Rail Pass (4 countries) pros and cons?

Read this first, it says everything I would: https://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets

The rest of that website is the best source of useful and impartial info about travelling by train.

"We all like the flexibility of unlimited travel." - France, your pass will not be valid on the TGV (High Speed trains) unless you pay a surcharge called a "reservation fee" for each train you travel on.
In Switzerland, multi-country passes do not cover all the small railway companies in the mountains. A Swiss Pass (the one sold by Swiss Railways) does, and also covers buses and city transport.

In Germany, there are local one-day passes, called "Länder tickets" (Länder are German states) that cover the whole state, including city transport and most buses but excluding long distance trains (IC/ICE) and are cheaper for groups. For example Bavaria, first person €25 plus €6 per extra passenger (max. 4).
Details here: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/index.shtml

What is your proposed itinerary? What cities/towns how many nights each. How many actual nights? First day will not get much done other than travel to your first destination due to jet lag. Last day you just have time to get to the airport for the flight home.

With 4 countries in 9 days, you run the risk of "If today is Tuesday, this must be Belgium" syndrome.

will be a whirlwind total of 9 days

An understatement, if ever there was one.

I think the weather service would classify this at least an EF-3 tornado

You really, really need to figure out which cities/towns you want to visit and check the travel times between them. The Deutsche Bahn website is easy to use for that purpose. What you are proposing to do is going to have you observing Europe all too often through the windows of trains and buses.

4 countries, 9 days? Does that count the day you fly? The day you arrive? The day you leave?

You are a regular visitor to the UK and Ireland from your history and it looks like you like whirlwinds.

The thing that you will run up against in January in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France will be the long distances, and any January weather delays.

You're not able to see 4 countries at 2 nights each - maybe one town or city in each. Which cities are you visiting? (helps with trains planning too).

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your honest replies!!! :)

Looking at everything, I may have it somewhat narrowed down:

Day 1 Arrive in Zurich, stay the night

Day 2: Zurich, Switzerland

Day 3: Train to Innsbruck, A

Day 4: Innsbruck

Day 5: Train to Kitzbruhel, Austria. Meet up with a friend. Evening train to Munich, Germany

Day 6: Munich

Day 7: morning train to Reims (area), France

Day 8: Reims, France. Then evening train to CDG airport. Lodging at hotel at airport.

Day 9: Fly from Paris to home.

I haven't booked anything other than Zurich, Innsbruck and airport lodging. Any ideas? Thanks for your advise.

Natalie

Natalie, your plan has too many places. You will be travelling most of the time. Have you looked up how long these trips will take, for example Zürich to Innsbruck is 4 hours - ½day gone. Munich to Reims is 6 hours! No time for seeing anything.
This looks like a trip for a rail enthousiast, all travelling and no time in the places.

• A good rule - no 1 night stops. Minimum 2 nights (gives you a full day in the place), 3 nights prefered. This means a major re-write of your plan.
• Skip Zürich, it is way down the list of places to see in Switzerland. If you only have time for 2 nights in Switzerland, go to Luzern, only 70 minutes from Zürich airport by train.
• You say "Reims (area)". What do you mean by "area"? If going outside the city, what transport will you use?
• You are flying out of Paris but have no time their. Strange, or have you been there before? You have a night "wasted" at the airport. I don't know how early your flight is, but it may be better to stay in Paris. From Reims more trains to Paris than to the airport. Plenty from Paris to the airport.

Sorry to be so brutal.
For looking up train times use the DB site: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

Setting aside the advisability of your itinerary, you can get a 3-person 5-day 2nd cl Eurail Global Pass for $873 if you buy between now and Thursday with the Cyber Week Special. That gets you under $300 per person. You will have to purchase seat reservations for the Munich-Reims trip, and if you want to take the super convenient direct TGV from Reims to CDG in 30 minutes.

We all like the flexibility of unlimited travel

That is a bit of a chimera on a "9 day whirlwind tour". You have some hotels booked already, You know you have to get there on that day, so why not save some money with advance nonrefundable tickets. Looks like you could do this whole thing for about $525 doing it that way. $400 (when you add in the reservation fees) is a steep price for "flexibility".

No offense, but you have done an admirable job of planning the trip from hell. If someone were to offer me that trip for free, I'd have to decline. hard to believe that you have two other travelers going with you that also think living on a train and packing/unpacking every day seems like an ideal vacation?!

