Berner Oberlund and Swiss Transportation

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Mar 25, 2011 - 8:08 PM

Help! The more I read about the different rail passes in Switzerland the more confused I get. I will be traveling to Switzerland with my husband in September and I am trying to decide what is the most economical rail pass to buy. Our itinerary is as follows:

Day 1: Land in Zurich and travel to Werner (home base).
Days 2,3 and 4: Various hiking and sightseeing adventures hopefully taking us up to Jungfrau and Schilthorn.
Day 5: Travel to Munich.
Days 6, 7 sightsee in Munich area
Day 8: return home.

I really appreciate any help anyone has. Feel free to comment on anything, but I really need help with the transportation. Have read many of Kim11's posts and find them very helpful. I have planned my hikes around her suggestion for fairly easy half-day hikes. Thanks

Annika

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Mar 26, 2011 - 5:54 AM

Hello mmp1021! I see you've created a new topic, as Kim suggested. I understand your confusion, but I hope we're able to help you out. I just answered some of your questions in the other topic, but I'll paste and copy my answer here as well:

I think you're best off with a Swiss Half Fare Card. Your stay in Switzerland is too short to really profit from other passes, such as the Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland or the Jungfrau Railways pass. Both are valid for 7 or 6 days, and you'd have to be travelling very extensively to make this an economical solution. The Swiss Half Fare Card is relatively cheap and offers a 50% discount on almost all trips in Switzerland. The timetable helps you plan your trips, including the journey to Munich. The German part of your trip can best be covered by regular tickets. The Munich City Tour Card may come in handy as well. I hope this gets you started!

Be sure to check this:
All Swiss rail passes How to choose a pass?

Last modified on Nov 1, 2018 - 4:17 PM by Arno

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Mar 26, 2011 - 3:38 PM

Thank you so much. I want to be as prepared as I can so I can just enjoy the country when I get there

kim11

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Mar 28, 2011 - 5:38 PM

Hi mmp1021,

Yes, Half Fare Card is your best bet.

For travel to Munich from Wengen we have found that the most economical approach is to book a ticket from Wengen to Lindau, which is the border station. The HFC will enable you to buy this ticket for half price.

For travel from Lindau to Munich, buy a Bavaria Ticket Partner Ticket. Read about the Bavaria Ticket and restrictions (such as no ICE/EC trains, no big deal) at http://www.bahnland-bayern.de/tickets/bayern-ticket

This gets the two of you (and up to 3 other adults if you pick up friends along the way!) from Lindau to Munich for only 29€. Once you arrive in Munich you can also use it for free travel the rest of the day, up to 3:00 am the next morning. Quite a deal. If you are sure of your travel day (Bavaria Tickets are non-refundable) I'd buy one on line at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Be sure to select "local transport only" to enable the Bavaria Ticket choice to show up. Also be sure to enter 2 adults, if you leave it at 1 (the default) the partner version of the Bavaria Ticket doesn't show up. Then, with Bavaria Ticket in hand, I believe the train staff at Wengen can arrange the whole route (Wengen to Munich) for you. If you don't buy it on line you will need to get off the train in Lindau and buy it there.

Send me a PM if this is confusing. I have a 20+ page document of travel tips, excursions, restaurant recommendations, etc in Munich area based on my 15+ trips there. There is a whole section on train travel, including Bavaria ticket, but I can't clip and paste that whole section here because the formatting gets screwed up.

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