Best rail pass and any suggestions

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 March 2015 at 6:08:39 #807008

    We will be travelling in Switzerland for 1 week in September and would like to know if the flexi swiss pass is our best option. Should we get a 3 day pass for when we’re travelling between towns or should we get a 5 day pass to include the cog railways at Mt Pilatus and Zermatt?

    our itinerary is:

    Lucerne – 2 days (include Mt. Pilatus round trip)

    Lucerne to Montreux (Golden Pass)

    Montreux – 2 days

    Montreux to Zermatt (Glacier express? Or other scenic train)

    Zermatt – 2 days (include Matterhorn cog railway)

    Zermatt to Geneva

    Geneva – 1 day

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    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    23 March 2015 at 10:56:52 #842112

    Hi Colette,

    I would say that either an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass, or a Swiss Half Fare Card is the best choice. The linked pages explain about all the details of these passes. Also check the Price and Discount section of those pages, as the online prices of passes are currently much lower than when purchased in Switzerland.

    A Swiss Travel Pass Flex is the most expensive option in many cases. Just a pass for the town to town trips means you have to pay the full price for the relatively expensive cogwheel trains. You can get a Combi variant of the pass in order to get discounts on the other days too, but I would not expect that option to be cheaper than the other two I mentioned above. If you want to calculate in detail, you can do so as explained here.

    Does this help?

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 March 2015 at 11:38:33 #842113

    Very helpful, thankyou.

    Would we be able to use the pass from Frieburg, Germany to Lucerne? We will be travelling from Germany to Switzerland.

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    23 March 2015 at 12:23:00 #842114

    Do you mean Freiburg? The Swiss leg from Basel to Lucerne is included. You need a ticket for Freiburg – Basel. In your case, being based in Australia, you can get the ticket here, along with either of the passes we discussed.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 March 2015 at 20:54:25 #842115

    Thanks.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    4 April 2015 at 1:47:41 #842116

    Does that mean I have to change trains at Basel?

    If not, where would I validate my Swiss Travel Pass?

    Annika
    Moderator
    7104 posts
    4 April 2015 at 7:22:04 #842117

    Hi Colette,

    Whether you need to change in Basel depends on your travel date and time (see the timetable), not on the tickets/passes you’ll be traveling with. But in most cases you indeed need to change there.

    You can validate your pass in Basel, but you can also let the train staff of the train from Germany to Switzerland do this for you. That way you don’t loose time and can either stay seated in Basel or continue to your next train right away.

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