Combining Berner Oberland Pass & Swiss Travel Pass

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    2 April 2018 at 4:34:00 #815097

    I have been doing a lot of reading and crunching numbers and would like some help to make sure I’m going in the right direction. This will be our first trip to Switzerland. We will be travelling from Venice to Luzern by train at the beginning of July. We will spend 3 nights in Luzern. We plan to do a boat tour and Riggi or Pilatus. From Luzern we are headed to Lauterbrunnen for a week. Our plan is to take day trips up to Murren, Wengen, Mannlichen, Jungfraugoch, etc. to do hiking and just enjoy the area. We would likely go up to Interlaken or Thun one day for a boat and castle tour, and St. Beatus Caves. After Lauterbrunnen we will head to Zurich to fly home.

    We have three adults and 2 children (2 parents, one grandparent). I see three options – the 15 day Swiss Rail Pass for each of the adults, the 3 day Swiss Rail Pass for the adults and then the 8 day Berner Oberland Pass, or just the 8 day Berner Oberland Pass which also requires child pass.

    1) Since we want to do so many non-train (cable cars/funiculars/boats/etc), I’m assuming the Eurail pass is not the best option, even with the 15% group saver rate? Am I correct to be ignoring this option?

    2) How much is covered by the Swiss Rail Pass once we get past Interlaken? It looks like the train to Lauterbrunnen and transport up to the Murren side are covered, but less so on the Wengen side? If the Swiss Rail Pass doesn’t cover what we need in that region then the Bern Oberland Pass makes more sense, so any advice is appreciated.

    3) Am I reading correctly that the Swiss Family Card doesn’t work in that area, and we need to buy the $30 CHF child pass even if we have the 15 day Swiss Pass? “The Junior-Card, Children’s Co-Travelcard and the STS Family Card are not valid.”

    4) Lastly, I read the page on this site about the difference between 2nd and 1st class being small. For a family, is there any benefit to paying more for first class that makes it worth it?

    Thank you!

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    rockoyster
    Participant
    8889 posts
    2 April 2018 at 5:05:50 #880684

    Hello Chuck and Welcome to MySwissAlps,

    1. That is a fair assumption.

    2. Have you seen the map you can download at http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity

    3. The Swiss Family Card works with the Swiss Travel Pass, not with the regional passes though they do have small CHF30 charge for kids. You might also want to look at the Jungfrau Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrautravelpass) and http://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/jungfrau-travel-pass/.

    4. The difference in accommodation is not great the difference in price is quite a bit. With a 2nd class pass you can always upgrade to first for half the difference between a 1st and 2nd class fare on any specific trip.

    Which is the best pass? Based on your itinerary you need to do the sums based on the cost of all your planned trips on trains, boats, cable cars etc. You can use the Swiss Train Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) to work out the fares for any trip. When you go to buy a ticket the fare you see on the right hand side of the page will normally be the half-fare price. Double it to get full fare.

    You should read “How to choose the best travel pass” (http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass), download the handy spreadsheet calculator and do the math.

    Have you considered the Gotthard Panorama Express (http://www.myswissalps.com/go tthardpanoramaexpress) on your way from Venice? Would probably need an overnight in Lugano but it’s a great trip.

    Happy travels.

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