First time to Switzerland - 5 nights

Dear Swiss travel experts,

Please help us decide which is the best / most economical pass to get for our visit to Switzerland.
I'll be travelling with my boyfriend.

10th June - Travel from Milan to Lauterbrunnen (stay 4 nights)
14th June - Travel from Lauterbrunnen to Zurich (stay 1 night)
15th June - Catch early flight to Paris

We'd like to see the famous Swiss Alps. We're interested to hike, take the cable car / mountain lifts etc, see Jungfrau and those beautiful places near Lauterbrunnen.

Thank you in advance.

Hello Junch, and welcome! A Swiss Card is the best option for your travel plans. It provides a free trip from the Swiss border to your destination (Lauterbrunnen), and from your destination to the airport (Zurich). On all days in between, a 50% discount applies to nearly all trips you'd like to make. Many cable cars and mountain trains around Lauterbrunnen, including the train up to the Jungfraujoch, are included. More information and ordering options can be found at the Swiss Card page.

As for your inbound trip from Milan: with a Swiss Card, you would only need a regular Italian train ticket from Milano up to the border station at which the validity of your Swiss Card starts. Depending on the connection you choose, this will be either Domodossola or Chiasso. Details on all connections can be found in the Swiss timetable. From Domodossola or Chiasso, you can simply show your Swiss Card. Please note that seat reservations have to be made for the international train crossing the Italian-Swiss border. These can be made either before or after your Swiss Card purchase.

I hope this helps you decide! Best regards,

Thank you so much Annika for your help. I really appreciate it. I have been reading over and over about the passes and couldn't decide what was the best option. I was very confused.

I should mention also on the last day i.e. 15th June, we have airport shuttle from Hotel Fly Way in Kloten, we won't be usingy any other Swiss public transport.

My attempted on calculating the travelling cost using the sbb.ch website:

Milano Centrale - Lauterbrunnen
Via Spiez - Interlaken Ost
Fri, 10.06.11, 11:28 - 15:25
Duration: 03:57, 2x Change(s) 2 Adults, 2nd Class
Refund or exchange not possible Total 84CHF.

LAUTERBRUNNEN - ZÜRICH HB
via INTERLAKEN OST - BERN - OLTEN
2nd Class One-way 144.40 CHF for 2 persons.

The above travel will total up 228CHF for two of us.

I don't know the cost of cable car, lifts around Lauterbrunnen, mountain rail to Jungfrau, so I couldn't work out the math. From Lauterbrunnen, the train ticket to Murren or Wengen are not expensive.
We will also spend some time hiking. So, i'm not sure how useful is the Swiss card discount, as each card is AUD209. Paying AUD418 for 2 person for 5 nights (~ 3.5 full days holiday) in Switzerland is extremely expensive.

Can u please tell me how much are the cable cars tickets / rail to the mountain top?
Thank you again in helping me with my questions.

Hi Junch. I found the following regular, non-discounted prices:

- Domodossola > Lauterbrunnen CHF 59.20 OR Chiasso > Lauterbrunnen CHF 103.20. Please note that you shouldn't draw the Italian leg of the journey into your calculations, as this is not covered by any Swiss rail pass. So in order to find out which pass is best for your stay in Switzerland, you should only look into the trips you make within Switzerland.
- Lauterbrunnen > Zurich Airport CHF 76.20 per person.

This means that your inbound and outbound trip will cost CHF 135.40 (when entering via Domodossola) or CHF 179.40 (via Chiasso) per person. The Swiss Card costs CHF 186 per person. Let's say that you'll enter via Domodossola. This would mean that the price difference between the Swiss Card and regular tickets is still CHF 186.00-135.40 = CHF 50.60. As the Swiss Card grants a 50% discount on further trips you'll be making, you'd have to make trips worth CHF 50.60*2 = CHF 101.20 for the Swiss Card to become cost effective. And you'll easily travel for such an amount. For example: just the return trip up to the Jungfraujoch costs CHF 165.80 per person from Lauterbrunnen. So even if all you'd be doing was the Jungfraujoch trip, the Swiss Card would be cheaper than buying regular tickets. Although two Swiss Cards may appear to cost a lot, they will actually save you lots of money.

Prices for most mountain trains and cable cars in the Lauterbrunnen regio can be found at the Jungfrau railways website. More information on how to make calculations is available in our FAQ. Does this clear things up for you?

Annika has provided a very thorough and well-researched response (as usual). I'd just like to throw my 2 cents in. If you want to get "up in the Alps" that means you want to get up above Wengen and Mürren (weather permitting). (As you note, trips as far as Wengen and Mürren are not all that expensive.) That means areas like Kleine Scheidegg, Jungfraujoch, Schynige Platte, the Schilthorn, etc. These are very expensive trips, as Annika has noted. You will be way ahead by buying the Swiss Card and getting half off.

Thank you so much Annika once again for clarifying my questions and did the math for me. U are awesome! Yes i'll get the Swiss Card ;-) Cheers~!! I'll recommend this website to anyone who is traveling to Switzerland. Annika is so helpful!

Hi Annika,

We have received our swiss cards and now in Milan.
We will be taking trenitalia to Domodossola from Milan on 10th June.
Can you please tell us how do we reserve seats from Domodossola to Lauterbrunnen?
We have tried the SBB website many times - there is no selection for the Swiss Card to reserve seats.

Please help. Thank you very much.

Kind regards.

Hi Junch,

99% of the trains does not require seat reservations. It sounds like your train crossing the border might be a local train that does not require them as well. But you can best check the timetable to see if your particular train requires them. If so, you can buy them at the Milan rail station. Or you pick "GA" (meaning free traveling, just like the Swiss Card) when ordering online.

Enjoy the ride!

Thanks for your reply, Arno.

From the SBB time table website, we will be connecting as below:
Domodossola - Brig - Spiez - Interlaken Ost - Lauterbrunnen.

Do we que in each of the station to get a ticket for seats using our swiss card?
Or can we just hop into each connecting train without tickets?

Hi Junch,

The Swiss Card is your ticket; you don't need other tickets for your inbound and outbound trip.

Thank you very much for your help ;-)