Hi!

Im planning to travel to Europe with my girlfriend in September. I know that well arrive in Paris the 8th of September, and were planning to stay 5 days there, and then we have 4 weeks to travel through Europe.

So Ive been reading a lot about the Eurail Pass and theres a lot of negative opinions, so now Im thinking it would be best to buy tickets point to point. Our plan is to go from Paris to Rome, stopping in some places like Lyon, Nice, Florence, Venice, etc. to stay for the night or just a couple of hours depending of the length of the train ride. Then we want to go to Greece, stay a couple of days in Athens and a couple of islands. After this, were not sure, but were thinking of going back to Italy and then from there to Switzerland and Germany, depending of the time we have left and the money. We want to spend at most around 1500 USD in transportation each, if its possible (not counting the flight from Chile to Paris).

My question is, what would be the best way to buy the train tickets? Ive been reading seat61.com and he makes everything sound so easy, but for example, it says that going to Niza from Paris can cost as low as 25 euros, but I went to loco2.com, searched for tickets 3 months in advance (around 4th of May) and I can only find tickets for around 100 euros, nothing cheaper, but if I search for next week, I can find tickets around 30 euros. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a cheapest day of the week to travel? Shouldnt prices be cheaper 3 months in advance?

I cant seem to find any cheap prices, and buying the Eurail pass is starting to look like a good idea after all, but all the weird reservation system bums me out and kind of defeats the purpose of the pass in my opinion.

Any help would be very appreciated! Also any advice on the return trip from Greece, because I honestly dont know anything about Eastern Europe and maybe that would be a better option than going back to Italy.

Thanks!