Amsterdam – Paris – Switzerland – Italy by train: what it costs

Prices last checked: 27 October 2026 · One adult, 2nd class · Travel dates 17–28 November 2026

Result: the route has six travel days and seven trains, five of which need a reservation (about €104 in total with a pass). The deciding fare is Paris → Zurich on TGV Lyria, which we could not read. Using the cheapest fares we found on the other trains, a 2nd-class Global Pass beats tickets only if that Lyria ticket would cost you more than €191. Using flexible or standard fares, the threshold drops to €106. Check the Lyria price for your date, then decide.

The route

Day 1: Amsterdam → Paris by Eurostar, 3 hours 27 minutes direct. Three nights in Paris.
Day 4: Paris → Zurich by TGV Lyria. DB's planner shows a direct train at 10:22, arriving 14:26 on Fri, 20 Nov 2026.
Day 6: Day trip Zurich → Lucerne and back.
Day 8: Zurich → Milan on a EuroCity, 3 hours 17 minutes (EuroCity 15, 09:33–12:50).
Day 10: Milan → Florence by Frecciarossa, under 2 hours (09:10–11:04).
Day 12: Florence → Rome by Frecciarossa, about 1½ hours (09:14–10:49). Fly home from Rome.

Every train, its fare and its reservation

Fares read on eurostar.com and trenitalia.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2026 for the dates shown. SBB fare in francs converted at 0.94312 CHF per euro (SNB, September 2026). Reservation fee: top of Interrail's range for that train (Lyria €25–€29, EuroCity Switzerland–Italy €13–€17).
Day	Journey	Ticket, low	Ticket, high	Reservation with a pass
1	Amsterdam → Paris, Eurostar Tue, 17 Nov 2026: all trains from €65 to €99 Standard	€65	€99	€32
4	Paris → Zurich, TGV Lyria fare could not be read, see below	not verified	not verified	€29
6	Zurich → Lucerne, SBB CHF 27 fixed fare	€28.63	€28.63	none
6	Lucerne → Zurich, SBB same day, no extra travel day	€28.63	€28.63	none
8	Zurich → Milan, EuroCity Tue, 24 Nov 2026: EuroCity 15, 09:33 Smart2 €84.50, Standard €91; cheapest EuroCity that day €33.50 (EuroCity 27 at 18:33)	€33.50	€91	€17
10	Milan → Florence, Frecciarossa 9583, 09:10 Thu, 26 Nov 2026: Base €56 on Frecciarossa 9583, 09:10; cheapest direct Frecciarossa €43.90	€43.90	€56	€13
12	Florence → Rome, Frecciarossa 9515, 09:14 Sat, 28 Nov 2026: Super Economy €29.90, Economy €39.90, Base €50; cheapest direct €23.90	€23.90	€50	€13

Without Paris → Zurich, the tickets add up to €223.56 with the low fares and €353.26 with the high ones.

Pass or tickets, depending on the Lyria fare

For three possible Lyria fares, here is the cheapest way to cover the whole trip. The pass options include every reservation; the calculator also tries leaving cheap days (such as the Lucerne day trip) off the pass and buying tickets for them.

If Paris → Zurich costs	Tickets, low fares	Best pass, low fares	Tickets, high fares	Best pass, high fares
€50	€273.56	€396.76 Italy Pass, 3 days in 1 month	€403.26	€443 Global Pass, 5 days in 1 month
€100	€323.56	€414.40 Global Pass, 4 days in 1 month	€453.26	€459 Global Pass, 5 days in 1 month
€150	€373.56	€414.40 Global Pass, 4 days in 1 month	€503.26	€459 Global Pass, 5 days in 1 month

How the best pass is made up when Lyria costs €100: with the low fares, Global Pass, 4 days in 1 month €283 + Reservations €74 + Tickets for 2 journeys left off the pass €57.40; with the high fares, Global Pass, 5 days in 1 month €318 + Reservations €91 + Tickets for 1 journey left off the pass €50. The calculator puts the dearest days on the pass and buys the cheapest legs as tickets when that costs less than a pass day plus its reservation. The 5-day Global Plus Pass would include the Eurostar, Lyria and EuroCity reservations with its three credits and the Frecciarossa seats at no credit cost; here it comes to €440.90 (low fares) and €467 (high fares), more than the best standard pass, because the reservations it saves are worth less than its extra price.

Why we could not price Paris → Zurich

TGV Lyria is sold by SNCF Connect and by Lyria's own site. SNCF Connect answered our browser with an error page (HTTP 403), Lyria's site did not finish loading, and DB's planner lists the train without a price. We did not try to get around those blocks. Check the fare for your date on sncf-connect.com or tgv-lyria.com and enter it in the calculator, which opens with this trip loaded.

What changes the answer

Booking late. Eurostar fares on our date ranged from €65 to €99; on Trenitalia the Economy fares had already sold out on some trains three weeks out. Closer to the date, ticket prices rise and the pass wins.
Age. With a youth pass (12–27) the pass gets about 25% cheaper, but Trenitalia and others also sell youth fares, so recheck both sides.
More travel. Add a day trip from Zurich to Interlaken or Lucerne to Lugano and the extra days are on a pass you already own, at no extra cost on a Continuous pass or €31.50 per extra day from 5 to 7 days.
Where you live. A Dutch resident can still use the pass for Amsterdam → Paris, as the one outbound journey from home. Someone living in Switzerland or Italy would use up their home-country allowance on this route.
Avoiding reservations. Interrail suggests regional trains via Chiasso to reach Milan without the EuroCity fee. That saves €17 but costs time.

Not included

City transport in Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Florence and Rome, airport transfers, and the Interrail booking fee of €2 per reservation (switch it on in the calculator). Pass benefits, such as discounts on Swiss lake boats and mountain railways, are not counted either; see Interrail in Switzerland.

Sources

Every price and rule above was checked against these official pages on 2026-10-27. If something has changed, the operator's page is right and we are wrong. Please tell us.