Train Pass vs. place to place tickets

How are you getting from Villingen to Salzburg?

The trains trips in Italy will require purchased seat reservations if you get a rail pass.

We will be with family who will be driving :)

Sam,
So in Italy (and/or beyond) is it better to purchase as we go?

When you purchase as you go, you are guaranteed to pay the highest price. You seem to have a fixed itinerary, so it should be safe to buy discounted advance purchase train tickets.

Have you thought about Switzerland and your plans in the Berner Oberland? There are many options there, from the Swiss Travel Pass to the Half Fare Card, to the Berner Oberland regional pass. How many in your group and what are their ages?

Basel to Villingen can be done with a group Baden-Wuerttemburg ticket if you go from Basel Badischer Bahnhof. If you stay in a hotel overnight in Basel, you will get a free guest card for local transportation.

Sam should confirm because its been a few years, but we did Vienna to Salzburg via Westbahn. The ticket prices were fixed, so we could leave our options open until day of.

Have you already made your flight arrangements? Going back to Venice is a significant backtrack - could you return home from somewhere closer to Salzburg, such as Munich?

similar question to markcw - is you flight home from Venice? Is it a middle of the night job, leaving around 6am?

and also similar to Sam - do have any plans yet for the Lauterbrunnen area? If so, if you give an outline we can help - a lot - with the transportation around there.

are you treating Basel as a destination or just a place to change trains?

Is this the same trip you discussed in August? Is the flight from Venice to Munich?

Thank you all for your replies -I’m new to this so your experience is appreciated.

My husband and I will be traveling together until we meet family in Basel.

Train is going to be transportation except for time with family we’ll meet up with from Germany and in Austria.

Venice 2 nights
Varenna 2 nights
Vernazza 3 nights
Figuring out Switzerland now;
Either 1-2 nights in Zermatt
Grindlewald or Lauterbrunnen 4 nights; we will be looking for moderate hikes while in Switzerland.

As far as returning back to Venice to fly out of Marco Polo, we did that because one of our round trip tickets is on air miles and we paid for the other -both were less miles and money to fly in/out that way. We initially thought it might be neat to take the train back down just to see areas we wouldn’t see otherwise. We are considering contacting the airline to see if we can alter and return home from Munich or Salzburg -depends on the $$.

It was noted that to pre purchase a pass that we’ll need to then reserve seats? When is it suggested we purchase the train pass? ie how far out before the beginning of our trip on June 19?

Which train app and/or online link is the most recommended?
Which online company is recommended to purchase tickets from?

Again, much appreciation for your help.

Certain Eurail passes are 25% off up until today, you might want to check it out....

Thank you. I saw that and am pretty confused so didn’t purchase :/

After reading more, I’m starting to think that point to point purchased in advance might be the best as far as $$ goes. From what I’m getting is, I could purchase a Eurail pass and it will help with some flexibility but might not be cost-effective since for our travel Cinque Terre is already low and Switzerland has their own passes, which I’m still figuring out since I think there are changes to the Oberland pass in 2025.