Hopefully, you have time to change things?

Here's an example that limits wasted time travel and allows you to see (and remember) much more than your current "itinerary" does:

day 1 Land in Zurich / drive to Lucerne (maybe an hour or so)
day 2 Lucerne
day 3 drive to Dijon (3 hours). Spend the time here taking day trips around the Burgundy wine country - lots to see!
day 4 Dijon
day 5 Dijon
day 6 drive to Paris ( 3 + hours, drop off car)
day 7 Paris
day 8 Paris
day 9 taxi / train to CDG for return flight

Yup - driving is the ultimate "flexibility of unlimited travel". Getting a car for a week, even with the surcharge of dropping it off in a different country, will be $800-$900 max. You've really only had to travel twice (Zurich to Lucerne doesn't count) and probably spending less than 1/4 of the time traveling, saving $$ in the process, and, you get 3 nights IN Paris (not one night at the airport....sacrilege. ).

I apologize in advance, as you were simply asking about the pros & cons of rail passes! But, as you can see, your itinerary derailed my response to that!

Eric's plan (Luzern --> Dijon --> Paris) can also be done by train, avoiding the horrendous fee for dropping off a car in another country. You get a train Luzern - Basel (change) - Dijon. And later lots of trains Dijon - Paris.Both trains with cheap advance-purchase tickets

Though I would suggest 3 nights Luzern, 2 Dijon and 3 Paris.

Alternative 3 nights Luzern 2 Strasbourg and 3 Paris. Again all easy hops by trains.

Sorry for totally rubbishing your plan. We are only trying to help.

Without commenting on the sanity of you itinerary, I will just answer the rail pass question.

You've indicated you want flexibility, but your proposed itinerary has little wiggle room for flexibility. Spend an extra day in any town, and you will have to forego another one.

And several days are already pretty time constrained.

On day 5, your friend probably doesn't want to spend all morning in the Kitzbuhel train station waiting for you to finally arrive, so you will probably want to commit in advance to a specific train that morning, which means you can save some money with an advance purchase ticket.

On day 7, you say you want to take a morning train to Reims, but there are probably only a couple of connections to choose from. You don't want to get up too early, but if you wait to long, you get into Reims late. You won't lose much flexibility by buy Munich to Reims in advance.

Advance purchase tickets for Innsbruck to Kitzbuhel and for Munich to Reims can be ordered for around $93. The rest of the tickets at buy-at-the-station prices would be about $201, so just buying tickets that are already pretty set and the rest at full fare would cost you $294, less than a rail pass.

Thank you everyone for your replies!

I think I may have cut wayyyy back to a more enjoyable journey.

Day 1-2 Zurich

Day 3-4 Innsbruck

Day 5-7 Visiting a friend in Lienz

Day 8. Getting to the airport

Day 9 Fly home.

There will be other times for Germany and France!

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your honesty!!!

Natalie

I take it you already bought airline tickets, so you have to get to Paris CDG to get home. That will make day 8 quite a slog. 12 hours on the the train from Lienz to Paris CDG.

Natalie, your new cut back plan is way better. There are 2 ways I would still improve it.
1) Is there no way you can change your return airport. Viena or Munich would be a lot easier.
2) You still have "Day 1-2 Zurich", this is the wrong place, you need to stay in Luzern instead.

Chris,
You have a good point! Let me see what I can do!
Thank you!!
Natalie

If you cannot change your return flight, think about doing it this way.
Day 1 Go to Innsbruck directly after you land at Zurich airport (about 4 hours, but the direct Railjet to Innsbruck only goes every 2 hours, so there could be a wait at Zurich Hbf.
Day 2 Innsbruck
Day 3 travel to Lienz (about 4 hours)
Day 4 Lienz
Day 5 Travel to Munich (about 5 hours)
Day 6 Munich
Day 7 Munich to Paris (or Strasbourg or Reims, 4 to 6 hours)
Day 8 to CDG
Day 9 fly home

Maybe you need to be in Lienz on a weekend so your friend is available, don't know. I know this skips staying in Switzerland, but Switzerland is a giant money suck.

Thank you again for all your feedback and advice!

I was able to get my flights heading home changed so I will be closer to the airport and no trips through Germany and France!

Thanks everyone again!

Natalie

I love the way this community helps folk