Scenic Trains for trip from Cham to Montreux Feb 2026

Use this page as a guide to reservations:

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

If you still have problems to book a reservation, then please mention route, date and departure time.

Please note that Cham exists in Germany and in Switzerland.

Reservations in Switzerland are only possible in some trains and are generally a waste of money.

In Germany, they're possible in the long-distance trains and can be worth it if it's for a longer journey or if you're with a group.

I never had a problem on that route finding seats.  (but i usually dont travel in the main season)

Travelling without reservation you are also completly flexible in maybe making a short stop on the way.

The website where you can make resevations for the Golden Pass Express between Interlaken Ost and Montreux has already been given above.  If the seat map shows a carriage with first class seats only move to a different one. Select Eurail Pass as available discount when entering traverllers’ detail for all travellers. A message that they do not need travel tickets will appear. Alternatively you may check the box I have already a ticket.

For Luzern - Interlaken go to https://www.zentralbahn.ch/en/experience/leisure/luzern-interlaken-express and click seat reservation or you go directly to https://shop.luzern.com/en/stories/luzern-interlaken-express. Right now there is a message saying: 

Due to maintenance work, there may be interruptions to the reservation system on Sunday, 11 January 2026. We appreciate your understanding.

Nevertheless you may continue, but you will not find any trains. So the reservation system does not seem to work. Try it later again.

When making seat reservations through Eurail, its asks for Passenger Details “Country and Town of Birth”. How do I answer this if I was born in South Africa but travelling on an Australian Passport?

We are travelling on the 19th February. I am confused about when reservations are not compulsory or compulsory…

It is not common that you need to give that information for just a reservation.

What reservation are you trying to make? (Route, date, departure time)

HI rvdborgt

I am booking another trip unrelated to the original topic. So booking is for Zug to Milano Centrale and then to Roma Termini

If you book that on trenitalia.com (one of the operators) then you only need to provide name, birthdate and e-mail. I guess you're trying to book via a third party who wants to know too much.

I tried booking directly with trenitalia but they want to charge me for the ticket as well as the seat reservation so I cant book it - total Euro226 but if I go on Eurail it is only US$144 - that is a big difference

Sorry, I jumped to the conclusion you wanted a regular ticket. No idea why my brain did that because you did write you were booking through Eurail…

Anyway, Eurail charge extra fees (€2 per person and train), so it's cheaper anyway to book elsewhere. In this case, I'd use raileurope.com. The price should be €13 per person and train. On Rail Europe, use "Add rail pass” and always set currency to euro to avoid their 5% mark-up for other currencies. You can do that at the top right.

Rail Europe need your name, pass number, e-mail and a billing address.

In general, this page lists the best options to book reservations for each country:

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

Booking reservations through Eurail is almost never advised.

I apologise for all the questions, but I am feeling really lost. I went to railuerope.com but cant see where I can add rail pass - it wants to sell me passes or tickets. I went into my profile added our names and contact details etc. But cant see anywhere to add my Eurail pass. I am really starting to feel stupid :-(

The Rail Europe website and their Android app have the option "Add rail pass”. The iOS app still hasn't.

Further update - I have managed to book through raileurope.com, but just as an update, they do charge a booking fee as well as fee to select seats. But I was happy to pay just so that it is finalised! 🤣

They should only charge a fee for selecting seats (you don't have to do that, but you can indeed). They should not be charging a booking fee for pass reservations. I never paid one, so how much did they charge?

The charged EU7.50

I can't reproduce that. I tried Zug to Rome for 6 people but still no booking fee.

Which exact trains did you book (date, departure times) and for how many people? What was the price without the booking fee?

It might be the case that for one of the trains you don't have a pass reservation but a regular ticket.

Edit: I was too fast. They seem to add the booking fee when you click on "Continue”, although in the first screen it clearly says the booking fee is 0. I don't think this is allowed, since the correct total price must be visible at all times during the booking process. They can't add unavoidable fees at a later stage.

You could ask a refund of the fee from them here:
https://www.raileurope.com/en-gb/contact/new

The fee can be avoided by adding the 2 trains to the basket separately.

This looks like a bug to me.

We only charge this fee once per order, no matter how many journeys you add. Learn more

Rail Europe order referenceXXXXXFCK

Total

€119.45

Booking fee

€7.45

1. Zug to Milan

   07:00 Mon 23 Feb 2026

   2 adults

    

   Second Class

   €26.00

2. Milan to Rome

   10:10 Mon 23 Feb 2026

   2 adults

    

   Standard Class	€26.00
   Selected seats (outbound) x 2	€4.00

3. Rome to Zug

   12:20 Thu 26 Feb 2026

   2 adults

    

   Standard Class, Second Class	€52.00
   Selected seats (inbound) x 2	€4.00

They don't for pass reservations, except, it seems, when you book 2 Italian trains in one journey. They  then illegally add a booking fee in a later step of the booking process, after having stated that the fee is €0.

Is this a quote from customer service?

I didn't get a quote,I just went on the website, added the pass, added the journeys I needed and when I saw the booking fee, by that stage I just couldn't be bothered as it had taken me 3hrs to get it sorted. Thanks for the info links you sent - I wouldn't be able to do it without you!

Now next step is to book Rome to Florence, then Florence to Milan and back to Cham. Then our Paris trip and from Paris to Amsterdam… Wish me luck!🤣😵

I contacted their online support and this is what they said: 

The booking fee you were charged is part of Rail Europe's pricing structure, which helps support their customer service and technology investments. As of 2025, these fees range from approximately $2.99 to $9.95, depending on the value of your train journey. It's important to note that this fee is applied once per cart at checkout, so if you booked multiple journeys together, you would only see the fee once. Additionally, the booking fee is non-refundable. If you have any further questions or concerns about your specific charge, I recommend reaching out to Rail Europe's customer support for clarification.

RE’s Customer service apparently doesn't understand what’s happening and only sent a boilerplate answer. Maybe they were triggered by the word "fee” and didn't read the question properly.