I am considering the Eurail pass. How do I make a seat reservation - for instance the TGV train ride from Paris to Geneva? And the Golden Pass train from Montreux to Interlaken?
How do I know if a specific segment or train is covered with the Eurail pass? For instance the train from Lucerne to Venice? Venice to Florence?
Thanks!
There are two sources of information that are far better than this forum. There have been some major changes to the Eurail pass this year and some of the information you might get off of this forum may be outdated.
1) Call the Rick Steves Office and talk to one of their travel consultants.
2) Call the place where you are thinking of buying the Eurail Pass and ask them.
Think HARD before buying the pass.. with seat reservation fees and limited seats for pass holders on some trains.. its often just as cheap if not even cheaper to simply pre purchase point to point tickets.
First things first. Go to www.seat61.com for all of your rail needs across Europe. Take the advice and tips on that site and then make your decision. The Eurail pass and buying from RailEurope are rarely recommended.
If you buy train tickets directly from the national rail websites or from reputable places line trainline.eu or the one mentioned above - then seat reservations are "included" no extra charge for those trains that require a reservation. Do yourself a favor and just bypass Eurail Tickets.
I agree with Carol why do so many people attracted to the benefits of buying a Eurail pass never contact the company directly when they don't understand what they are paying for.
See https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/reservations and follow the links to the countries where you plan to travel.
Three of the four trains that you mention require reservations, which you can make at the same time that you buy the pass (a good idea for Paris to Geneva, since these places are limited, but note that it's an expensive reservation). Italian seat reservations could be made later in train stations if you're not yet committed to specific departures. The Golden Pass train doesn't strictly require reservations (except for groups), but they're recommended for the panorama car on the Montreux-Zweisimmen leg of the route and http://www.goldenpass.ch/en/goldenpass/offer/index-lines is another place the reservations are sold.
In general, the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online is the best resource for knowing which trains require seat or sleeper reservations. But note that for Italian trains, this site no longer uses the obvious phrase "subject to compulsory reservation," but instead the details say "Global price," which actually indicates the same thing.
