[ioana]

20 February 2019 at 12:49:42 #820015

Hello,

We are planning our summer vacation, part of which will be in Switzerland. We are traveling by car , and our first stop will be Lucerne. From there we are going to Tasch/Zermatt (on the 10th of august). Could you pelase tell me which route is better? The one going through Andermatt, Furka pass/ tunnel or the one through Kandersteg, Lotschberg tunnel?

If going through Andermatt , is it faster to take the car train through the tunnel, or take the Furka Pass? I mean, are there long waiting lines to get in the car train?

Is 3 hours from Luzern to Tasch a reliable time frame? We would like to first visit the Transport Museum in Lucerne, then leave for Tasch and arrive there no later than 19:30.

Thank you very much,

Ioana

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[Arno]

20 February 2019 at 18:52:50 #904611

Hi Ioana,

I think the most straightforward route in summer would be Lucerne – Brünigpass – Meiringen – Grimselpass – Oberwald – Brig – Visp – Täsch. Andermatt is not on that route, nor is a car train. I would count on 4 hours with a short break here and there.

Another one, about the same distance and time, is Lucerne – Brünigpass – Meiringen – Interlaken – Spiez – Lötschberg car train – Visp – Täsch. This one is better if you like to try a car train and/or are not keen on driving passes. There is still mountain driving involved, but less so.

These pages provide more details:

• http://www.myswissalps.com/ca r
• http://www.myswissalps.com/ca r/cartrains (waiting lines vary a lot by date and time, I haven’t heard of anything extreme so far)
• http://www.myswissalps.com/mu seumoftransport
• http://www.myswissalps.com/ze rmatt

[ioana]

21 February 2019 at 18:33:29 #904612

Hi Arno,

Thank you very much for your answer. Now that I saw it on the map, it looks like the best route . When I searched online for driving distances, only the 2 routes that I mentioned appeared. I figure it’s because they are open all year , as opposed to the one through Grimselpass, which is only opened in the summer. So I will take in consideration 4 hours, which means we can only stay at the museum until 15-15:30. Last year we visited Techorama in Winterthur and we stayed from opening till closing time, we would have stayed more if we could. The transport Museum looks like another all day museum, so hopefully we can make ourselves leave early.

I have another question, which is not related to this subject, please let me know if I need to ask this in another post.

I noticed that there is a Half Fare Card for foreigners, for 1 month. I read on its page that children from 6 to 16 travel for free with a Family Card and this Family Card is free. Is this correct? Is this Family Card available for foreigners also? We will use the Half Fare Card in Luzern area as well as in Zermatt area, but for Luzern we wanted to combine it with a Tellpass for 3 or 4 days. Is it correct to assume that by having that Family Card, when buying the Tellpasses, we don’t need to buy the passes for our 2 children, for 30chf each?

Thank you again for all your help,

Ioana

[Arno]

22 February 2019 at 15:12:43 #904613

Hi Ioana,

Sure, no problem. The Swiss Half Fare Card is specifically for tourists, and indeed the children up to 15 travel for free. You’ll find all details here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard.

The Swiss Family Card works with the Swiss Half Fare Card or Swiss Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass), not with the Tell-Pass unfortunately. If the adults travel on a Tell-Pass then the children need the child version of that pass: http://www.myswissalps.com/te llpass.

[ioana]

22 February 2019 at 21:55:53 #904614

I understand now, thank you very much. I don’t know why I was so convinced that the Half Fare card was for residents only. I did the math again and it appears that the most economic way is to only buy two Half Fare Cards, along with a Family Card, no Tell Pass or any other pass.

[Arno]

24 February 2019 at 15:28:59 #904615

Yes, that makes sense. Often just one card/pass is sufficient. You can find purchase options here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard/price.

There is a card with a slightly different name (Half-Fare travelcard) for an entire year that is primarily but not exclusively for residents. Perhaps you read about that somewhere.