Bern, Lake Geneva area with Swiss Half Fare Card

Hi,

I will be holding a HFC, on one particular day, I will be travelling from Bern to montreux chillon castle and then to vevey. I hope to do a boat trip in between. I have checked that a boat trip from montreux to chillon castle, it takes only 15 minutes, cost chf5 for HFC. If boat taken from chillon castle to vevey marche it took 1h15m, cost chf15. Is a 15 minutes boat trip good enough or should we go for the 1h15m trip? If 15min is good enough, would prefer that so we can have an additional hour exploring vevey before heading back to bern.

I have also saw this particular offer www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/day-trips/enjoyment.popup. angebotdetail.tagesaus fluege-plausch-kulturwissen-schloss_chillon.html. Is this offer applicable to our route? If yes, can we buy this offer at zurich airport or bern station?

Thank you very much.

Hi ocolocorch,

15 minutes isn't much, but enough to have experienced the lake just a bit. Whether it's enough is up to you. I prefer longer boat trips but I understand you're trying to fit a lot into one day.

The offer you mentioned indeed qualifies for a discount as mentioned here. If you click the Prices tab on the page you found you'll see the discounted price under "1/2" (half fare).

Thanks Arno,

I realised there are no boats in winter. As a result, I will be taking the combo offer from bern to chillon castle station via rail. Since I will be getting a return ticket from Bern to chillon station, can i choose to depart from montreux or vevey back to bern, or must i depart at my arrival station which is chillon station?

I hope to explore vevey after the chillon castle and go back from vevey rather than come back to chillon and depart from chillon to bern.

Thanks.

Hi again,

I'm not sure of your exact travel date, but indeed boat services are limited in winter. They just run on Sundays on that part of the lake. You can find the timetable through the link on myswissalps.com/ boatlakegeneva.

You'll pass through Montreux and Vevey anyway on your way back, so it's no problem to get off the train there and board another one later that day.

Hi Arno,

Thanks for your reply. So does that mean that with the return ticket from bern to chillon train station, i can alight at montreux and explore montreux for a few hours, and later travel to vevey and explore for some time before i depart at vevey to bern finally? The ticket allows us unlimited exits between the stations?

Absolutely. A return ticket basically allows you to travel from point A to B and back to A on the day printed on the ticket. Whether you get off the train along the way does not matter. Just note that you can complete the route only once. It's not like a pass for unlimited rides.

Wow! Thanks Arno, m so glad to know that!