Most economical fare to Jungfraujoch?

My husband and I will be travelling to Europe with our daughter and two of her friends (all ages 13-14) in December this year. We will be driving, so don't need a rail pass to travel around. However, we would like to take the girls to Jungfraujoch. We will be staying in Interlaken so can depart from there or drive to another station. What is the most economical fare to Jungfraujoch and back? Is it worthwhile to get a rail pass for my husband and I and then use the accompanying family pass? But does the family pass apply if the children are not ours? Or do we get our daughter's friends youth passes? Or is it best to just buy the tickets only for Jungfraujoch with no rail pass or discount? Any help is appreciated!

Hi LValentine, thanks for joining us!

If you get Swiss Half Fare Cards for the adults, your tickets will be 50% discounted (saving about CHF 100 per person on the Jungfraujoch fare). If you also plan to do other trips by cable car or boat you get a discount on that too. You'll get a free Swiss Family Card which allows your daughter to travel along for free everywhere. Please see here for all the details and retailers: myswissalps.com/ swisshalffarecard.

The Swiss Family Card only applies if a parent travels along. Your daughters friends travel at half the adult fare. You can also buy them a 1-day travel pass for CHF 16. That allows them to travel along for free, but not to mountain peaks. Most of those are 50% discounted. In case of the Jungfraujoch they travel for free to Wengen and Grindelwald, and the rest of the trip is 50% discounted (about CHF 85 per return ticket).

You can start your day trip from the rail station Interlaken Ost. That allows you to do the round trip via Grindelwald and Wengen.

Here are some additional resources:

• myswissalps.com/train/ ticketspasses/ practical/discounts
• myswissalps.com/ jungfraujoch

Thank you, Arno.

Because we're travelling in December and I've read that we should wait to check the weather before we decide to go up to Jungfraujoch, can we buy the Swiss Half Fare Card the day of or journey at the train station or do we need to buy these in advance?

Hi LValentine,

You can buy it in Switzerland, although it's cheaper to buy online. If you go to the Swiss Half Fare Card page I gave you, and click Price, you can see all the options.