8 day Swiss trip for hikes: rail pass or tickets?

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 September 2018 at 21:30:49 #818494

    My husband and I will be in Switzerland Oct. 1 – 9 and staying two nights in Zurich, 4 nights in Murren and 2 nights in Lucerne. We plan to mostly trail run and hike while we are on vacation, especially when we are in Murren. I downloaded the Excel spreadsheet to do a cost analysis to compare point to point fares to the Half Fare card. It looks like it is best to buy tickets point to point, but I wanted to ask this group to see if maybe I missed something in my calculations. I used SBB to look up point to point fares.

    I have a very basic schedule and would like to leave room for spontaneous day trips depending on weather, local tourist information, etc.

    Day 1: Arrive in Zurich, walk around the city and explore

    Day 2: Train to Murren – hike to Gimmelwald/lauterbrunnen and take gondola and train back to Murren

    Day 3: Gondola to Schilthorn and hike down

    Day 4: Open for trail running/hiking

    Day 5: Open for trail running/hiking

    Day 6: Train to Lucerne and maybe a sunset boat ride

    Day 7: Day trip to Mt. Pilatus

    Day 8: Open day with an evening train to Zurich

    I calculated all except a sunset boat ride in Lucerne and it was 185 for point to point and 212 for the half fare card. With this being our first trip to Switzerland I am not sure if we will use trains more once we arrive than what I am planning to use on my spreadsheet. Thoughts?

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    rockoyster
    Participant
    8889 posts
    24 September 2018 at 6:39:39 #896771

    Hello aubchic and Welcome to MySwissAlps,

    CHF185 for those trips just sounds a bit light to me. Are your sure you are using full fares? Pilatus alone is CHF72 full fare not including getting to Kriens/Alanachstad. Zurich to Mürren around CHF90. The first price you see on the timetable assumes you are travelling with a half-fare card so you need to double it to get full fares. If the price of your point to point full fare tickets total CHF240 then that is the break even point. After that you are saving money with a Swiss Half Fare Card.

    Removed user
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    72625 posts
    24 September 2018 at 6:44:41 #896772

    Hi Aubchic and welcome to MySwissAlps!

    Are you planning any travel on days 4 and 5? How are you getting to your trail hikes/runs? Day 6 and 7 also have time for other activities, so I’d guess the Swiss Half Fare Card will end up saving you more money in the end.

    Be sure that you factored in the correct ticket price on the SBB timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable). It gives you the 1/2 fare price by default so you have to double it for the regular full fare price to compare correctly.

    For 8 days in Switzerland, I’d be very surprised if point to point tickets were there cheapest option overall. You’d really have to have limited travel by train, bus, boat and cable car for that.

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    24 September 2018 at 13:51:39 #896773

    Hello Aubchic,

    I noticed you are planning to hike down from the Schilthorn. Be sure to keep an eye on the weather and snow conditions. It’s a steep hike and it won’t be safe if there’s snow, like today.

    Removed user
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    72625 posts
    24 September 2018 at 21:14:22 #896774

    Thank you Rockoyster and Lucas! I recheck checked the prices on the SBB site and now I see I was looking at the half price cost. I updated my spreadsheet and you are both correct with buying a half fare card.

    Lucas- We are hoping to leave from Murren for our hikes but it will depend on the weather if we need to start at a new destination. Looks like it will be in the 30s with some rain and snow while we are there. So we could be using more cable cars and trains than we think.

    Thanks Arno for letting me know about the snow. I am hopeful we can hike down from Schilthorn but I will keep my eye on the weather.

    Removed user
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    72625 posts
    25 September 2018 at 6:55:51 #896775

    Enjoy your trip!

    If you want more details on hiking options look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king there is a table on the right where you can select the region you want – to narrow it down.

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