3 weeks Geneva-Bernese Oberland-Ticino-Zermatt: best rail pass
A traveler is planning a three-week trip to Switzerland, arriving in Geneva on September 22, 2024, and seeking advice on the best transportation passes. They consider options like the Swiss Travel Pass and other combinations to cover numerous destinations, including the Bernese Highlands, Lucerne, and Zermatt. They want to maximize savings while ensuring all transportation needs are met.
- Consider a combination of Swiss Half Fare Cards, Berner Oberland Pass, and Saver Day Passes to save costs on transportation.
- Purchase your Saver Day Passes as soon as your plans are confirmed for better prices.
- Don't forget to book seat reservations for the Glacier Express in advance, as they can sell out quickly.
- For Zermatt, a Peak Pass may be a good option if you're planning multiple mountain excursions, ensuring you cover all necessary transportation.
AI-generated summary-
First of all, thank you for having such a wonderful community and wealth of information. Typically, I’ve planned my itineraries alone for decades, but sometimes things can get a bit messy, and some guidance and feedback is necessary.
We have a trip to Switzerland, arriving in Geneva on September 22nd, 2024, and departing Geneva on October 14. (Give or take approximately four weeks.) At first, we thought about purchasing the Swiss Travel Pass (Flexible 1st Class, along with the BOP to cover our days in the Bernese Highlands, Bern and possible trip to Lucerne.) Given that most hotels provide transportation passes for their region, our next thought was to purchase Swiss Half Fare Cards + BOP, Saver Day Passes. I believe our hotel package in Murren, provides passes to cover the trip all the way to Schilthorn, so the last portion cost of Eigergletscher to Jungfraujoch, would be all we’d need to cover in terms of mountain transport in the Bernese Highlands. We do need to purchase tickets for our panoramic trains though in 1st class. As of now, we may have 4 or 5 of these trains. The rest can be 2nd class or we can upgrade as needed.
Which pass or combination of passes makes most sense to save the most possible on this journey?
Our itinerary is as follows:
Vaud Canton
September 21-22: Flight from US to GVA
September 22: Geneva (Visits a few spots and landmarks best we can during early afternoon through evening.)
September 23-27: Stay in Lavaux (Contemplating Vevey.) Visit Lausanne, Chexbres, Grandvoux, Pidoux, Vevey, Montreux, visit wineries, Lavaux Express, etc.
September 26: Train to Gruyeres, and back to hotel in Lavaux.
Bernese Highlands – September 27 through October 6, 2024.
September 27: Depart Montreux on Golden Pass to Interlaken OST, Harder Klum. Stay in Interlaken area.
September 28: Spiez and Thun.
September 29: Bern & Basel
September 30: Check-Out of Interlaken and move to Lautenbrunnen Hotel, Schynige Platte.
October 1: Jungfraujoch, Fallboden Lake, Männlichen.
October 2: Brienz, Brienzer Rothorn, Aare Gorge, Giessbach, Iseltwald, etc. (Given recent events, this day’s itinerary is pending.)
October 3: Open to split October 2 if needed.
October 4: Check-Out of Lautenbrunnen Hotel, and check-in Murren. Staubach, Murrenbachfalle, Gimmewald, Schilthorn.
October 5: Grindelwald First, OUTDOOR, Cliff Walk, Bachalpsee (if time permits.)
Lucerne
October 6: Depart from Interlaken OST to Luzern. Explorer old town, and take Grand Lake Cruise.
October 7: Zurich, Lindt Chocolate Museum, Rhine Falls.
October 8: Mount Pilatus and Titlis or either. (Pending.)
Ticino Canton: Lugano & Lombardy Region: Lake Como
October 9: Check-Out of Lucerne Hotel and train to Lugano. Bus to Menaggio, Lake Como, Bellagio. Return to Lugano, and spend late afternoon/evening. This day is pending as we add another night to Lucerne.
October 10: Early bus to Menaggio, Bus to Villa Del Balbianello, return to Lugano, pick up luggage, and train to Andermatt.
October 10: Late Afternoon – Take Glacier Express from Andermatt to St. Moritz in the afternoon, Check-in hotel in St. Moritz for overnight.
