Swiss Half Fare Card price, coverage, how it works

What is the Swiss Half Fare Card?

The Swiss Half Fare Card is a travel pass for tourists. It allows you to buy 50% discounted tickets for nearly all trips in Switzerland during one month. Details:

• You'll get a 50% discount on standard ticket fares for trains, buses, boats and cable cars in Switzerland.
• The card is valid for one month.
• It works for 1st and 2nd class tickets.
• Children travel for free.
• For a day of unlimited traveling, you can buy an additional Saver Day Pass or Day Pass.

The Swiss Half Fare Card is the right choice if:

• you have planned just a few or relatively short trips. You'll save money as the regular fare is more expensive. For frequent and longer trips you'd better consider the Swiss Travel Pass.
• you don't mind buying tickets for each trip.

When and how we use Swiss Half Fare Cards

We pick the Swiss Half Fare Card for about 10% of our Swiss holidays. Since we travel by public transport a lot, the Swiss Travel Pass is often better for us.

With the Swiss Half Fare Card, we spend more time on planning, both before and during our stay:

• About 2 months before our departure, we decide if we need Saver Day Passes in addition to the Swiss Half Fare Cards. We buy those as early as we can.
• While in Switzerland, we map out our journey for the next day. We then buy discounted tickets the evening or morning before departure. We always check if Supersaver tickets are available.

We feel less flexible than with a Swiss Travel Pass. The additional tickets are date-specific, and sometimes time- or route-specific. So we can’t easily adjust our plans the last minute. But this is worth it if the Swiss Half Fare Card is by far the cheaper option.

How many other travelers decide for the Swiss Half Fare Card

Other tourists like the Swiss Half Fare Card, but they like the Swiss Travel Pass better. Please see the train pass buying statistics.