Pocket friendly trip with reasonable rail passes?

Greeting

I need some help to get a budget friendly trip to switzerland. We are travelling from UAE to switzerland on 17 of July , early morning landing zurich and then via train will go to lucern lake side hotel for 2 night stay. 17 july to Rhine falls and 18 July we will go to titlis mountain trip. 19 July to 23 July we will be in wengen . From wengen we will go to jangfrue hights, one day to visit lake thun and harderkulam where as one day for lake bernese. 23 evening we will be back to zurich airport for a night stay in airport hotel as next morning we have flight .If we buy swiss pass for 8 days it will not be used whole week as we will be restricted to wengen area . Can anyone guide how can we save money on rail passes? which pass shall we buy to cover our plan? Do we need to book seats for trains? As it would be peak time of tourism? Any idea about expenses for the trip to titlis mountain?

Also what can be added to cover more tourism withing this time limit?

Thanks

Hi Qudsi76, thank you for visiting MySwissAlps!

First of all, these tips are about saving money in general.

A Swiss Half Fare Card may turn out to be cheaper than an 8 day Swiss Travel Pass for your specific needs. You should calculate whether that's the case. An 8 day Swiss Travel Pass would indeed be left unused during 1 day, but on the other hand: you can make maximum use of it by selecting trips that are fully covered. Examples are boat rides over Lakes Lucerne, Thun and Brienz (is that what you mean by 'Lake Bernese'?), the ride up to the Rigi, scenic train rides like parts of the Golden Pass line, and so on. Please review our validity overview to find out what's for free and what's discounted with the Swiss Travel Pass.

You don't have to book seats in advance. Prices for the Titlis cable car can be found at the Titlis website. Please follow the link under "More on other websites" at our Titlis page.

Thank you Annika for your reply. Just one more thing, do we need some specific rail passes for frequent travel while staying in Wengen? For exploring surroundings ?

Regards

Qudsia

Hi Qudsia,

Buying an extra pass on top of the ones Annika mentioned usually does not pay off. But it depends on your plans. To be sure of the best rail pass (combination) you'd better do the math in detail as explained here.

A combination that might be worth checking out is the Swiss Half Fare Card plus the Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland, as the regional pass is 25% cheaper for Swiss Half Fare Card holders. Please see here.

Another way to save money (in most cases) is to buy your pass online. Check the price section of each of our pass pages for details, and mind the shipping times.