[Removed user]

20 June 2011 at 11:41:17 #804425

Hello!
We will be travelling in Switzerland in September for 9 days. I’ve been trying to figure which pass would be the best choice and have yet to make a decision. Below is our aproximate itinerary, I appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Arrive Zurich take train to Interlaken
We will be staying in Interlaken for 5 nights and doing some day trips. Ideas for these trips are:
Interlaken – Murren

Interlaken – Klein Scheidegg
Interlaken – Luzern
Leave Interlaken take train to Zermatt for 2 nights
While in Zermatt do the Mountain Glacier Palace trip
Leaving from Zermatt back to Zurich

We are staying a night in Zurich before heading back to the airport.
With the Swiss Card could this cover the trip from Zurich – Interlaken and then Zermatt – Zurich?
Would the Swiss Card make sense or the Swiss Saver as we are travelling most days. However I’m not sure the Swiss Saver covers the trains inthe Jungfrau / Berner Oberland region? In which case we’d end up paying the 50% fare anyway, plus the extra cost of the pass.

Appreciate your thoughts!

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[Annika]

21 June 2011 at 6:16:32 #833270

Hi jojodc1! The Swiss Card definitely makes sense for your itinerary. In fact, I think it’s the cheapest solution. It covers the journey Zurich-Interlaken and Zermatt-Zurich, and offers a 50% discount on remaining trips. A Swiss Saver Pass may turn out to be too expensive. Yes, you’ll be travelling each day, but many of these trips are relatively short and therefore not that expensive. Please note that none of the Swiss rail passes offers free mountain transportation, for example to the Jungfraujoch. A 25% discount applies to this trip with a Swiss Saver Pass and a 50% discount with a Swiss Card. The maps under the links ‘Overview of the network on which the… is valid’ on both the Swiss Pass and Swiss Card pages provide further details.

I hope this helps you decide! Best regards,

[Removed user]

24 June 2011 at 12:11:54 #833271

Thank you so much! I appreciate your thoughts 🙂

[Removed user]

24 June 2011 at 12:29:25 #833272

I’ve just worked out some pricing and I’m not sure the Swiss Card will be less expensive. These are the trips we would be taking at the half price rate:
Swiss Card 186 CHF (includes Zurich – Interlaken and Zermatt – Zurich)
Interlaken – Lauterbrunnen 14.4 CHF (2 round trip tickets)
Interlaken – Harder Kulm 28 CHF (including lunch ticket)
Interlaken – Murren 17.6 CHF
Murren – Schilthorn 37 CHF
Interlaken – Lucern 56 CHF
Interlaken – Zermatt 37.5 CHF
Zermatt – Gornergrat 39 CHF

This equals 415.5 CHF per person. We could get a SwissSaver 8 day pass at a rate of 652 CHF for 2 or 326 CHF each and this would cover all trains (understanding we would still have to pay extra for some of the mountain rail/cable car trips) Does this sound right or am I missing something? Also the half fare card may work out to less overall as well.

[Annika]

25 June 2011 at 6:17:27 #833273

Hi jojodc1! Thanks for listing your exact trips and the discounted prices. That helps a lot in calculating which pass is the right choice. It shows that a Swiss Card still is the cheapest option. According to my calculations, it’s cheaper than a Swiss Half Fare Card (looking at your inbound and outbound trips only, that is Zurich-Interlaken and Zermatt-Zurich: this costs CHF 186.00 with a Swiss Card and CHF 204.00 with a Swiss Half Fare Card, including the purchase of the Swiss Half Fare Card. For the other trips, there’s no difference, so the Swiss Card is more economical).

With an 8 day Swiss Saver Pass, the trips to Harder Kulm, Schilthorn and Gornergrat are discounted by 50% instead of for free. This makes a total of CHF 430.00 for the Swiss Saver Pass, versus CHF 415.50 for the Swiss Card. But a Swiss Saver Pass may be attractive to you for other reasons. If there’s a change in plans, it allows you to travel for free on any route train, bus or boat route. If you want to include one longer or slightly more expensive train trip, it may quickly be more cost effective than the Swiss Card. And you may like the idea of free travel in regular trains, allowing you to get on and off board without buying discounted tickets.