MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 2-week hike France + 8 days Lauterbrunnen/Zurich
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We will be arriving in Geneva the first week of September. We (husband and me) need to get to Chamonix to start our 2 week hike in the Alps. I am planning to take the train from Geneva to Chamonix. After 2 weeks we end our hike in Nice. From Nice we are flying to Basel. Our hotel is in Lauterbrunnen. If I am looking at train routes correctly I think I can get from Basel to Lauterbrunnen by train. We will be in Lauterbrunnen for 4-5 days and I would like to use that location as my “hub” to travel to other locations via train. After Lauterbrunnen we would like to take the train to Zurich and stay there for a few days before flying home. In a nutshell it looks like we will be doing about 8-9 days of train travel over 1 month. I am not sure which pass would be the best purchase for my husband and me. I definitely want to do a boat tour while in Zurich. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to compare just buying single tickets for each adventure or purchasing one of the different passes offered.
Please and Thank you. d
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Hi Purplemidwif, thanks for joining MySwissAlps!
That sounds like a great trip. Swiss rail passes won’t be useful for your hiking days in France and for the train ride Geneva-Chamonix. You can get regular tickets for that: https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/france. So when choosing a rail pass, you can best focus on the 2nd part of your holiday in Lauterbrunnen and Zurich.
There are several options:
- An 8-day Swiss Travel Pass. You’ll get free train, bus and boat travel (including boats on Lake Zurich: https://www.myswissalps.com/boatlakezurich) and free city transportation. Mountain trips are discounted. It’s a very easy option, that allows you to travel flexibly and change your plans on the move. You can read all about it at https://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass. If there’s a 9th day, you can cover this with regular tickets (https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/switzerland) or a Saver Day Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass).
- A Swiss Half Fare Card. This allows you to buy 50% discounted tickets for pretty much all train, bus, boat and mountain rides. You’ll have to buy tickets in advance for each trip, so it’s less flexible. Please see https://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard for details.
- Regional passes for Lauterbrunnen and Zurich. You can consider a Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland (https://www.myswissalps.com/regionalpassberneseoberland) or a Jungfrau Travel Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/jungfrautravelpass) for your days in Lauterbrunnen, plus a Zurich Card (https://www.myswissalps.com/zurich/travel) for your stay in Zurich. You’ll need additional full-fare tickets for the rides outside the validity areas of these passes.
You can’t really go wrong with an educated guess. You’ll save money compared to buying full-fare tickets with any of these options. If you want to run complete calculations, this step-by-step guide with downloads may be helpful: https://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass.
Yes, you can reach Lauterbrunnen by train from Basel. Nearly all Swiss towns and spots can be reached with the excellent Swiss public transport system. Here’s how it works: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/howtotravel. I recommend the advanced timetable at https://www.myswissalps.com/timetable to plan your trips.
I hope these suggestions get you started.
Oh my. Thank you. Looks like I better start reading.
d
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