Need advice on best rail purchase

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    11 February 2013 at 17:34:55 #805787

    Hello,

    I would really appreciate any advice on the right combination of Rail tickets/Passes.

    Family (2 Adults/1 Child: 4 Years old) travelling from Zurich to Wengen (5 Night Stay) & then onto Lake Brienz (3 Night Stay) and then back to Zurich.

    We still do at least 4/5 days exploring around Jungfrau region including the Jungfraujoch.

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    kim11
    Participant
    604 posts
    11 February 2013 at 22:13:43 #838052

    Half Fare Cards for mom and dad, child travels free with the requested Family Card when you buy the HFCs. Gets you 50% off of all travel (train, bus, boat, gondola, cable car, etc)

    You can buy HFC at major train stations or on line in advance. Latter will incur a rather hefty delivery fee so recommend buying when you arrive in country. Unless you are training in from another European country and want to take advantage of the HFC benefits for that journey.

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    12 February 2013 at 2:54:40 #838053

    Hi karren33,

    You have chosen beautiful places to stay! As for rail passes: you can find all Swiss Half Fare Card details here. You may want to look into two more alternatives:

    If you would have traveled to and from Wengen, the Swiss Card would have been cheaper as it includes the inbound and outbound trip for free (normal price CHF 170 per adult). It would add up to CHF 205 with the Swiss Half Fare Card included or CHF 195 for the Swiss Card. Since you’re traveling back from Brienz, which is a slightly shorter and cheaper trip, there is less of a difference. Which pass turns out (slightly) better, actually depends on if you travel back via Bern (longer) or via Lucerne (shorter). Both routes take about the same time. The timetable shows all options. The Swiss Card offers exactly the same as the Swiss Half Fare Card; the only difference is the included in- and outbound trip, so you don’t need to buy separate tickets for that. All details can be found here.

    The third option is the Regional Pass Bernese-Oberland, which has been renewed this year. It includes more free traveling and different periods of validity than last year. You can do a lot a free traveling in the region without needing any further tickets. In your case, the 8-day variant may be interesting to check out. All details are here.

    As for where to buy: shipping fees, promotions, exchange rates etc. change constantly. I would advice to follow the links above and fill out your country of residence, pass type and travelers to see all options for each pass. For exampe, the US reseller is no longer charging delivery fees since a few days. All such details are included in the reseller overviews on our pass pages, so it’s easy to figure out what suits you best. I expect new promotions to become available in a few days time. We’ll post them here on the forum. It depends on your country of residence whether or not you can make use of these promotions.

    I hope this helps. Whatever you choose, enjoy your stay!

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