Is Swiss 5-day pass similar to swiss half-fare tra

Hi Woody,

I'm not Annika, but I'm going to try to answer your questions anyway ;-)

The Half Fare Card for 1, 2 or 3 years as offered by the SBB is similar to the one month Swiss Half Fare Card which is usually sufficient for tourists. Both provide 50% discounts throughout Switzerland. The Swiss Pass is different and offers free traveling on 4, 8, 15, 22 days or 1 month. There is no 5-day Swiss Pass available.

As for your further questions:
1. Please see the map we link to from the Swiss Pass page. The short answer is that the entire country is covered: regular trains, buses, boats and urban transport is free. Mountain transportation is discounted by 50%.
2. The timetable allows you to lookup the prices. The Swiss portions of the trip are free (Swiss Pass) or discounted (Swiss Half Fare Card). In order to see the fares when traveling with those passes, choose "GA 1 year" (Swiss Pass) or "Half-fare travelcard 1/2/3 year" (Swiss Half Fare Card) when asked for.
3. See answer 2.
4. No, in both cases you should just order along the Swiss Family Card in order to let your kids travel for free. Please note that if the Swiss Family Card cannot be ordered along with your Swiss Pass or Swiss Half Fare Card (some resellers cannot provide it), you can just get one for free at any manned train station in Switzerland.