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You will not be taking Eurail to anywhere. Eurail is the name of a rail pass, not a train.

Be sure you know how and when your are traveling by checking schedules at bahn.de. Click the German flag at the top of the page to change language to English. You can check fares there for most of your trips within Germany and some of them to Switzerland.

Now for your plan.

Its the Eurostar train via the Chunnel to Paris.

You will probably take the TGV to Geneva.

Regional or EuroCity or ICE trains within Switzerland and Germany.

Eurostar is a highspeed railway connection between France/Belgium and London. Eurostar is a private company and not included in the Eurail Pass. Furthermore your Eurail Pass is not valid in the United Kingdom. However you can get a discount on Eurostar.

All fares are subject to availability and the Eurail Pass must be valid in either the country of departure or the country of arrival. In your case, your pass has to be valid for France. To find out the exact prices for your trip look at the Fares pages at Eurostar.com. This is the UK page, and works perfectly well for finding he best fares and schedules from the USA.

Some of the non-flexible fares are less than the passholder fare, so make sure you check what is available on your dates. For example Passholder fare is £57 while you can get a non flexible ticket for as low as £35. You need to book early for that fare, most fares can be purchased online. Passholder fares cannot be booked online. For telephone bookings call 011 44 8705 186 186.

For more advice click the "Railpasses" link at the top of this page.

Most efficient and cost effective are not always synonymous. London to Paris by bus -Eurolines- can be 42 Pounds or less. Paris to Geneva can by 9 Euro if bought in advance. Check www.eurolines.com for times, dates, etc.

Since the Eurail pass is not valid for the Chunnel Eurostar, it seems that you are considering a 5 day Eurail pass for 3 days of travel. Also, Eurail passes are only for 1st class, another waste of money in my opinion. 2nd class is perfectly adequate.

You should really check out point-point fares and compare prices. From Interlaken Ost to Munich, if you are willing to commit to a specific day and train well in advance, the Bahn sells Europa-Spezial Schweiz tickets for as little at €39 (less than $60) pP one way. These tickets are for express trains (IC/EC/ICE) in 2nd class and can be purchased online from over here and (usually) printed on your home printer.

I agree with Lee...check point to point ticket prices before buying a Eurail pass.

Others have given you good feedback on the transportation questions, so I'll just add this:

Munich's Octoberfest in 2010 runs September 18 to October 3. If all your travel is in October, you'll arrive too late. http://www.best-of-munich.com/oktoberfest/oktoberfest.html

Thanks, everyone.

Those suggestions are great.

My friend works for the Four Seasons Hotel and gets 10 free nights anywhere in the world every year. He has generously offered to let me tag along. Nothing like staying in 400-500 a night rooms. Oh, and did I mention food and drink are 50% so long as you order it IN the hotel? Huge savings right there.

Have you considered scaling your itinerary back a bit? That's a lot of traveling, and not a lot of time in each city. I've spent a week in Paris and still didn't get to see everything I wanted to.

Hi, Maureen:

Our trip is going to be planned around 3 days in Munich for Oktoberfest. Whether we start in Munich or end there is laregly inconsequential. My friend works for the Four Seasons Hotel and receives free nights in any FS anywhere in the world. If there are available dates open for the FS in London, Paris and Geneva, well then we'll go when the dates are open to us (employees get shut out if the hotel is already booked with paying customers.)

I have been dying to see Switzerland my whole life. I am embarrassed to say I'm 40 and have never been to Europe.

I understand your point about length of stay in each city, but with 5 diamond hotels available to us for free, with 50% off food and beverage, you gotta play the hand you're dealt.

The cities I listed are tentative (except Munich,) as we will not know until July which FS are open to us. I understand we are "squeezing" in a lot of cities one would normally dedicate 5-7 days to, but again, with free hotel and discounted food and drink, we're trying to see as much as we can.

Any comments or additional thoughts are welcome. Please chime in!

Something tells me that if your friend can get a free room at a Four Seasons hotel, he is probably subject to certain time restrictions. Oktoberfest is by far the most profitable time of the year for the hospitality industry in Germany, so I would be surprised if the Four Seasons would give away a free room during peak season. If your plans include Oktoberfest, I wouldn't rely on this plan for Munich. Rooms, much less discount rooms, can be difficult to get for this time unless you plan far in advanced.

Yes,, Tom is exactly right,, you will likely not get the free rooms for Octoberfest as that is mega busy high season.. YOu could just pay for a room in another less expensive hotel for Octoberfest,, especially since the rest of your stay is free, and maybe use the two free nights in Paris so you have 4 nights there.. or split it London 3 days, Paris 3 days. These cities really are worth at least 3 nights.

Note,, while the bus is the cheapest way to get from London to Paris ,, you will waste an entire day in tiring travel.. and the scenery won't be worth it. Taket the Eurostar.. rates can be great if you book in advance( 50 -70 euros) and its only 2.5 hours city center to city center.

There is no Four Seasons in Munich, which is why we are looking at London, Paris and Geneva (there is a FS in ALL of those cities - Paris has two.)

My friend books his Oktoberfest hotel every year well in advance.

So for the trip we have proposed, only Interlaken and Munich would be cities we'd be paying for hotels out-of-pocket.

John,

I really feel for you having to stay at the Four Seasons in all those different cities. If you need someone to "share the load," I'd be willing to offer to join you. I can even drive you to Logan, so you won't have to bother....

;)

John, don't see as much as you can. See as much as you can enjoy.

If you've been dying to see Switzerland your whole life, start in Switzerland. Fly into Geneva. Skip London and Paris. I'd rather you skip these two amazing cities and spend time in the places you truly want to visit.

Definitely look into point-to-point tickets.

John, I agree with the last person, skip London this time. You ought to be able to get a cheap ticket to London from the east coast, esp. during winter. Take advantage of places that wouldn't be as cheap to get to, like maybe Switz.