Eurail Pass - Germany, France, Switzerland

The pass works for Switzerland, and it works for regional trains in Germany as well. The questions is: is this the best value or are the better values?

Eurail IS valid in Switzerland, on a multi country pass. There is no single country version for Switzerland.

You need to do the maths for each of these trips and see if it financially stacks up.

A round trip is just two one way trips, so it is valid.

The regional trains to Bacharach are run by DB, so the pass is valid.

On that itinery you don't actually use the Swiss network anyway, the arrival point in Basel is the tarif boundary. What do you do next?

If your day trips will extend as far as Düsseldorf then the pass is probably a good idea.

No idea where you got the very wrong idea that regional carriers in Germany are not included. It's valid on basically everthing that is or used to be DB, so not city run U-Bahn, Flixtrain, Eurostar or Westbahn.

Am I correctly understanding that since the Eurail pass is 'unlimited,' it would include our round-trip travel as well as one-way directional travel?

The Continuous pass is unlimited in that it covers travel on every day for the entire date range of the pass. The Flex pass is only good for a specified number of days within the date range.

You are paying a premium for the continuous pass. As suggested above, it would be helpful to cost out the individual trips to see which is the better value - a pass may not be worthwhile for short regional trips. So a Flex pass to cover just the longer trips could be the better buy.

And for a given pass day, you can take as many trips as you like - so that would include your round trips for regional day trips.

Thanks all for your feedback-thank you!. To clarify--I did realize it is usable in Switzerland (sorry I wasn't clear). I really was questioning the round-trip vs. one-way -- thank you...they are just 2 one-ways. Excellent. I also misunderstood the regional (RE, RB, S, IC) type fares as not being included. And the reminder that the city U-Bahn...trams, subways are not included. Thanks for setting me straight on all these points. I have costed the trip out. Right now it is a cost savings if we purchase point-to-point in advance (and as long as we are definite on what dates we will day-trip. I liked the idea of the Eurail Flexi for 7 days in 1 month...for the flexibility, even if we paid a bit more so we could be more agile in our touring. For now...thank you--I better understand and will do further planning to see if we really are firm on our dates for day trips.

You actually only need a 4-day Flex Pass, for Cologne, Stuttgart, and Duesseldorf r/t's, and the trip to Strasbourg, although I am not sure if you need to buy seat reservations, since it is a hi-speed train into France (if only for a couple of miles). Since Cologne, Stuttgart and Duesseldorf are too far away to use slow regional trains for day trips, ICE trains are the way to go.

Heidelberg can be done using a Quer-durch-Lands Ticket costing 59 EUR for the 2 of you. Good all day after 9 am weekdays (anytime weekends). unlimited travel all over Germany on regional trains. Heidelberg is only 1 1/2 hours away by direct regional trains.

Bacharach can be done using and RMV Gruupentageskarte for 53.50 EUR for up to 5 people traveling together any time on regional trains.

Strasbourg to Basel is a French TER that costs about 60 EUR for 2 people. No reservations and just buy at the station.

With the Eurail Pass all trains are included that are operated by DB, but also trains that are operated by other companies as long as they do so under a Public Service Contract. That basically means all trains except for the few private open access operators.
So basically any train that is part of the National German Railway system. If you can buy a ticket for it on www.bahn.de you can use your Eurail Pass to travel on it.

And yes, passes are "all you can eat". You are free to travel at will on any covered service on the day (or days) that your pass is valid, and there are no compulsory reservations, and no pre travel procedures apart from activating your passport. So you can really travel somewhere, and decide on the day itself when and where.

Since your travel is almost exclusively i Germany you could get the German Rail Pass in stead. Especialy if you are a couple and get the Twin Pass, as that is cheaper as two individual passes. The Twin Pass however you can only buy in Germany at the station. But that is not an issue really, as the price is the same regardless of when you buy it,.

https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:6ef53210-8ff6-46eb-ae82-34d2fd953891/GermanRailPass2025_IntBahnDe.pdf

You could even use the Germain Rail Pass to travel from Strasbourg to Basel by hopping back over the border. You would only need to buy for Kehl - Strasbourg and vv. in that case.

The German Rail Pass is valid till Basel Bad in Switzerland, not till Basel SBB. But that should not be an issue. If you plan on spending a few nights in Basel you will get free travel on public transit in Basel, and that includes all trains between Basel Bad and Basel SBB.

Thanks Sam and WengenK ...I think the Germain eurail pass might be a good option, too. We are 6 travelers (3 in youth, 1 adult, 2 seniors). I'll do the math as well as consider the flexibility. This has been a great help - thank you.