Need advice regarding swiss rail pass

Hello KP, welcome to MySwissAlps,

1) Combining a Swiss Transfer Ticket and a Swiss Half Fare Card is unnecessary (too expensive). I would recommend to choose from the Swiss Card or Swiss Half Fare Card (depending on which towns you visit in which order), versus an 8-day Swiss Pass. I think a Swiss Pass makes sense as you'll probably do day trips as well. It includes free traveling (also on buses and boats), free museums, and discounts on mountain transport. Please find all details, including a network map and purchase options, here. The children travel along for free with all mentioned passes if you order along the free Family Card you already mentioned.

2) The trip to Como is easier from Lucerne than the Bernese Oberland. Just one change, or even none at all, and the trip is shorter. So with that in mind, you could first visit the Bernese Oberland, then Lucerne, then Italy. You can best check the timetable to see what fits you best.

3) I don't know what the options are to book seats for traveling in Italy. But it makes more sense to book earlier than that, to make sure you won't be limited by fully booked trains. The earlier you book (up to 3 months in advance), the better chance you have to get the seats you prefer. Depending on where you buy your pass, you can order along the reservations with the pass.

4) That depends on your interests. Both locations are beautiful. Lake Thun and Lake Brienz are more centrally located and thus allow for easier trips in a wider area (Bernese Oberland). Wengen and Mürren are mountain villages which take more time to reach, but they're excellent to explore the Jungfrau region.

Hi KP,

1) Well, it also depends on your plans in and around Lucerne. Just from a financial point of view, you can only be 100% sure if you know all of your trips and then compare regular prices with the amounts you would pay with a particular pass, as explained here. When you start calculating you will see that in your case the Swiss Half Fare Card and Swiss Card cost about the same amount (a bit more than CHF 200 per adult) if you just take the 3 transfers into account: Zurich airport - Interlaken, Interlaken - Lucerne and Lucerne - Como. The Swiss Half Fare Card is slightly cheaper if you pick Interlaken or a town along one of the lakes. The Swiss Card will be cheaper if you pick a town south of Interlaken such as Wengen or Mürren, because that's a longer trip. Of cource the Swiss Card is more convenient as you don't have to buy tickets for the first and last transfer. The Swiss Half Fare Card does not include free traveling and requires buying tickets for all trips. Compared to the other passes, an 8-day Swiss Pass costs about CHF 120 extra per adult. For that you get free traveling (no tickets required) in trains and buses, free boat trips (great for day 3) on Lake Thun, Lake Brienz and Lake Lucerne, free entrance to many museums, free mountain trips up the Rigi near Lucerne, and discounts on most other mountain trips. I realize it's hard to choose but I hope my explanation helps anyway :-)

2) If you travel from Lucerne to the town of Como, you won't travel via Milan. Como is just across the border near the Swiss town of Chiasso, which is where the validity of all mentioned passes ends. Of course you can travel via Milan if you want to.

By the way, hotels near the Lucerne rail station and old town can be found here.

Hi KP,

Apartments and homes can be found here (click "Change search" to select Luzern and a travel duration of 3 nights). It's good to know that many apartments and homes are only rented for full weeks (usually Saturday to Saturday), so the choice may be somewhat limited. Hotels are the more popular choice for a few nights. Some hotels do offer rooms with a small kitchen. We work with booking.com and hotel.info for hotel bookings. Together they offer a very wide range of Swiss hotels. Free cancellation applies to almost all hotels, so no risks there.

Actually, what I said was that the trip up the Rigi is free with a Swiss Pass, the other mountain trips are discounted. You can best download the maps from the pass pages I linked to. That way you'll see exactly what's included for free and what's discounted.

US$ prices can be found here:

• Swiss Card
• Swiss Pass
• Jungfraujoch
• Schilthorn
• Pilatus
• Titlis