2 days near Zurich: pass that covers all travels?
A traveler is visiting Switzerland from late February to early April, planning a diverse itinerary that includes stays in Luzern, St Moritz, Zermatt, Wengen, and Zurich. They seek advice on rail tickets and passes, particularly wanting to make the most of their Swiss Half Fare Card and Saver Day Pass for multiple trips while being flexible with local transport options.
- Purchase the Swiss Half Fare Card and plan to use it efficiently during your stay.
- Consider buying a Saver Day Pass for CHF 29 for maximum flexibility if planning multiple trips in one day.
- Check out the Z-Pass OSTWIND-ZVV for day travel options encompassing both buses and trains in Zurich's zones.
- Book long-distance tickets in advance to secure the best fares, especially for cross-border travel.
AI-generated summary-
We will be visiting Switzerland between February 26 and April 4 and staying at Luzern for 6 nights, St Moritz and Zermatt for 7 nights each, Wengen for 14 nights and then Zurich for 3 nights before travelling to Strasbourg. Thanks for the advice I’ve received here in other threads I have posted which have helped with our planning. I have been buying Saver Day Passes for all of our long trips travelling between each place we’re staying at and we have saved a lot compared with buying Point to point tickets. We will buy a Half Fare card from 04 March (the day we travel from Luzern to St Moritz) to 03 April and also plan to buy the Tell Pass for Luzern, the Graubunden Pass – 5 in 14 days in St Moritz and the Top of Europe 8 day Winter Pass for our stay in Wengen. I have also purchased Saver Day Passes for a couple of the days we will be in Zermatt and Wengen to allow us to do some longer day trips, like a trip to Montreux from Wengen. Since the Tell Pass doesn’t offer a discount with the HFC we will pay full fare from Zurich Airport to Luzern on the day we arrive and use the Tell Pass while in Luzern and then start the HFC from 04 March. Since it only has one month validity we will be covered until 03 April, our last full day in Zurich. We will travel from Zurich to Strasbourg on 04 April and have to pay full fare for the Zurich to Basel portion of the trip to Strasbourg. I think we are making the best use of the HFC, Saver Day Passes and the other passes we will buy for the length of our trip.
On this trip we will have two full days to explore Zurich and surrounding areas. We usually always stay in the mountain areas like Wengen, St Moritz, Zermatt and Luzern but now that we are retired we have more time on this trip to stay longer than usual and also to see around Zurich. I’ve been looking at boat trips on Lake Zurich and also a train trip to Schaffhausen to visit the Rhine Falls. I was thinking of buying a 2nd class Saver Day Pass for CHF 29 if I buy it on the day it’s released later this week. I’ve been looking at fares for boat trip and also at the rail trip from Zurich to Schaffhausen.
I see that for the boat trip Zürich Bürkliplatz (See) – Zürich Bürkliplatz (See) 1hr25 round trip via See a ZVV 2 hour ticket would be CHF 4.40 for 2nd class and CHF 8.80 for 24 hours. An all zones ticket would be CHF 8.60 for 2 hours and CHF 17.20 for 24 hours.
For the train trip to Schaffhausen the one way fares are showing as: Z-Pass OSTWIND-ZVV Individual Ticket 9 Zones, Half-Fare Travelcard CHF 11.60 (valid 2 hours) and Z-Pass OSTWIND-ZVV Individual Ticket All Zones, Half-Fare Travelcard is CHF 13 (valid 3 hours).
If we did both the train and boat trip on the same day I can see that it may be worth buying a Saver Day pass for CHF 29. Since the ZVV boat tickets are available for 24 hours, is there also a ZVV rail ticket that would allow us to travel to Schaffhausen and has a 24 hour validity, and would that include buses around Zurich as well? Is there a pass that covers boat, train and bus trips?
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Hi Koz!
Good to hear you’ve figured out pretty much all you need in terms of train tickets and passes. That must have been complex, but you’re almost there!
So if I’m understanding things correctly, you’ll still have a valid Swiss Half Fare Card for the last days in Zurich. It think these are your options:
- If you’re pretty sure you’ll be making somewhat longer trips, a discounted Saver Day Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass/price) makes sense.
- Yes, there is a Z-Pass OSTWIND-ZVV day pass for several zones (the 9-day variant would be CHF 23.20 with your Swiss Half Fare Card), or for all zones (CHF 27.80 with your Swiss Half Fare Card). See http://www.zpass.ch/zpass/de/abos-und-billette/billette/ostwind-zvv/tageskarten-und-tageswahlkarten.html. The day passes are valid for all transport modes in the indicated zones: http://www.zpass.ch/zpass/de/abos-und-billette/zonen/zonenplaene.html.
Thanks Arno! Yes I will still have the Half Fare Card for the days in Zurich. If I can buy a Swiss Saver Pass for CHF 29 on the day it is released I’ll do that since it’s not much more than the CHF 27.80 for the all zone Z-Pass and it gives us more flexibility if we want to travel a bit further away as well.
A ‘cheapest’ Saver Day Pass is unlikely to be bettered by a complicated combination of tariff zone passes IMO
I agree koz. If you can get a Saver Day Pass at that rate, it’s a very sensible choice for your plans.
What a wonderful trip. Enjoy!
Thanks everyone! I purchased Saver Day Passes for CHF 29 each for one of our days in Zurich as soon as the release of tickets for 02 April were available earlier today.
Now we just have to buy tickets from Zurich to Strasbourg so I think we’ll wait until we arrive in Switzerland as I have my profile in my Swiss Pass account set for Half Fare Card and we won’t still have the HFC on the day we travel Zurich-Basel-Strasbourg.
You should book Basel – Paris as soon as possible for the cheapest fare , and buy a short hop Zurich – Basel at 1/2 price now. When purchasing a Swiss ticket you do not have to prove you have a Swiss Half Fare Card, you just need to make sure you have it on the day you eventually travel.
We don’t need to travel Basel – Paris. The Basel – Strasbourg trip goes via Mulhouse and Colmar and shows on the timetable as around 1hr20. I will be buying a Half Fare Card to start on March 4 so the last day of validity will be April 3, our last full day in Zurich. I will have to pay full fare for the trip from Zurich to Strasbourg on April 4.
a typo on my part
The other way from Zurich to Strasbourg is via the legendary Black Forest railway, one of the most scenic main line railways in Europe.
Route would be:
Zurich – Schaffhausen (past the Rhein Falls) – Singen (change)
Singen – Triberg – Offenburg (change)
Offenburg – Strasbourg
use bahn.com to se if you can get the cheap German tickets via that route
Hi Koz,
If you are coming from or going to Germany, please have a look at this page, you might find useful information: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/germany. You can also check the prices for the train ticket here: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/germany/price.
Ildiko
Thank you 1960man and Ildiko for the information about travelling via the Black Forest Railway and about German trains. We will book to travel on this route instead of through Basel as we originally planned.
Yes – whisper it carefully – but I am going to break the rules (after 4746 posts I think I’m entitled…!) and let everyone know that the Black Forest Railway (Schwarzwaldbahn) is as ‘spectacular’ as Swiss railways, and it has two loops with the line at three different heights, just like the most famous bit of the Gotthard railway!
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzwaldbahn_(Baden)#/media/Datei:Doppelschleifen_der_Schwarzwaldbahn_bei_Triberg.png
Ooh, busted ;-)! Of course it’s no problem to talk about activities in surrounding countries. As long as it’s not entire threads discussing non-Switzerland topics, that’s fine.
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