Should I get 4 country 5 day pass

First thing, without analyzing the rest of your trip, yes, you will need to have Austria as one of your counties for the train from Venice to Munich. Although you say it has no connections, it does stop in Innsbruck as well as a few more places including Kufstein. If you don't have Austria as a country, you will at least have to buy a ticket for the part through Austria, Brennero to Kufstein.

Also, if you travel with a rail pass in Italy on any Italian Eurostar, you will have to pay for seat reservations (actually a supplement for a premium train), about $15, with which you get a seat reservation).

Also, using RailEurope to find fares is a bad idea. They only show trains for which they sell tickets, which is only the most expensive trains, and then at a marked up price. Use the national rail lines of the countries in which you will travel.

OK good to know...

If I'm purchasing a pass though, will my pass cover travel on the trains I find through each Country's rail system?

More or less. Except for Germany, almost every country has trains that they consider a cut above the trains included with your rail pass (TGV in France, Cisalpino in Switzerland, EuroStar in Italy) and these trains will require a supplement. However, trains up to (and including) Intercity trains (IC) will usually not require a supplement although there might be a small charge for a seat reservation (usually not required).

BTW, there are a few (maybe one) night trains that go through Switzerland, between France and Italy, without stopping, and it is not necessary to have Switzerland as a country when using one of these trains.

FYI, if you book well in advance (up to 120 days allowed) on the NS Hispeed site, you can get a fare as low as €50 for train travel all the way from Amsterdam to London. Amsterdam-Brussels will be on an IC train and Brussels-London will be on a Eurostar train.

I assume you meant to say you are planning to go London-Paris on the Eurostar rather than Paris-London. If you book well in advance (up to 120 days allowed) at www.eurostar.com, you can get a fare as low as £39.

Eurail Select passes "can" be a good deal if you qualify for youth fares, but they don't work very well in Switzerland. They don't fully cover some of the routes---for example, between Interlaken and Gimmelwald it will only cover 25% of the fare. It won't give you any discount on the Schilthorn if you plan to do that.

On the other hand, there aren't many trains in Switzerland that have compulsory reservations, and Cisalpino doesn't exist any more, so you don't have to worry about that.

Depending on how much time you will be in Switzerland and what you want to do there, you might consider getting (1) a discounted advance-purchase ticket from Paris to Bern if they exist (not sure about this), plus (2) some kind of Swiss-only pass to cover your travels in Switzerland and into Italy (at Domodossola).

Theynyou still might want a 3-country pass for the rest, but people usually recommend point-to-point tickets for Italy, and there are usually great advance-purchase and/or youth fares for Germany.

It will take some math to figure it all out, but I mainly wanted to alert you to the Switzerland issue so you wouldn't be disappointed with the lack of coverage there. If you board the train at Interlaken heading for Lauterbrunnen with just a Eurail pass and without paying the supplement, the conductor could slap you with a fine. Or could just have you pay the supplement.

Thanks for all the suggestions/advice everyone. I'm a bit overwhelmed but am ready to do some work figuring this all out.

Lola -- We do qualify for the youth fares which is why I was thinking we would take advantage of that. Where can I figure out what that supplement might be when traveling from Interlaken to Gimmelwald?

We will be spending 2 nights in Gimmelwald and hadn't planned on checking out the Schilthorn, although that looks very cool.

Tim -- My bad, I did mean to say London to Paris, I found a fare of $60per person for a morning trip on the Eurostar train. Seems like a good deal to me.

If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get a Piccolissimo fare as low as €20 for Paris-Basel (Bale).

Buy either a Swiss Card or a Swiss Transfer Ticket to get from Basel to Gimmelwald and from Gimmelwald to Domodossola.

Buy point-to-point tickets as you go to get from Domodossola to the Cinque Terre town of your choice and for all your other rides within Italy. Go to www.trenitalia.com for timetables and fares. Enter a date within the next few days or the fares for regional trains won't be shown.

If you book the Venice-Munich night train well in advance (up to 92 days allowed) on the German Rail site, www.bahn.de, you can get Savings fares that aren't all that much more than the supplement you'll have to pay for sleeping accommodations if you have a pass.

If you can get discount fares for some of your rides, P2P tickets plus either a Swiss Card or Swiss Transfer Ticket should be cheaper than a Eurail pass, even at the youth rate. You'll need to do the math.

Hi Chris---since you are only in Switzerland 3 days/2 nights my suggestion about considering a Swiss-only pass doesn't apply. Tim's suggestion of a Transfer Ticket ($130 in 2d class, no youth discount) might work if you decide to go with P2P tickets everywhere else. Otherwise, just stay with the youth Eurail pass. I wouldn't let the supplement for travel from Interlaken to Gimmelwald be a factor in that choice, as it is not expensive at all.

The full fare from Interlaken Ost to Gimmelwald is 17 or 18 CHF. Even if you use a Eurali Select pass that covers 25%, you will only have to pay 12 or 13 CHF.

The only issue is that according to the chart here on the Rick Steves "Railpass" site, the Eurail pass won't cover Postbuses in Switzerland. The most direct route to Gimmelwald is via Stechelberg, which you reach from Lauterbrunnen by Postbus. You take the Schilthorn cablecar up from there. So if you want to use your pass (to save 4 CHF) you would take the cablecar/train route up to Mürren, and maybe walk down to Gimmelwald from there It's a 25-minute walk downhill on a paved path (and very scenic) so that's probably not a problem. But if it is . . . just pay the extra and go the other way.

Regardless which route you choose to get to Gimmelwalk, I suggest you depart by taking the cablecar down to Stechelberg, because it is so spectacular and so exciting to swing out over the cliff, with 2000 feet or so of air below you.

On your full day in Gimmelwald, if you like hiking, consider the Tanzbödli hike that Rick describes in his book. For something easier, try Kilchbalm; for something longer and more strenuous, Oberhornsee. These are all described on the Gimmelwald website.