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Hello:
We are a family of five (3 kids, avg age = 10 yr.) staying in leukerbad july28-31, 2018.
We would love to see the jungfraujoch.
My question is: How do i get my family from leukerbad to the top of the jungfrau with the cheapest fare? What route do i take?(do i have to go to interlaken ost for the jungfrau train?)
What other attractions would there be in the region? Would a boat ride in interlaken be friendly for us or is there something else that might be better suited for us to do?
Finally, what would be the best rail pass — a family pass is my guess?
Thanks in advance.
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Hi phdtrucker and welcome to MySwissAlps!
You can read about how to get to the Jungfraujoch here: https://www.myswissalp s.com/jungfraujoch/get tingthere
From Leukerbad it is a very long day trip: 4-5 hours, one way. I’m not sure if you and your family want to try that? Find schedules to any city or mountain here: https://www.myswissalp s.com/timetable
A boat ride is also a popular option. Lake Geneva is closer but you could go to Lake Thun or Lake Brienz as well (short trip than to Jungfraujoch at least).
- https://www.myswissalp s.com/boatlakegeneva
- https://www.myswissalp s.com/boatlakethun
- https://www.myswissalp s.com/boatlakebrienz
Before we can give you advice on what might be suitable for you and your family, what are your interests?
As for rail passes:
To know which rail pass is the best for your specific itinerary you need to plan out all trips you will make (train, bus, boat, cable car) and compare the prices for regular tickets to the rail pass price (and which routes/mountains are free or discounted). Once you have that information you can read our page here on how to choose the best rail pass. There is a spreadsheet there to help with the math. 🙂
https://www.myswissalp s.com/train/ticketspas ses/practical/choosera ilpassIf you plan on traveling around the country during your stay in Switzerland (how long are you here for?) The Swiss Travel Pass for the adults and a Swiss Family Card for the kids probably makes the most sense.
Leukerbad to Jungfraujoch will take all day, especially as Leukerbad lost its local railway in the 1960s – it was closed so that they could widen the road…
My advice would be to forget about Jungfraujoch – its all a bit over commercialised these days. Zermatt is much closer to Leukerbad and more spectacular
Thanks to both replies 1960man and Lucas. Much appreciated.
The family is keen on a day at the thermal spas and a day somewhere on a mountain. I suggested the jungfrau as i recall my dad taking me in 86′ when i was much much younger. I can imagine it is over commercialized. Nonetheless, it is a rare opportunity we have in front of us.
Once piece of information that i left out is that we arrive in leukerbad by car, so this is available to us.
I’m unfamiliar with Zermatt but will look as soon as i post this. If you have advice on what to do / how to get there, i’ll gladly take it. First question is if we could get to the top of it or close to it?
Once we nail things down, i’ll have a look at prices via this website and decide what to do. One thing that is unclear from all the sites i’ve seen is the notion of a family pass. It seems that children under 16 ride free so my final question is would we need a family pass, or would just having 2 adult passes work just as well — showing the fare collector that the three foreign kids are ours with some ID?
Thanks again…i’m off to check out zermatt…
best,
..OK, Wow! I think i’m sold on Zermatt. And i realize it is not a mountain, but a villiage ..lol
So here’s my final two questions for the night: What is the best way to get there, and If there was one thing to do for one day, what would it be: I see rothorn, gornergrat, matterhorn glacier, and a 5 lakes walk.
many thanks
Hi phdtrucker,
You can read about how to get to Zermatt on our Zermatt info page here: https://www.myswissalp s.com/zermatt – for travel details click on the “how to travel” tab.
For descriptions on the activities (mountains and hikes) available to you there click the “Activities” tab.
Gornergrat is usually considered to give you the best views of the Matterhorn (weather dependent of course) and is the most popular mountain I think. Klein Matterhorn (aka Glacier Paradise) is a unique option as well and could be a similar experience to Jungfraujoch (a very high peak and glacier experience).
Both are described on the link above.
Many Thanks Lucas!
I am a very regular visitor to Zermatt, often in winter for ski-ing (see my pictures attached). Any further questions don’t hesitate to ask.
The simplest way for a newcomer is to take the train to Gornergrat. I always recommend this over the Jungfrau as you are not stuck inside the mountain for most of the way!
For a day trip, I recommend Gornergrat, the old village (my picture attached) , the shops, and perhaps a walk at Gornergrat or Riffelalp, or between the two.
Your route would be
Leukerbad – Leuk: bus (still the same company as used to run the railway)
Leuk – Visp: SBB main line train (hourly xx.43 past each hour express train) or 1/2 hourly (xx.33 and xx.00) although the latter doesn’t run a weekends
Visp – Zermatt: narrow gauge MGB railway train (red and white livery trains)
a few yards across the road to the Gornergrat railway (brown livery trains) station
THankyou 1960man. Very nice pictures. Old villiage is surprising. I thought most of europe did not build with wood as they do here in Canada. I posted a new link on the information to help organize this a bit better for the site as this advice no longer pertains to leukerbad — jungfrau
Once again, thankyou for the advice.
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