Train Tickets 2012: Which is which?

Actually, with the schedule you show, some type of Swiss pass or card could be useful but not any type of Eurail pass. Here are my thoughts: 1. While in Paris, you can get around on the Metro and/or RER train. It's the RER train that will take you to Versailles. Usually, you buy a 10-ticket Carnet for the Metro and your round trip ticket of the RER to Versailles which is just under 7Eu. No pass needed here. 2. I assume that you will be taking the train from Paris to Switzerland. You haven't indicated any other train travel in France. You don't need a pass for the one train trip exiting the country. 3. When entering Switzerland, you might consider a Swiss Half-Fare card that you can buy in any station for 110CHF. All of your train and bus fares will be half-price for 30 days. Yes, you will only be there for 3 days but if you intend to go up to the top of the Jungfrau and/or Schilthorn while in Interlaken, this card will be quite useful as the roundtrip fare to the Jungfraujoch from Interlaken is almost $200. Half-fare is better. A Eurail pass will work fine on most Swiss trains but not when going to the mountain tops. 25% discound only with the Eurail pass. 4. In Italy, most of your travel will most likely be on the high-speed trains. You will be charged a supplemental fee of 10Eu for each high-speed train that you will be on. Your supplemental fee will get you your seat reservation. Also in Italy, if you can lock in your travel dates and departure times, you can get some very attractive mini-fares on the high-speed runs. This easily beats the cost of a rail pass.

At the risk of not answering your question.... How can you see Rome, Venice, Florence and Pisa in 5 days? That's a drive by at best. If you only have 5 days for Italy, spend them all in ONE location: Rome or Florence or Venice. As to your "2 other days," you might add them to Paris, or add them to Italy and treat yourself to two locations like Rome and Florence or Florence and Venice.

Thanks Larry & Laurel. Some more clarifications. In France, when we travel from Paris to Versailles, do we need to book ahead or we can buy once we arrive there. Whats te differnce between RER & Metro and which one fits our trip? From Paris to Switzerland, will check on Swiss pass. From Switzerland to Venice, can we purchase tickets right on the spot? Which is the best and convenient itinerary:
Italy- Switzerland- France or the other way around?

In Paris the Metro is the traditional subway which operates in central Paris and the inner suburbs with closely-spaced stops. The RER ("express regional network") is a more modern system of suburban trains running under central Paris in tunnels, with stations much further apart. The RER and Metro both use the same tickets in the centre, but for longer journeys like Versailles you need to buy a specific ticket at the station. There is no advantage to booking in advance and I'm not sure it's even possible to book in advance online for a single journey.

For Versailles the usual tourist route (closest of the several Versailles stations to the chateau) is to take the RER line C to Versailles Rive Gauche station. Line C runs along the left (south) bank of the river in central Paris from stops like Gare d'Austerlitz, St-Michel-Notre-Dame and Invalides. There are many branches from the line though so you need to make sure you get the right train. When I was in Paris last there was a constant looped announcement in all the central stations on Line C in multiple languages telling tourists how to get to Versailles!

Thanks guys for the above comments. As we have read a lot that " Switzerland is the most expensive country in the world,we have decided to delete it in our itinerary for this year and replace it with Amesterdam with side trip in Bruges. Questions: 1. Which is the ideal and practical way to start the travel? Italy to France to Netherlands or the other way around? 2. What train ticket should we buy? I was thinking of buying Eurail select pass. But thinking if point to point tickets would be cheaper and economical for our itinerary. This is our final itinerary: You may comment; France- 5 days ( Paris, Versailles) Netherlands- 3 Days ( Amsterdam, Bruges)
Italy -7 days (Rome, venice, Florence,Pisa)

Book open jaw (multi-city) plane tickets: Dubai-Amsterdam and Rome-Dubai. Booking discount fare train tickets well in advance will be cheaper than a railpass. Book Amsterdam-Bruges train tickets on thalys.com ASAP (up to 90 days in advance) to get the cheapest discount fare. Do the same for Bruges-Paris. Fly from Paris (either Orly or CDG) to Venice Marco Polo on easyJet (a very good budget airline). Book Venice-Florence and Florence-Rome train tickets ASAP (up to 90 days in advance) at trenitalia.com to get the cheapest Mini fare on high-speed trains. If you decide to go to Pisa, buy your tickets in Florence. There is no advantage to buying tickets in advance for regional trains. Consider skipping Pisa in favor of more time in Rome.

Hi Tim, thanks it was such a good idea. May I ask if we add more days in our travel and add Germany in the itinerary,
What would be our best route now? I was thinking that if Munich could be our point of entry BuT i have difficulty in getting train from Munich to Amsterdam. And to add, travel time is quite long i guess. Can you give nice and feasibel route if Germany like 4 days more is added. Thanks

You're welcome, Pauline. If you decide to go to Germany and base yourselves in Munich, here are some possibilities. Travel Amsterdam-Bruges-Paris-Munich-Venice-Florence-Rome, all by train. You can travel from Paris to Munich by train during the day in just over 6 hours. Or you can take the direct CNL night train which will save you the cost of a night in a hotel and give you more daylight hours for sightseeing. To get the best fares, book your tickets ASAP (up to 92 days in advance) on bahn.de, the German Rail site. While in Munich you can buy Bayern-Tickets to go anywhere in Bavaria all day long on regional trains (after 09:00 on weekdays and anytime on weekends). 2-5 people can travel together on one Bayern-Ticket for a set price of €29. Those tickets will also be good on the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and bus in Munich for each day you use one. They will also cover a day trip to Salzburg even though it's in Austria. There is one direct daytime train between Munich and Venice. Other daytime routes require at least one connection. There is a direct CNL night train. Book either the direct daytime train or the direct night train ASAP (up to 92 days) at bahn.de to get the best fares.

Hi Tim and everyone! July is fast approaching and so our planned tour. Tim, as you suggested the itinerary above, we might not follow it as we have difficulties in getting schengen visa in netherlands. We opted Germany as our point of entry. So lets see if this is now feasible. How about Germany-Netherlands- France- Italy? I switched Netherlands and Germany in your suggested itinerary due to visa issues.
Will there be any difficulties related to train and time travel with this new itinerary?