I am traveling from Germany to Switzerland to Venice to Florence and then down to Rome from June 7-21.

I was wondering if it is recommended to commit to our times and purchase the tickets online, ahead of time, or to simply purchase them at the train stations.

(It would be very easy for us to commit to our times.)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Jim

Have you looked at railpasses or do you have railpasses and you're asking about reservations?

Are you an experienced European traveler? Do you have a feel for how long it takes to get to the train stations, from your hotels? How you will get there? Do you have your hotel reservations set in stone? If so, you can certainly commit to at least SOME of the trains. If this will be a busy time of year, perhaps you'll be better off reserving trains on busy days.

As for me, I can't really reserve my trains so far in advance, because I have some flexibility in my trips and don't like to be nailed down so far in advance. The downside is that you either pay more by waiting or risk a train beings sold out.

Sometimes you have a long journey and there's really only one train that makes sense that day...and if your hotels are fixed, why not book it now? On the other hand, if a train trip will be only 2-3 hours, maybe you'll want some flexibility by waiting. Maybe you'll regret booking the Venice to Florence portion because you'll have wanted to stay in Venice later plus there are a lot of trains between them.

The only reason IMO to purchase online is to get the limited in numbers discounted tickets that usually are not available at the ticket window.

Germany - www.bahn.de
Switzerland www.sbb.ch
Italy www.trenitalia.com

German rail offers deep discounts and is rather easy to book online

Switzerland i would not bother - just buy as you go along

Italy - though Trenitalia has good discounts for limited numbers on line the site is extremely frustrating according to legions of Fodorites' complaints. And even at full fare Italian trains are much cheaper than in other countries.

It does not take much for a Swiss Railpass to pay off - not if you are just transiting Switzerland say going from Germany to Italy but if you are going to a destination in Switzerland like the Jungfrau Region (Interlaken area) then a Swiss Pass or other option like the Half-Fare Card is often the best deal. For lots on Swiss trains and passes: www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com; http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id3.html

And it seems hard to get online discounts for Swiss-Italy trains - check www.cisalpino.com - which runs most trains that go between Italy and Switzerland.

But have no fear of not being able to buy any ticket in your itinerary at the station once there. You can buy Swiss Passes and half-Fare Cards at Swiss stations but currently the same pass sold in the U.S. is significantly cheaper so you may want to book a pass, if viable for your plans, before leaving if in the States.

And there is the Eurail Select 3-country pass but unless you are traveling more than indicated i would not consider that - do check out the viability of the Swiss Pass however.

Nice. thanks, we looked at the Eurail and did a pretty extensive price comparison. It was about $80 cheaper to purchase the tickets separately, so we're going with that.

We're taking short trips other than our trip from Interlaken to Switerland, so we'll probably purchase that one ahead of time. We'll leave our 2-3 hour ones for when we arrive.

Thanks.