rail pass help

[nicolew79]

OK, we've figured out our itinerary. Now we're ready to book our rail passes. Since we're flying the first half of the trip, we only need rail passes for Italy, Switzerland, and France. We were planning to get the new "selectpass" that's good for three countries. But they offer them for 5, 6, 8, or 10 days. If our plan is to go:

Rome 2 Florence
Florence 2 Venice
Venice 2 Switzerland
Switzerland 2 Nice
Nice 2 Paris

which is really only 5 days of travel. However, we were planning to do 2-4 day trips (i.e. Giverny and/or Verseille from Paris, etc). We're not sure when or where we might do them, but do you think it's best to buy a pass for all our planned trips, or just the long ones. The reason I ask is that this is our first trip and I'm not sure if it would just be easier to buy a 8 day pass so that we don't have to deal with buying daytrip passes. But I'm not sure how much they cost. The cost (approximately) of adding more days is about $25 per day. Would a day trip cost less than that (average)?

So, bottom line, should I buy a bigger pass or more individual tickets? Any help would be greatly appreciate !!

[nitsansh]

Regardless of day trips, I doubt your initial 5 trips worth a 5 days pass of 249$.
Hard to determine since you don't specify a destination in Switzerland...
BTW... It might be cost-effective to cisit Nice BEFORE Switzerland.

[nicolew79]

We are visiting Gimmenwald, Switzerland.

I guess I am just confused. Are you suggesting that we forgo a pass altogether and buy only point-to-point tickets?

[Kim]

It would be a close one-I think I would price those trips at a total of around $280. Nit, can you give us a breakdown so we can see which is cheaper?

If it's the same price, go with the pass as you can use it for that whole day on the train rather than just for the trip. Sometimes, however, like Nit was mentioning-a rail pass isn't always the cheapest option.

In this case, I think it's going to be close!

Do you have an idea of daytrips you want to do? We can tell you if it will cost more than $25 if you give us where you would be leaving from and where you want to go from the day.

Kim

[nicolew79]

Thanks for the advice, I'd love to see a breakdown. I agree though, if it's close, I'd rather go with a pass - if for no other reason than convenience. There is a $10 insurance I was planning to get though...

As for daytrips, they might change, but we were thinking

Rome 2 Pompeii?
Florence?? 2 Pisa
Paris 2 Verseille
Paris 2 Givernie

or any other suggestions you may have for the cities we'll be visiting. We'll also be taking a day trip from London, but that won't be included in our pass obviously. But if someone could give us approximate prices, that would be great!!!

[nitsansh]

Check international fares on www.railsaver.com/railsaver.asp
For domestic fares, you better check Italian or French railway sites.
Rail fares in Italy, like Roma-Firenze, Roma-Napoli (for Pompeii), Firenze-Venezia, are in the 20-30 Euro range.
Important note: You pay a supplement for riding the Eurostar Italia (ES) with a rail pass, therefor check the IC train fares. Roma-Firenze, for example, is 22 Euro on IC or 30 Euro on ES.

Fares go higher in France or Switzerland. I would estimate each of 3 journeys in those countries is 60-80 Euro, so you would roughly break even with a Selectpass for these 5 journeys.
If you plan to go to Pisa, I suggest that you take a train from Rome, spend a few hours there, and move on to Firenze.
Versailles is accesible by the RER, Paris suburb train (line C from the Left Bank).