I’m looking for some help with train tickets and reservations. Our trip is flying in to Paris and immediately going to Colmar, Lausanne/Montreux, Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen, Venice, CT, and Milan. We will be on the ground in Europe from April 17 to May 1. There are three of us and we will travel exclusively on the train.
What I’d like to ask help for is the rail pass vs. point2point tickets and where to buy and how to make a couple of reservations ahead of time. Tim from Minot has been helpful on the Paris to Colmar tickets. I have priced out all our legs using the Rail Europe site. When I do that I have a $465 cost per person. I think we could use a flexipass saver 5 day/3 country pass. That cost is $376, BUT that does not include any supplements or reservations we will need to buy on top of that. I’ve estimated 5 segments that might require $15 each. That puts the comparison at $488 for the pass vs. $465 for p2p. We are planning to take the Golden Pass route from Montreux to Interlaken and get the VIP seats.
Here are my questions. Does that above calculation makes sense? It would point to buying tickets point to point. Is the Rail Europe site a good place to base cost? I think I’d like to buy only two train segments ahead of time. Paris to Colmar and Montreux to Interlaken and get the VIP seats. I’d like to get that now. Where should I buy that?
For any of you willing to think through my long set up and question, thank you for any comments. Pat