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Does the Jungfrau Travel Pass cover modes of transportation in the Jungfrau region (Muerren, Grindelwald, etc.) that are not already covered by the Swiss Travel Pass? We’ll be two nights in Zurich and 4 nights around Jungfrau so we’re trying to figure out if we need one or both passes. We are two adults and two children.
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Hi MS, and welcome to MySwissAlps!
>> Does the Jungfrau Travel Pass cover modes of transportation in the Jungfrau region (Muerren, Grindelwald, etc.) that are not already covered by the Swiss Travel Pass?
No. Everything covered by the Jungfrau Travel Pass is also covered by the Swiss Travel Pass. The difference between them is which routes are free and which are discounted (and the size of the discount).
You can use the validity maps to see the differences:
http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity
http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrautravelpass/valid ity
Another difference is what conditions apply to children. How old are your children?
>> We’ll be two nights in Zurich and 4 nights around Jungfrau so we’re trying to figure out if we need one or both passes. We are two adults and two children.
It is not usually cost-effective to get both a Swiss Travel Pass and a Jungfrau Travel Pass.
On the face of it, local public transport tickets for Zürich, point-to-point tickets to and from the Jungfrau Region and a Jungfrau Travel Pass would be a convenient choice if you are not doing day trips to other places from Zürich.
However, whether that is also the most economical choice cannot be certain without doing the sums. That means first planning your itinerary in detail, including all trips by train, bus, boat and cable car.
Then you need to look up the full-fare cost of all these planned trips and compare the total cost of separate tickets with the cost of doing the same trips with the Swiss Travel Pass, Jungfrau Travel Pass etc.
You can find fares in the Swiss Timetable.
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
(Use the timetable on the right with the red SBB logo)
It is important to be aware that the fare shown for any trip in the Swiss Timetable defaults to half fare, as most Swiss residents will have a Half-Fare travelcard which entitles them to this discount. Your calculations need to be based on full fares, which are double the default fare that comes up.
There is information and a spreadsheet here to help you:
http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass
Alpenrose
Alpenrose, thank you for your reply and all of the helpful info. In response to your question, our children are 9 and 11 years old. Does that make a difference for choosing one pass over the other?
Ya, I agree with Alpenrose — get the Jungfrau Travel Pass because with it all the trains and just about all of the cable cars/gondolas in the Jungfrau region are free, whereas with the Swiss rail pass you only get a discount on the cable cars/gondolas in the Jungfrau region.
>> our children are 9 and 11 years old. Does that make a difference for choosing one pass over the other?
- Swiss Travel Pass – when you buy your Swiss Travel Passes, you can order a free Swiss Family Card, which will provide free travel for your children, including on routes where the Swiss Travel Pass only provides a discount for adults.
http://www.myswissalps.com/sw issfamilycard
- Jungfrau Travel Pass – you will need to buy a pass for each of your children at a cost of CHF 30 each.
For your other trips that are not covered by the Jungfrau Travel Pass, I don’t think you can get a Swiss Family Card if you only buy point-to-point tickets for those trips, but I am not entirely sure. I hope someone else can give you better information about that.
The costs applying to your children are therefore another factor to take into account in your calculations, but it’s the overall result you need to consider, rather than one or two factors in isolation.
Alpenrose
I think the best option is the Jungfrau Pass PLUS the Swiss Half Fare Card. With Swiss Half Fare card you get the free Swiss Family Card, which allows the children to travel for free on all trains (I believe this also includes the train to Jungfraujoch!)
Happy travels
Yes Rosinbloom is correct. If you have the Swiss Family Card (free with Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Half Fare Card) the kids travel free anywhere in Switzerland.
Thought I would add some recent experience to these posts. Just returned from a week in Switzerland including 2 nights in Lauterbrunnen. I had a Swiss Travel Pass for my wife and for me. That covered the entire fare for the trains: Lauterbrunnen to Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg and from Murren to Grutschalp. It covered the entire fares for gondolas: Stechelberg to Gimmelwald to Murren to Schilthorn and back and Grutschalp to Lauterbrunnen.
However, the big gotcha in the Swiss Travel Pass in that area is the Jungfrau train from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe). The STP provides a discount of some amount but for 2 adults, the round-trip fare on that train was still $265. and that was for tickets purchased at the train station in Lauterbrunnen. We were committed to going so I paid up and decided to just enjoy the trip.
It turned out to be quite a trip. When we got to the top, there was a white-out blizzard blowing. Not what we were hoping for but an interesting experience nonetheless. More about the Jungfraujoch in another post to keep this one on topic.
Otherwise, the Swiss Travel Pass worked extremely well for the two of us. It also made it easy to make the last minute decision to go to Lauterbrunnen from Lucerne. And then from Lauterbrunnen to make our connection in Basel for the train to Frankfurt. The convenience of using it and having your choice of any train running (except the Jungfraujoch) was worth a lot. Upgrading from the 2nd Class STP to 1st Class seats for certain trains was also very easy and saved half of the fare difference. We even did that on the train a couple of times. And we also rode a number of trains, including the Bernina Express and Gotthard Panorama Express.
And a plug for the Swiss Rail Mobile App. It’s terrific. Easy to learn. Easy to find train times anywhere. Download it and play with it before you go.
Hi Handyman, thanks for responding.
One item, however, needs some clarification. According, to the STP validity map, the STP does not cover the entire fare from Wengen to KS, rather the STP merely provides a 25% discount when going from Wengen to KS.
Here is a link to the map: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity
Thanks,
My mistake. My conversation with the ticket agent led me to believe the high charge was for the KS to Jungfraujoch segment only. Thanks for your clarification.
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