Valais Canton: Zermatt
October 11: Check-Out of St. Moritz Hotel, Glacier Express Excellence Class to Zermatt, Bahnhofstrasse.
October 12: Gornergrat, Rotenboden, Riffelsee, Chez Vrony for dinner.
October 13: Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, continue exploring town and relax. Prepare for early morning departure to GVA.
October 14: Take early train from Zermatt to Visp to GVA.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I’ve left out many of the daily activities, but mostly boats, walks and some museums.
-
I meant to state our travel range to be “three weeks” and not four on the second paragraph. Also, Brienzer Rothorn is no longer part of our itinerary for the given day.
Hi BlueStreak00,
Welcome to MySwissAlps.
Thanks for sharing your travel plans. What a great selection of places and activities. Your trip will be amazing.
In regard to the best pass or passes. You have researched well your options. The only way to be sure is to carry out some calculations. At a glance it could be the combination of the Swiss Half Fare Cards, Berner Oberland Pass and Saver Day Passes could be the way forward. Though given the coverage, for convenience, the Swiss Travel Pass is an option too. We have a section to assist travellers when trying to work out which pass to purchase. Feel free to take a look. There is also a downloadable spreadsheet you can use for calculations, thereon based on daily activities, the best pass will be displayed:
If you do end up opting with Saver Day Passes, do purchase these soon, once your plans are confirmed. Th earlier you buy them, the cheaper they tend to be. There are some trusted online purchase options here:
One suggestion, if you have not done so already, I would recommend you lock in and purchase your seat reservations for the Glacier Express. Seat reservations are independent of the travel ticket or pass and they can sell out. You can always purchase your pass or ticket later on. All explained in our Glacier Express guide here:
I hope this gets you started.
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Blue Streak, Yolanda has given you some excellent advice.
I will add to it as we are doing a very, very similar trip, but in reverse. We start late September in Varenna in Lake Como, Bernina Express to St. Moritz, Excellence Class on the Glacier Express also to Zermatt. A few days in Zermatt then a week in Wengen. Ours finishes the opposite of yours with six nights in the Montreux/Geneva area.
I spent literally hours with a spreadsheet but it has worked out well worth the time. I put in every possible trip we would be likely to do, and plan to do, weather permitting. For us a Swiss Travel Pass would be very expensive, because we would need more than the 15 days.
By far the best option, since we want to travel first class, is to get the Half Fare Card (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/swiss-half-fare-card/), then the six day BO Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/berner-oberland-pass/) in first class. I have already purchased three first class Saver Day Passes (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/saver-day-pass/) for our longer journeys (Glacier Express, Zermatt to Wengen, and Wengen to Montreux on the GoldenPass Express), and will just use the HF Card for trips in the Montreux area.
Our St. Moritz hotel gives us a card with free use of all the gondolas etc. in that region which is wonderful.
I really encourage you to spend the time with a spreadsheet, nothing in Switzerland is very cheap as I am sure you realise and the money you could save can be spent on other wonderful things on your holiday.
Thank you for this information Yolanda! I was hoping to respond sooner.
We ended up extending our journey from 3 to 6 weeks. Truth be told, there was no way to cover many of the areas we were both looking to visit (Neuchatel, St Gallen, Appenzell, Ticino Region, and Lombardy Region in Italy, and we definitely don’t like rush. We ended up with 10-Day Oberland Passes, Half Fare Cards, and most 1st Class Saver Day Passes for Switzerland, maybe one or two 2nd Class Saver Day passes as well for 80% of our trip. Most of the hotels are covering basic transport, but given we are venturing out of zones on some of these days, along with mountain journeys we still need to purchase passes for Luzern and Zermatt. We are now looking at whether it’s worth obtaining a Tell Passes for Luzern (mountain journeys) and Peak Pass for Zermatt.
For Luzern, only two days will be dedicated to mountain journeys. (Rigi, Titlis, Pilatus and Stanserhorn.) We are debating to squeezing in Mount Pilatus and Stanserhorn on the same day with Pilatus in the early morning. The following day, we are looking into doing Titlis on its own or looking into possibilities of Rigi and Titlis on the same day, but this one day does not seem very realistic given transportation times, etc?
