question on itinerary and type of rail pass - Mila

Agree that this is a great forum to help us neophytes especially. Thank you in advance.

We are traveling with 2 adults and 4 kids (22, 19, 17, 12) from Milan to Zermatt to Murren to Geneva over 7 days. We have a car rented but after reading this forum, I am thinking that it may not be necessary and using rail would be cheaper and more fun. Can you advise us as to the best pass to use if we follow the itinerary below?

August 10th: Milan to Zermatt

Aug 10th-12th in Zermatt - Mix of trips to ski / hike in Zermatt

August 12th: Zermatt to Mürren

Aug 12th-14th sightseeing in Murren and surrounding area - mix of trips to hike and ride rail

Aug 14th: Mürren to Geneva

Aug 14th-16: sightseeing in Geneva and surrounding area

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim,

Thanks, always good to hear we're being useful! Trains a definately the way to go for your trip. Both Zermatt and Mürren are car free, so all you can do with a car is park it (and pay for that). And it's more fun, eco-friendly and safe.

Note that skiing in Zermatt in Summer in limited to the Klein Matterhorn area. You'll best ask locally for tips and the best times of the day to ski. There will be plenty of hiking options (see here for suggestions).

I see two options to consider:

1. Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland, combined with a local pass in Zermatt (ski pass or Zermatt Peak Pass) and point to point tickets for the legs not covered by the Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland.
2. A Swiss Saver Pass for the adults and the Swiss Youth Pass for the 17, 19 and 22 year old. The 12 year old will travel along for free with the free Swiss Family Pass. There's a $75 discount on Swiss Pass orders currently, making this option extra attractive.

Please check the above links to see how the passes work, what's covered, prices and more. I assume that option 2 works out better, especially with the extra discount. It also gives you more freedom as it includes the whole of Switzerland, including Geneva urban transport and boats in that region. You can do the math as explained here.

In either case, be sure to travel from Zermatt to Mürren via Brig, Goppenstein and Kandersteg for the best views. Don't take the direct train from Visp to Spiez as that will be mostly tunnel.

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Thank you very much Arno. Very helpful.

One question we had was whether the individual tickets from Milan to Zermatt, Zermatt to Murren, Murren to Geneva including the various trains / funicular / etc. required are cheaper vs the Swiss Saver Pass and Swiss Youth Pass. I was trying to calculate as you suggested but it became very challenging to calculate. I understand we will get discounts/free travel on a few additional urban transport but we wanted to do the apples to apples comparison and then add in the other 'benefits' and if close, it clearly made sense. It seems the Swiss Saver Passes and Youth passes would be roughly $1300 (and some of the trains are only 1/2 price so the number is larger i assume). Point to point seemed quite a bit cheaper but again, I think we may be not including costs. If there's a good site that is simple to plug in data - please advise. I was quickly overwhelmed on the SBB site. If you have a rough estimate, that would be helpful as well.

Also, we were wondering if we would be too rushed if we did 2 days each in Zermatt, Murren and Geneva or if we should just do one day in Zermatt (we really only want to ski/hike there for one day) and then 3 in Murren and 2 in Geneva so that we could spend more time in the Jungfrau region as there are several things we want to do there.

If you have any thoughts on either topic, please advise.

Thank you again in advance.

Tim

My wife (who has accounting background) was able to do some calculations and it looks like the Swiss Saver pass and youth pass is better as you had noted but she was wondering if the 1/2 price might be something to consider. Please let us know your thoughts here.

Thanks again.

Hi Tim,

I am not sure what you mean by "if the 1/2 price might be something to consider". Are you referring to the Swiss Half Fare Card? You don't need that if your wife used the guide I referred to and the Swiss Saver Pass + Swiss Youth Pass prove to be the cheapest option for your itinerary. One set of passes will do. This is also the most flexible option as you can add trips at no cost with these passes.

Spending more time in the Jungfrau region is a good idea. There is a lot to see there, and there are more bad weather options there than in Zermatt (I hope you don't need them). One day in Zermatt sounds like it's enough for your plans, but of course you do need good weather as you can't ski or hike on mountains covered in clouds. So it depends on that one day if you can do what you want to do. It's hard to choose, but I hope these thoughts help!