first time travel to europe

For scenery and hiking, September is the absolute best time of year to visit Switzerland. Go for it. Delete the words "Euro rail" from your brain. If you're considering rail travel in Europe, go first to this website for a good tutorial, then consult the website of each country's national rail carrier. Ask more detailed questions and you'll get more detailed answers.

The temptation is to try to go everywhere and see everything. I prefer to settle in a city and do day trips, then move on to a next centre. The distances aren't as great as Australia but the time consumed moving around is still substantial. For me, three weeks would mean two countries, or at most England and one city each for Switzerland and Italy. The cliche is true: You should stop and smell the roses, or the coffee on the terrace. To begin, study possible destinations on Steves' site and others which may have itinerary suggestions and city highlights. Make a tentative schedule. Compare train travel to budget airlines. Basic resources: www.seat61.com for all train information and advice. www.skyscanner.com for budget airlines between European countries. My rule of thumb is to consider air if the train trip is more than four hours. Budget air tickets are cheaper if you buy far ahead. Ditto for some but not all long-distance trains. I agree that rail passes probably won't save money unless you intend to spend much of your trip staring out of windows.
After you get some basics under your belt you can pose more specific questions and get more detailed answers.

Queensland, As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to departure as it provides a LOT of good information on "how" to travel in Europe. After that use the country-specific Guidebooks to plan hotels, sightseeing, transportation, etc. Given your location, you may have trouble finding the actual books, but you may be able to download them as E-books if you have a Kindle, iPad or whatever. You stated that you plan to spend 1 week in London, but what's the time frame for the whole trip? It's impossible to suggest the best travel method without having a specific list of the places you want to visit. Rail is likely the best method in most cases, but as Tom mentioned you'll be dealing with the national rail operators in each country and not "Euro rail". Do you have an idea on which part of Switzerland you want to see? The Berner Oberland is a big favourite with many here, so there will be lots of suggestions from the group here if that's the area you choose. As you're planning to travel in early September, you'll need to get cracking and get the details worked out quickly. That's "fall shoulder season" and it can be busy in Europe at that time of year. Getting hotels booked ASAP would be a really good idea! If you can provide more detailed information on what you're planning, it will be easier to provide more detailed suggestions. You might also find it interesting to click the "Tours" tab at the top of this page, as that would be a good way to get used to travelling in Europe. Good luck with your planning!

Hello there, It will be a quick trip and you do run the chance of it becoming a blur but depending on your stamina you can cover quite a bit of territory in a short time. I'm a big fan of European trains - planes nmay be faster but by the time you factor in getting to and from the airport and checking in trains are usually the best bet. Some thoughts for an itinerary - to make the most of each day leave as early as possible and catch up on your sleep on the train. Get to your next stop early in the day and you have half a day to look around most times. London - 6 nights Train London to Paris - about 3 hours - 3 nights in Paris Train Paris to Zurich about 4 hours, then onto Lauterbrunnen the same day another 2.5 hours. 4 nights in Lauterbrunnen see the Eiger, Jungfrau and the alps Train Lauterbrunnen to Innsbruck - 7 hours, 1 night Train Innsbruck to Venice - 5 hours, 2 nights Train Venice to Florence - 2 hours, 2 nights Train Florence to Rome - 1.5 hours, 3 nights
Fly out of Rome

I meant to add - don't worry about a rail pass just book point to point in advance