Best rail pass for Paris Switzerland & Italy?

Hello Forum, My husband and I are planning a 25th anniversary trip mid May to Europe. The planning is all left to me and I need help deciding if to buy a Euro select pass or a swiss pass with rail tickets from Paris into Geneve plus a rail ticket from Lucerne to Venice via Milan. This will be our first time in Europe we love scenic places and romantic towns.

My itinerary so far-

Fly into in Paris. Stay 3 nights. Need a train into Versailles. Do the hop on hop off bus tour.

Take train from Paris to Geneva in the morning. Leave bags at station and just walk over to lake spend 2-3 hours in Geneva. Take golden pass to either Interlaken or Lucerne from Montreux via Zweissman.

Either stay 3 nights in Lucerne or stay 2 nights in Interlaken and 1 night Lucerne. Is it advisable to stay all 3 nights in Lucerne and go back into interlaken for a day to do Jungfrau or Schilthorn? In Lucerne Im thinking either Mt titlis or Ferry to Rigi.

Then take a train from Lucerne to Venice and stop over in Milan (2-4hours). Stay in Venice 2-or 3 nights. Planning to either Fly from Venice or Milan depending on which is cheaper.

Welcome to MySwissAlps Eurobound!

As for France and Italy: you will basically make just one single trip in each country. A local pass for Paris and single tickets to/from the Swiss border (booked well in advance) are most likely cheaper. There are several pass options for Switzerland. You'd better first finalize your itinerary, then pick a pass based on your plans.

Personally I would stay 3 nights in one place. If you end up with just one night somewhere you're options of shifting plans based on the weather will be limited. Lucerne has more bad weather options than Interlaken. Jungfraujoch is very far from Lucerne though: about 10 hours on trains to get there and back, without sightseeing time.

The below pages will be helpful I think:

• Train tickets for France
• Train tickets for Italy
• Swiss Travel Pass
• How to pick a pass
• Lucerne
• Interlaken

Thanks Arno for your reply and informative links.

Still want to clarify about my stay in Lucerne. Will it be a waste of time to stay in Lucerne and go back to Interlaken for the day? Isn't the train ride from Lucerne to Interlaken only an hour? We could skip Jungfraujoch and visit Schilthorn instead in interlaken. 10 hours for Jungfraujoch scares me!

Plus, how many hours do you think it will take on the Golden pass train from Geneva to Interlaken or Lucerne?

Hi Eurobound

The train from Lucerne to Interlaken takes nearly 2 hours. It is a really scenic route.

To get information for length of train rides you can use the sbb online timetable. The Golden Pass route starts in Montreux so you need to travel from Geneva to Montreux first. You need to enter Zweisimmen as a via station to find the Golden Pass route from Montreux to Interlaken or the timetable will give you the quicker, less scenic route via Bern.

Maggie

Thanks Maggie that was very helpful.