Group travel : Please suggest best passes

Hello,

We are a group of 9 travelling to switzerland for the first time on a 2 day trip . We have booked out tickets from Paris to Zurich and would be proceeding straight to Lucerne where we have an accomodation booked. We have little idea about the passes and are on a budget trip. We need to travel to Lucerne from Zurich and back .Apart from sightseeing in Lucerne We plan to visit Mt Titlis for sure and Mt Rigi / Mt Pilatus if time permits. Kindly suggest a pass which would be best suited for our travel. We would be travelling togather as a group at all times.

Regards

Koshy

Hello Koshy! There are two options:

• purchase a Swiss Half Fare Card for each member of the group. It costs CHF 99.00 per person and grants a 50% discount on all trips you want to make. Urban transportation in Lucerne is included too. You could save about CHF 20.00 compared to buying regular tickets. For example: the total fare (per person and in 2nd class) for the return trips Zurich Airport-Lucerne, Lucerne-Engelberg-Titlis and Lucerne-Pilatus would be CHF 232.00. The total fare with a Swiss Half Fare Card (including the purchase costs of the card) would be CHF 215.00. As you can see, the difference is quite small. If a visit to Rigi or Pilatus wouldn't fit in your itinerary (and the trips Zurich Airport-Lucerne and Lucerne-Engelberg-Titlis would thus be the only ones you'd be making), a Swiss Half Fare Card may even become too expensive. Therefore, you may also consider the other option:
• simply buy regular, full fare train and cable car tickets.

Which option is most economical, ultimately depends on the exact trips you'll be making. If your travel schedule isn't fixed yet, and if you want to be able to add some other plans during your stay in Lucerne (which might be the case if weather is too bad to get up to viewing points), I'd advise to purchase Swiss Half Fare Cards, which will be economical with other trips as well. You may want to take another train trip, or make a boat ride over Lake Lucerne, and so on. On these trips you'd profit from the 50% discount as well.

Unfortunately, a group discount on Swiss Half Fare Cards isn't available. The same goes for regular train and cable car tickets. Discounts on regular tickets are only provided for groups of 10 people and more.

I hope this helps! Have fun preparing for your trip.