Booking Trains in Europe

Travelling around Europe on a Eurail Pass is definitely cool, but it also requires more than a little planning if you want to maintain any sort of schedule. With the family of four on the trip I want to have reservations for trains and lodging along the way, but this creates some flexibility challenges since we are fixing a lot of dates.

Very helpful in determining specific train times and schedules is the magnificent German train website Bahn.com . Another site with Europe-wide schedules is Austrian Rail. However even with these powerful tools it's tricky to match up the more frequent trains in and out of Chur and Lugano with with the Alps magnificent Bernina Express, which itself is not a simple single line but basically goes between Chur / Davos / or St Moritz Switzerland to Tirano, Italy and then on in summer by bus to Lugano, Italy. Confused? Here's the Bernina Express site. This is one of the world's great train rides and it's included in the Eurail Pass.

Note: Eurail Pass has helped to sponsor of our European family blogging adventure. Thanks Eurail Pass!

Bernina Express, Switzerland

Switzerland's Bernina Express is one of the world's great train adventures, and we'll be riding these rails in mid June on the family's European Rail Adventure. I'm very excited about this part of our trip as the Bernina Express is one of the world's great train trips. Photo Credit Viator.com

The "express" does not refer to speed, rather to the fact you have the same seat for a fairly long trip through the Alps, traversing them north to south or south to north from Switzerland to Italy. Two lines on this Bernina express route are a designated World Heritage Site.

Wikipedia's Bernina Express page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernina_Express

Summer 2010 Eurail pass Instructions from the Rhätische Bahn, which runs the Bernina Express and other train lines in Switzerland:

Can purchase tickets and reservations for Bernina Express and Bus at http://www.rhb.ch/reservation .

You will be given a "dossier number". With the dossier number you can pick up the travel documents at any train station in Switzerland.

Note: If you do not pick up the tickets/ reservations your total fee will be charged.
General terms of contract are onine here a the Rhätische Bahn website www.rhb.ch/GTC

The Bus from Tirano to Lugano is included in the Eurail pass but you must make a reservation in advance.
You can make reservation for Bus and train in advance without holding the Eurail pass.

One can change the reservation dates (not clear if there is a fee for this or not). Rhätische Bahn said the most important thing is always to inform them of the travel plans and changes to avoid problems.

Rhätische Bahn: http://www.rhb.ch

International Travelers: http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/

100 years of the Bernina Line www.mybernina.ch

Please note: Eurail Pass is a sponsor of our great European Train Adventure.