.

One thing not to forget: Trains are mass transit. Most Europeans do not book their train trips months in advance, and on many networks that is not even possible. Think of the European railway network as a set of overlapping commuter/urban rail networks, not a ground level airline...

Good to know. They certainly make it look official...sent a barcode, etc. Well, live and learn!
Thanks!