What’s the title of your trip? It does not show in your post and it’s hard to guess what the issues are. Assuming you aren’t doing much travel in Spain, you simply buy a ticket for the Spanish portion of your trip. Paris to Irun, Spain either does not show a border crossing or shows Hendeye, France (6 minutes from Irun) as the crossing. I think Irun is considered a “border city” for France. Since your pass covers France, you can travel to Irun on it. I would check this for sure at the station in Paris. The ticket from the border to Irun will only cost a few euros in any case — cheaper than adding another country to the railpass. I assume the 4 day railpass assumes you’ll buy a point to point ticket for the cheapest ticket in Italy — probably cheaper than adding another day to the railpass.

This forum is a bunch of fellow travelers answering questions — all volunteers. The railpasses are sold by a travel agency who kindly foots some of the bill for the forum. You should use their “contact us” information for questions about their specific services. However, there are some general answers to your questions, since the travel agencies that sell railpasses all pretty much work the same way…

2. Buy your reservation at the train station in Europe. Inflated charges for the reservation, handling fees and shipping will at least double the cost of reservations if you buy them from a travel agency. Some travel agencies that sell rail passes also sell reservations and point to point tickets but in almost every case it is not worth the additional cost to purchase them in advance from these sources.
3. Your railpass will be shipped to you via a secure shipment, probably UPS or FedEx. Someone will have to sign for the delivery.

More questions, We have not actually bought the rail pass as I was not sure if it was the right pass for us. We are 3 traveling. Your answers helped and I see why the planner suggested the France-Italy pass to be used to Irun then we buy city to city passes. We are traveling May 22 to June 10th this year.

1. The train schedule I chose says to pre book seating. Is it better to be done at the terminal as we want to sit together? Would that need to be done at each terminal if we are not prebooked? I noticed that times are close from one train to the next so seat reservations at each terminal may be a problem. Can someone give me more input to this?

2. We want to travel during the day to see the country. Is a rail pass good for all trains that are on the Eurail system? If we are traveling through Switzerland and make a stop at Geneve only to continue on to Paris. Is that considered another country of the France-Paris Flex pass? So, can we still choose the trains passing in that direction on that pass?

3. Is a 15min stop to change to a different train allowing us time to get out with luggage and make the other train?

Thank YOU

1. You ask for a reservation for the whole trip at the train station. It may be a single reservation, or it may be two or more reservations if there are connections involved — however I don’t see that your route would normally involve any connections. Where are you finding schedules and why are you choosing routings that involve connections? You can prebook if you want to spend the extra money, but I’d wait.
2. The pass is good for the specific countries listed on the pass. Stopping in Switzerland isn’t really the issue. The issue is that you’re traveling in Switzerland. If you travel in Switzerland you will either need a pass that covers Switzerland or you’ll need to buy a ticket for the portion of your trip that’s in Switzerland. Your itinerary doesn’t show anything that goes anywhere near Switzerland, so the trip planner would not assume you need a pass that covers Switzerland.
3. 15 minutes would be considered a fairly long connection, 5 to 10 minutes is the norm. Unless you’re going someplace fairly obscure your trains should be near each other. As for luggage, the issue is how much. You need to be able to carry (not wheel) all your gear and have a free hand to get off and on the trains. If you need a luggage cart, I’d figure 30 minutes to find one (assuming you’re in a major city where they actually have a few) and then 10 minutes to get to your next train. As a recall, about 3 of the thousands of train stations in Europe have porters.
4. You trip is pretty rushed. I would visit Segovia as a day trip from Madrid, as opposed to staying there. I would look for cheap flights from Florence to Paris and Paris to Madrid. Overnight trains would be another option. Your trip over the border to see the inside of the Geneva train station is a serious time waster.
5. I’d seriously look at point to point tickets for Italy. It’s easy to buy a ticket (with reservation if needed) from the automated kiosk, but you almost always have to wait in line in Italy to buy “just a reservation” to use with a railpass. Avoid multiple lines by buying all your reservations for trains in Italy at once.

We are wanting to see the interior of Europe that is why we chose the train and not to go overnight. First timers you know! The flex pass sounded simple as we can purchase ahead and have it sent to our home prior to our trip.

If we have to wait in a line to reserve does it still cost to reserve a seat? Are you saying that when we are in Venice we can reserve all our seats for the whole trip; Italy, France and Spain?

Our luggage should not be a problem with just one medium size suitcase for each of us and a small backpack. No need for a cart but they do have wheels.

More about our trip from Florence to Paris. I am using Eurail to find schedules. One connection goes from 11am to 10pm via Milan. The other goes 8am to 5pm via Geneva. There is no direct that I could find during the day.

Our plans are to go to Segovia as a day trip. Guess I did not post that correctly.

Thanks for your advise you are very helpful.

Reservations are required for some trains and usually cost 4 or 5 euros, but some of the fancy trains in Spain and Italy require reservations that cost up to 19 Euros. Most trains actually don’t require reservations and some don’t use reservations at all. However, the express trains between major cities usually do. I don’t know what you mean when you refer to “eurail” as the place you’re finding schedules. Is that eurail.com? That’s just one of many travel agencies that sell railpasses. It probably only lists a small percent of the available trains. If it’s the the paper schedule that comes with the railpass it only lists a handful of trains. Use the German national rail company website http://reiseauskunft… for schedules anywhere in Europe. Use the individual national rail company websites (links are in a sticky at the top of this forum and under “transportation” on the “travel tips” tab) to check pricing and buy point to point tickets.

You can probably go through Geneva and connect there as a “border city” without adding Switzerland to your railpass, however I would never do the 10 hour+ Florence/Paris route with 3 to 5 connections on a day train. Look for a cheap flight or take the overnight train with a single connection in Milan. You may want to buy a ticket from Florence to Milan to avoid using 2 days of the railpass.