Best Swiss rail card for trip

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    16 August 2014 at 19:56:07 #806580

    We are travelling in Switzerland for 8 days and are uncertain as to the best Rail card to buy – even after reading the online info. We travel from Geneva to Montreux by train, then the next day take the Golden Pass to Interlaken (have made reservations). En route to Gimmelwald where we stay for three nights we plan to go to Jungfraujoch via Lauterbrunnen as the weather forecast looks ideal. We will hike and use the cog trains and lifts in the Alps during our stay at Gimmelwald, after which we travel by train to a Lucerne for 2 nights then on to Zurich (1night) before flying on to Italy. I had considered buying the 8 day Swiss Pass (with a 10% companion discount) but wonder whether a 3 day Flexipass would suffice.

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    Annika
    Moderator
    7124 posts
    17 August 2014 at 9:16:12 #840855

    Hi Nallac56, welcome to MySwissAlps,

    The Swiss Flexi Pass does not seem like a good idea as it starts and ends with a free travel day but your first and last trip are short ones of just an hour, so you would not take maximum advantage of it. An 8-day Swiss Saver Pass (‘Saver’ is the 10% discount) would work well. To be sure it works out cheapest you can compare it with a Swiss Half Fare Card, although that would require you to buy tickets for each trip. How to compare is explained here. Make sure to include the discounts while you compare! They are available online only.

    By the way, if you change your itinerary in such a way that you end in the south of Switzerland, you could easily take the train to Italy instead of flying. I’m not sure where you’re headed, but Lugano to Rome for example is just 5 hours by train. A Swiss Pass covers traveling to the Swiss border for free.

    I hope this was useful!

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    17 August 2014 at 18:34:10 #840856

    Thanks Annika, we ended up purchasing an 8 day Swiss Saver Pass which I think will be fine. We are headed to Florence after Zurich and have already booked a flight however I can see the wisdom of your suggestions if we were not constrained in where we had to be next. Appreciate the help.

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