On Wedndesday, June 23, 2010, my traveling party of 6, including 2 seniors, needs to go from Salzburg to Lauterbrunnen. We had originally planned to buy the 3 country SelectPass for Germany, Switzerland, and France, since we don't need to add a 4th country to visit Salzburg, traveling to Lauterbrunnen via Germany. We've since conisdered buying the 4th country and getting there through Austria for the scenery and shorter train ride, fewer changes. However, the 10:02 train from Salzburg to Zurich states "please reserve". When I checked on the cost of a reservation, I got $75 on railleurope.com. Is that possible? That would make going through Austria quite pricey when adding the 4th country to the SelectPass plus a reservation fee.
Would this train likely be full and we would need a reservation for on a Wednesday?
Should we forget about traveling through Austria and just go back through Germany. The downside to that is we are first-timers to Europe and this will be out second train trip, after Munich-Salzburg. The other routes on this morning have more changes, which is a concern. Thanks for any help.
Marie---RailEurope is not a good source for schedules and reservations. Use the Swiss rail site, sbb.ch or www.rail.ch for English. You'll see that the 10:02 train from Salzburg to Zürich is "reservations recommended", but not compulsory. If you are using passes, you can make this reservation when you get there (to Salzburg) at the train station, a day or two before you travel. It should be only a few euro per seat.