Lake Geneva Regional pass or just buy tickets?

Hi we are travelling around lake Geneva between 29th Feb 2016 to 4 Mar 2016, 4 nights and wondered whether it is best to by a regional pass or individual train tickets? we fly into Geneva on Monday afternoon at 15:00 and are staying the night in Lausanne so will need to get the train from the airport to Lausanne. on day 2 Tues,we intend to go on a boat trip in the morning then catch the train from Lausanne to Montreux. We are staying 2 nights in Montreux [ Tue & Wed] and want to catch the Golden Pass Train to Gstadd from Montreux as a day trip. on Thurs afternoon we will catch the train back from Montreux to Geneva where we will stay on Thurs night. on Friday morning we will get the train back from Geneva to the airport. there will be 2 people travelling. Any advice would be great thanks

Hello Dotjami, thanks for joining us!

A Regional-Pass Lake Geneva-Alps might work, but it depends on some details. For example, do you plan to make a short boat trip, or do you plan to cover a large part of the lake? A long boat trip would be quite expensive, so in that case a free travel day would come in handy. The other free travel day can be used for the Golden Pass trip Montreux-Gstaad and back. On the remaining days, you'll profit from discounts on your shorter local trips. Also, will you be needing urban transport? And you plan to visit a viewing point like Rochers-de-Naye (which would be for free on a free travel day)?

To be 100% sure, you should make calculations as explained on our page on how to pick the right pass. You may want to compare the Regional-Pass option to the Swiss Half Fare Card.

Does this help you out?

Hello Annika, thank you for getting back to me so quickly and you suggestion regarding the half fare pass. I think we will go for the 5 day regional pass for Geneva and the Alps and move our boat trip to the morning of our 4th day when we are still in Montreux. We will be visiting the Chillion Castle so will get a boat there.

Day 1 & 2 we will go for the half price option as this will cover our train journey from Geneva Airport to Lausanne on day 1and then the train from Lausanne to Montreux on day 2. We will just explore Lausanne on day 2 and perhaps visit the Olympic Museum.

Day 3 & 4 will be our free days when we are in Montreux and want to go on the Golden Pass train to Gstadd and a short boat trip on the lake. This will also cover our return trip to Geneva on day 4 from Montreux which is the longest train ride.

We will be going back to the airport early on day 5 [Friday] so can either by a half price ticket or will the Geneva city card cover our return from Geneva train station to the Airport? I understand that as we are staying in a Geneva hotel on Thursday night we will be given a local transport card that wil get us back to the airport. is this correct?

Hi Dotjami,

Sounds good! There's indeed free public transport in Geneva, including the trip to the airport: myswissalps.com/geneva /travel.

Hello, our 5 day regional passes for Lake Geneva and the Alps have arrived but I am unsure about filing in the 2 free days. Earlier posts mention getting the date stamped on the pass? We want to have the 2nd and 3rd March as our free days. I sounds a silly question but can I just write the dates in now or do I have to wait until we want to use the free day? I rang the Swiss Railways office in London but they just confused me even more as they told me to wait. If you could clarify then that would be great. Thanks

Hi Dotjami!

You can best write down your travel dates on the spot, before boarding the first train/bus/boat of that day. You may also do so now, but it's indeed better to wait. That way, you can still change your plans and pick other days as your free travel days if necessary.

Does this answer your question?

Hi Annika, yes thank you but I have worked out the cost of individual tickets and our most expensive trips will be whilst we are in Montreux and returning from there back to Geneva. Thanks again for all you help. Really looking forward to celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in Switzerland.