7116 posts
Hi jettafan! I’m glad to hear that the forum has been helpful for your preparations. As for your question: a 6 day Swiss Pass would be ideal for your itinerary indeed. Although a regular 6 day Swiss Pass doesn’t exist, a 6 day Swiss Flexi Pass does exist. The flexi formula allows you to divide 6 free travel days over one month, but you may also use them on 6 consecutive days. However, an 8 day Swiss Pass is still cheaper than a 6 day Swiss Flexi Pass. If unlimited travelling is important to you, the 8 day Swiss Pass may be an option, but it’s not the most economical solution.
Instead, I think your best options are either a 3 day Swiss Flexi Pass or a Swiss Half Fare Card. With a 3 day Swiss Flexi Pass, you could use free travel days on April 28th, April 29th (this would include a free boat trip over lake Lucerne and a free ride up to Mt. Rigi as well, just as with the Swiss Pass) and May 3rd. On all remaining days (between your first and last free travel day), a 50% discount is granted (except for the leg Wengen/Grindelwald-Jungfraujoch: a 25% discount applies here).
The Swiss Half Fare Card offers a 50% discount on nearly all trips and on all days of your stay. An advantage is that the Swiss Half Fare Card offers a 50% discount on the entire Jungfraujoch trip, including the leg Wengen/Grindelwald-Jungfraujoch.
If you know for sure which trips you’d like to make, you can try to make calculations in order to find out which pass is cheapest. As long as you don’t have an exact list of travel plans, picking the right pass is alway a matter of making a reasonable guess. I still hope this advice helps you out a bit.
72625 posts
Thank you Annika! I had not even considered your idea, so more food for thought. One of the things that is discouraging to me about the 3 day Swiss Flexi Pass is that we would need to purchase individual tickets before each of our rail journeys. Is this difficult and time consuming or is it an easy process? Is there any post that explains purchasing tickets? Sorry for all the questions, but thank you again for your help.
7116 posts
Hello jettafan. Don’t mind asking your questions! Generally, buying (discounted) tickets is quite easy. Ticketing machines with clear instructions in English are available at nearly all railway stations, allowing you to easily choose the 50% discounted rate. Railway personnel at larger stations can help you out as well. If you show your Swiss Saver Flexi Pass and mention that you don’t want to use a free travel day, but want to profit from the 50% discount, they’ll print the right tickets for you. Of course this takes more time than simply hopping on and off board, but that’s a matter of personal preference. Please note that with all passes (even the Swiss Pass and the Swiss Flexi Pass on free travel days) discounted tickets have to be purchased for mountain lifts and mountain trains (such as the Jungfraujoch trip), so you can’t really avoid it. I don’t think you have to worry about this, and if you’re not sure what to do, railway personnel will help you out. Does this provide some reassurance?