On the day we check out from Luzern, and head to Andermatt in the morning, we were considering doing the boat from Luzern to Fluelen, and then taking a connecting train from Fluelen to Andermatt arriving a couple of hours in advance for the first late afternoon Glacier Express to St. Moritz journey. We understand that with a First Saver Day Pass, you should be able to board the boat in the morning without reservations, just like a train journey, but we have a strong tendency of wanting to pre-book and reserving our spots. Given the drastic increase of travel lately, things are not as they were many years ago, and most places we’ve frequented over the last few years have had drastic surges with crowds and in some occasions, have not been very pleasant.
We don’t see a way to purchase a boat ticket or any ticket using a Saver Day Pass online specifically, which is important for us with transportation. Am I overlooking something or is there a way to actually reserve these rides using Saver Day Passes online? Do we need to select the option of “Swiss Travel Pass” instead being that Saver Day Passes are equivalent to them even though we are not using Swiss Travel Passes?
For Zermatt, we would be doing mountain journeys on two days.
On the first day we would be doing the first early visit to Gornegrat, hiking down to Riffelsee, and further to Riffelberg to catch the train to Zermatt again. We would then head back up to Sunnega, spend some time Baluherd, Rothorn before heading back down to Sunnega and walking down to Chez Vrony. We’ve set our reservations for lunch at 3:00pm. We don’t have a need to go back to Zermatt half way through the day, but don’t know if it’s possibly to go from Riffelberg to Sunnega, and if it makes sense to hike that or if a transportation system works in between?
On the second day, we’re looking to head to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise in the early morning, Schwarzsee, and see if we can fit Testa Grigia as well during the early or mid afternoon.
Given the information above, what is your take on the possibilities? Would you suggest doing things a bit different, and would the passes mentioned (Tell Pass and Peak Passes) makes sense for only two mountain days at each location?
Hello Bluestreak
Luzern Mountain Excursions
I would suggest that on one day you pair Stanserhorn (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/stanserhorn/) and Titlis (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/titlis/), and on the other day you pair Pilatus (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/pilatus/) and Rigi (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/rigi/). The bottom station for the Stanserhorn is at Stans, and the bottom station for Titlis is at Engelberg. They are both on the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg railway line.
The bottom station of the cog-wheel railway up Pilatus is at Alpachstad. The bottom station of one of the lines up Rigi is at Vitznau. Both Alpnachstad and Vitznau are situated on Lake Luzern. So you could incorporate a boat ride into this trip.
Boat Reservations are not necessary and are usually not possible! In my experience the Luzern shipping company puts its largest boats on the runs it expects to be the busiest.
Luzern to St Moritz via Andermatt Yes, get a First Class day saver pass. You will only need a reservation for the Glacier Express leg of you journey. But note that in October it is going to be dark by about 19 00 (7 pm) at the latest. The last Glacier Express from Andermatt is at 15 54. The train does not get to St Moritz until 21 00 (9 pm). So on this run you will see nothing of the spectacular UNESCO world heritage site Albula Line railway.
KInd regards
Roger
Hi Roger,
Thanks so much! It makes sense to go about dividing the mountain dates accordingly to proximity as you stated. In Zermatt, we plan to head up to Gornergrat via Railway, but hiking to Riffelsee, and then continue the hike down to Riffelberg, to catch the train back to Zermatt. I want to assume that we wouldn’t be purchasing round trip tickets for this journey since we are not taking the train back down from Gornergrat correct? Or does a round trip ticket allow you to catch the train back down from Riffelberg as well?
We have a 3:00pm lunch at Chez Vrony, but before heading there we would like to have some time to head up to Blauherd, and Rothorn after Gornergrat. Is there a direct way to get from Riffelberg to Sunnega or even Blauherd, without having to come back down to Zermatt, and back up?
Hello Again Bluestreak
I am a great lover of the ride up the Gornergrat. I rate it the best in the Alps, and certainly the best ‘value for money’ in the Alps
However, because of my age all my rides are straight up, two-three hours at the top, and then back down again to Zermatt I cannot answer any of your ‘specialist’ questions regarding this fantastic trip, other than to say that i suspect you should buy a Peak2Peak pass to cover your two days in Zermatt.
