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Hi there,
My family of 3 is planning to visit Switzerland in mid July. We are going to Paris first then take a train to Basel. Here’s our rough itinerary, may I know if this is fine?
Day 1 Arrive in Basel, Switzerland via train from Paris. Tour around Basel
Day 2 Tour around Basel
Day 3 Head to Zurich
Day 4 Tour around Zurich
Day 5 Tour around Zurich
Day 6 Go to Mt. Pilatus
Day 7 Montreux/ Geneva
Day 8 Geneva
Day 9 Fribourg -> Zurich Airport
I have a few questions:
1. Do we need to get a swiss pass? We are considering to get a 4 days swiss pass but is unsure whether if is worth or not.
2. If we get the 4 days swiss pass and let say we valid it on the 5th of July to 9th of July, can we use the pass to get the 50% discount up the mountain on the 4th of July?
3. Is 3 days in Zurich too long?
4. I saw on the website there’s a ticket for Swiss Youth Pass for travelers under 26 years old. May I just check do we need to apply for anything? or we can just show our Passport/Identification pass?
5. Is the Swiss pass valid for SBB trains too?
Thank you for your kind assistance in advance! 🙂
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Hi Jellyy, welcome to MySwissAlps!
What are your interests? From your itinerary it seems that you’re looking for city trips, so in that case your plans are fine. If you’re after nature and mountains, Basel and Zurich are not the places to be. So it all depends on what your expectations are. Once that is clear, you can browse the various regions, towns and attractions, and plan your trip based on that.
Apart from the links above, I’d suggest to read the below pages. I think that will make clear how the various passes work.
http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isspass (the Swiss Youth Pass is a variant of the Swiss Pass)
http://www.myswissalps.com/sw issflexipass
http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass
http://www.raileurope.com.sg/ pass/swiss-pass (for prices in SGD)1) Please see the 3th link from the list.
2) No, a 4 day pass is only valid for 4 days.
3) There is plenty to do in and around Zurich for 3 days, but again, it depends on your interests.
4) You need to have your passport at hand while traveling, so that the train personnel can check if they want to.
5) Yes it is. The train type or operating company does not matter. See the Swiss Pass page above for where it is valid. You can best download the map for all details.
I hope this gets you started. If you have any questions left, feel free to ask!
Hi Arno,
Ohh I see! I will have a look at the links you provided. Thank you soo much! 🙂 Will post again if I have any other questions. Thank you once again! 🙂
Hi Arno,
Sorry, we made some changes to the itinerary. So now the revised itinerary is something like that:
I also did some calculations for the transport.
Day 1 Arrive in Zurich from Paris. Tour around Zurich
Day 2 Zurich City Tour (We are planning to buy the one day tourist city tour pass)
Day 3 Zurich to Rapperswil Town [Zurich ->Rapperswil CHF16.60]
Day 4 Zurich to Rhine Falls [Zurich->Scholoss Laufen CHF16.60]
Day 5 Head to Lucerne from Zurich. Tour around Lucerne [Zurich ->Lucerne CHF 24]
Day 6 Head to Mount Pilatus
Day 7 Lucerne to Montreux/Geneva [Lucerne ->Montreux CHF69]
Day 8 Geneva
Day 9 Fribourg -> Zurich Airport [Fribourg -> Zurich Airport CHF 60]
After I did some calcuations (not too sure if I calculated correctly or not), I found that actually the Swiss Half Fare Card is actually more worth it as compared to the swiss saver pass. (*Please kindly correct me if I am wrong :))
Anyway, I have a few questions for you again:
1. I understand that the Swiss Half Fare Card I can purchase from the following places http://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard/price. Must I purchase my tickets on SBB first? Will it be more convenient?
2. May I also purchase my train tickets on raileurope website? But how do I put the discounted price? I understand the SBB will give you the option to choose the half fare reduction but I don’t really see it on raileurope website.
3. For the Swiss Half Fare Card, there is a 50% off mountain transport, I will just like to confirm the trip up to Mount Pilatus is also included for the 50% right? Sorry, where can I purchase the tickets? On-site itself?
4. For SBB, the booking of tickets, I can make a booking for July as of now, am I right?
Thank you for your kind assistance and really sorry for this long post.
Thank you! 🙂
Hi Jellyy,
I didn’t check all prices but some are not correct I think. For example Zurich to Rapperswil is CHF 16.60 full price for a single trip. Return is CHF 33.20. The sample applies for the trip to the Rhine Falls. And I suppose that if you travel from Lucerne to Geneva, you want to go via the scenic Golden Pass line (CHF 73) and not the regular route (CHF 69). The outcome (Swiss Half Fare Card) is probably correct though. Note that the Swiss Pass also includes many free museums and free city transports (trams, etc.), so you don’t need to pay for that separately. I’m not sure if you have taken that into account.
1) You can purchase the Swiss Half Fare Card as explained on the page you mentioned. You can buy the tickets whenever you like. It does not matter if you buy the tickets first, or the card.
2) Rail Europe does not sell half prices tickets yet. You can get tickets locally at the stations. Seat reservations are not required so you can buy them at any time before boarding.
3) Sure, it’s included. You can download the map to what’s included. You can get tickets online or on the spot, as explained here.
4) Yes, you can. But as said, advanced reservation is not required.
Hopefully you can finalize your planning now 🙂
Hi Arno,
Thank you for your kind reply.
Oh haha thank you for checking, I forget to count in the return trip. I see, I will check out on the Golden Pass Line, and will definitely book that if there’s no more changes to our itinerary. 🙂 Oh, yes I am aware of that. Will do some calculations again, but as of now, we won’t be visiting alot of museums.
Alright, I have noted that and it’s definitely much clearer now.
Thank you for all your help! It surely helped me alot in my planning. 🙂
Thank you so much once again! Have a wonderful day ahead Arno! 😀
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