Help! Not sure what pass to buy. We are rail London to Paris on 13 Apr then Paris to Zurich on 16 Apr then Lucerne to Lauterbrunnen on 26 Apr with 4 days rail and boat trips then Lauterbrunnen to Stressa on 30 Apr and Stressa to Venice on 3 May. Not sure what rail pass is best for this? Thanks

You may not need any pass. You need to look at the cost of individual tickets versus that of a pass. (Individual tickets bought about 90 days in advance can provide great discounts.)

And do check the London to Paris eurostar - not sure it is covered by any pass. (Again, prices for these trains vary considerably - with best price tickets being sold 90 days out of travel. And prices can vary a lot by date, day of week and time of train.)

You might check the web site of man in seat 61 for tips on to compare passes vs individual ticket.

nyt means, go here:

http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-E...pass-guide.htm

You might benefit from a Swiss pass, for the other trips, book early. But read seat61, loads of good rail info there.

Do check the Man in Seat 61 for current info. Among other things, advance purchase of tickets for France (not sure whether the Eurostar is included in this) have recently been changed from 90 days (actually, 92 days) to something like 112 days, and there are many more long-in-advance tickets for summer trains than there used to be.

You don't need a pass - at least, not this side of Switzerland.

Treat western European long distance trains exactly as you would a budget airline: Get the cheap delays by booking in advance, direct with the operator.

London to Paris from £41 www.eurostar.com

Paris to Zurich from a mere €25 www.captaintrain.com

Within Switzerland check prices at www.sbb.ch Swiss Railways then see if a Swiss Pass will save anything - it may or may not.

Lauterbrunnen to Stresa check prices at www.sbb.ch

Stresa to Venice use www.trenitalia.com

Like Man in Seat 61 says no railpass is viable except perhaps and very perhaps IME a Swiss Pass for Switzerland where even a relatively few normally expensive trips can cost a lot - passes cover travel around the Jungfrau Region in full to Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and also lake boats on the two lakes bookending Interlaken.

for lots of good info on trains check out Man in Seat 61's commercial site www.seat61.com and also these IMO informative sites: www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com. Twin discounted tickets Man in Seat 61 hypes above with a Swiss Pass and that could be the best deal - also investigate the Swiss Transfer Ticket which for some will be better than a pass.

The Swiss Transfer Ticket gives you a train trip from any border station or airport to any place in Switzerland and then a train trip to any border station or airport - need not be the same you came in on - thus from the German border to Lauterbrunnen would be your first trip and then from there to the Italian border would be your out trip and in between you can buy a Half-Fare Card for 50% off in conjunction with the Swiss Transfer Ticket and get half-off everything that moves practically all over the country, including the Jungfraujoch Railway the most expensive parts of which a Swiss Pass only gives you 25% off - a huge different on that very expensive railway.