Enzian,

According to the SBB, you cannot get the free Swiss Family Card with a Eurailpass, but you can buy a Junior Card for 20SF if you have a Eurailpass. My next question is whether you can buy the Junior Card before you get to Switzerland? We will be travellilng from Paris into Switzerland, so I would like my children to have it before we enter Switzerland.

Why will you need junior carte before getting to Switzerland - if you have a Eurailpass then you'll still get the free Family Card which will work on mainlines then buy junior carte at station where it will start benefitting you. Can't see how it would benefit you coming from Paris as you'll have free Family Pass?

That's a tough one. You may have problems with that outside of Switzerland. I haven't found anything in the internet that says you can purchase this internationally.

Author: Intrepid1
Date: 01/28/2006, 07:34 am
I have always been under the impression that ALL rail passes were sold at a set price (determined by the railroads) and that any additional costs were those involving S+H fees, etc.

Beginning in 2006 the Eurail pass will be priced in Euro so the price will vary as per the exchange rate of the local currency and the Euro.

In the past it seemed that the basic cost of Swiss Passes were no more or less expensive at RE than they would be buying them in Switzerland..so am I the one who is "missing something"?

The Swiss Pass bought in the USA is in $ but in CH it is sold in CHF or Euro. So you may pay more or less than in the states because of the current exchange rates.

PalQ--We are buying Eurail Selectpassses for France, Italy, and Switzerland for myself, my husband, and our 17 year old. I thought we could save money by buying Selectpasses for only France and Italy for our two younger children and then buy a Junior Card for each of them to use in Switzerland. SBB tells me I can buy the Junior Cards through Rail Europe before I leave. I have e-mailed RE, but I haven't gotten a reply.

Ok i thought kind of that - RailEurope i believe does not sell junior cards and only provides Family Cards with Swiss Passes. Intrepid is right about prices for passes sold in US all being the same but shipping and handling fees can be added. BETS, which i mention above, has none on most whilst RE often charges $15 i believe. But yes pass prices are all the same, set by the Eurail Commission in Utrecht Holland i believe - and though Intrepid is correct in saying they are priced in euros now and converted to $ and could fluctuate price from Jan 1 to now there has been no change in $ Eurail prices and probably because the dollar vis-a-vis euro has been pretty static. Same for the France-Italy pass that you plan to buy for your kids. Swiss passes are sold in Switzerland, albeit at a higher price than in US currently but the France-Italy pass is not sold in Europe to my knowledge.