I am hoping that other members of this forum will be able to help you with your Zermatt questions.
Best wishes
Roger
Hi Bluestreak,
You can hike from Riffelalp to Sunnegga. The distance is about 7km. You can get further information about the trail here: https://www.myswissalps.com/blog/hike-riffelalp-sunnegga/
Taking the cogwheel train down to Zermatt would be faster and more convenient. The Sunnegga base station is just a short walk from the Gornergrat base station and the with the funicular, it only takes 10 mins to reach Sunnegga. You can find information about Sunnegga here: https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/sunnegga-rothorn/
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Anna
Hello Anna,
Thanks again! I think we’ll stick with the second option. As it turns out, Sunnegg to Rothorn transportation is closed during our visit, so our day plans will be a bit shorter. (Bit of a bummer.)
We have purchased our Half Fare Cards, Saver Day Passes and Berner Oberland Passes online and have mobile tickets/bar codes available for scanning as needed or proof only. Is this going to be a problem on our trip where a physical card may be asked for? For Zermatt, I’m reading that some places require physical cards or passes and mobile phone bar codes are not accepted. Is this so?
We are thinking of purchasing Peak Passes for Zermatt if this pass will facilitate all of the transportation costs we will need when visiting the location mentioned in Zermatt( Gornergrat, Sunnegg), plus all journeys to Glacier Paradise and Testa Grigia. If so, when trying to purchase these Peak Passes, we are being asked for an “Acquisition Type”, to select from, and the options presented are: 1) Load skipass into SwissPass, 2) Pick up skipass on site, 3) Load skipass onto keycard.
We don’t have actual cards for any of these options so unsure how this would work unless I’m missing something. I’m also, understanding that Peak Pass discounts are provided to those with Half Fare Cards, but when trying to purchase them, the option to select “half-fare” discount is unavailable in the drop down.
Are we supposed to be ordering physical Swiss Pass Cards to have all of these purchases loaded on to them?
Hi Anna,
UPDATE: I’ve confused myself further, and everyone else with my previous message. I’m now understanding that while being a visitor to Switzerland, I won’t be needing a “Swiss Card” which is completely different from the Swiss Travel Pass. Nevertheless, this Swiss Card seems to be very convenient as you don’t have to look for separate barcodes for all kinds of passes each time you board each method of transportation and may not have to present a passport or identification, etc., each time as well. (Truth be told, things are much easier when there is only one card required to show during your entire journey.) I don’t know if this Swiss Pass is applicable for us at all being tourists, but at this point, if it’s possible to obtain, I don’t think it would hurt us.
I do need help with the Peak Pass questions though as it seems the email delivery of the pass is not feasible, the half fare card isn’t available to select from, and I’m understanding a physical pass may be required?
Again, my sincere apologies for the confusion my last message may have cost.
Hi Anna,
I think I’ve just solved my pending dilemma with the Peak Pass. We’ll be picking the physical cards up across the train station. The reason behind my confusion with this pass was based on the unavailable “Half Fare Card”or similiar terminology option to select from in the website’s drop-down selection menu. The Gornergrat.ch website publishes the Half Fare Card category as “Halbtax/GA” according to their explanation which wasn’t a phrase I was very clear with. We went ahead with the selection and were able to go through with the purchase of the Peak Passes with the discounts.
If you try to purchase the Peak Passes through the Matterhorn Glacier website instead, you won’t be able to get a half-fare deduction at all as the site mentions that “half-are discounts” only apply when purchasing the passes in person. Why one website allows it and the other one doesn’t beats me, but nevertheless, we can close this chapter.
Thank you so much for your time in providing me with great pointers and answers to questions.
This post is resolved.
Kind regards,
Alberto
Hi Alberto,
I’m happy you managed to find the workaround. Yes, there are several names for the half-fare card so it can get a little confusing. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
In case you need a little more info about the Swiss Pass vs Swiss Travel Pass, you can have a read here: https://www.myswissalps.com/travel/tickets/residents/
Regards,
Anna
- The thread ‘3 weeks Geneva-Bernese Oberland-Ticino-Zermatt: best rail pass’ is closed to new replies.
