[Removed user]

25 July 2019 at 13:32:05 #823053

Hi,

We will be landing in Malpensa Airport and then taking a train to International Hotel Au Lac in Lugano. We will be spending 4 nights and then traveling on to Wengen (5 nights). We believe that the Swiss Half Fare Card combined with a Jungfrau Pass might be our best option as this will provide a discount towards the purchase of the Jungfrau Pass & Junfraujoch and it will provide half fare for the travel between Lugano to Wengen and out travel from Wengen to Lucerne and then travel to Zurich.

Is it possible to use the Half fare card with our purchase for the transport from Malpensa Airport to Lugano?

Is it correct that only the Swiss Travel Pass will include travel to Shilthorn for free and that either the Swiss Half Card or the Jungfrau pass will provide a discount for travel to Junfraujoch?

Do I understand correctly that the Junfrau Pass and the Bernese Oberland Pass have some overlap? Is it correct that the Bernese Oberland Pass will not include all free cable car rides in the Junfrau region? Which cable cars are not covered?

Thank you in advance for your assitance.

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[Annika]

26 July 2019 at 5:18:36 #918631

Hi CraigE!

You’d best compare the validity maps and lists of covered and discounted trips on the pages below:

• http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard/validi ty
• http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrautravelpass/valid ity
• http://www.myswissalps.com/re gionalpassberneseoberl and/validity
• http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity

I’ll address some of your questions:

• the Swiss Half Fare Card online provides discounts for the Swiss leg of your inbound trip between Chiasso and Lugano, so you need additional tickets Malpensa Airport-Chiasso: http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/italy;
• yes, the Swiss Travel Pass fully covers the ride to Schilthorn (http://www.myswissalps.com/sc hilthorn/tickets). It also provides a discounts for the trip up to the Jungfraujoch, and the ride is free as far up as Wengen/Grindelwald (http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfraujoch/tickets). The Swiss Half Fare Card and the Jungfrau Travel Pass provide discounts for this route too. Please refer to the pages listed above for a detailed comparison;
• yes, there’s some overlap. The Regional-Pass Bernese Oberland covers a considerably wider area, including many routes in the Jungfrau region. If you want to be able to explore a bit more than just the Jungfrau regio, this could be a good choice. But then again, whether it’s worth it to buy a pass (whether it’s the Regional-Pass or the Jungfrau Travel Pass) in addition to a Swiss Half Fare Card should be carefully calculated: http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass.

[Mark]

26 July 2019 at 11:48:54 #918632

Hi Craig

We recently traveled from Malpensa to Locarno. It was not readily apparent to me on the website but you must take a shuttle bus or taxi from the airport to the central train station in Milan and begin the train fares from there. Also while the train tickets are generally good for the entire day in Switzerland (excluding super saver tickets), that is not true for the Italian leg of the train trip. Due to the difficulty in predicting how long it would take to clear customs and catch a bus to the main station in Milan, we had our hotel in Locarno(it’s near Lugano)arrange a car to take us strait from the airport to our hotel. Not only was it much more convenient but is was actually cheaper than 4 first class train tickets. Once in Locarno we used the Swiss trains for all our travel within Switzerland.

Mark

[rockoyster]

26 July 2019 at 20:57:12 #918633

There is a suburban train that runs from the airport to Lugano. It doesn’t go via Chiasso. The first Swiss town it reaches is Stabio.

See attached example.

Attachments:

1. 

   4d7fc88c-2c5f-4636-afb3-a4625bd7fa2b.jpg
   

[Mark]

26 July 2019 at 21:30:34 #918634

Hi Rockoyster

I’m not exactly sure why i had so much trouble booking a train from the airport to Locarno, maybe I tried too early. I used the links from this website for both TrainLine and Loco 2 and could not get many choices if any. Finally I called the customer service number for TrainLine and she was the one who told me I had to catch a shuttle to the main Milan train station. From there I had numerous choices but I understood the Italian fare was only good for that specific train. So I emailed our hotel in Locarno and was surprised how reasonable it was to hire a driver(a very nice Mercedes van). As I stated it was about the same as 4 first class train tickets or maybe a little cheaper. Interestingly booking the driver through the hotel was significantly less than what my local travel agent quoted.

Mark

[rockoyster]

26 July 2019 at 21:47:41 #918635

Hi Mark,

I’ve never quite figured out Italian trains. You got the best result I’d say.

[Removed user]

27 July 2019 at 3:14:03 #918636

Thank you Mark. Do you recall the approximate travel time & fare? Did the hotel in Locarno provide a Ticino Pass and if so was it useful as complete transportation to explore the area?

[Removed user]

27 July 2019 at 3:20:04 #918637

Thank you Rockoyster. The suburban train ticket is it bought online or the airport?

[rockoyster]

27 July 2019 at 3:44:13 #918638

You can theoretically buy the ticket on line but the process is much more complicated than buying a Swiss ticket only.

Buy the Italian ticket at the station. I’m not sure if the Italian station can sell you a ticket for the entire route. You can buy a 4-zone Arcabaleno individual ticket from Stabio to Lugano for CHF4.70 with half-fare card on-line.

[Arno]

27 July 2019 at 5:36:04 #918639

Hi all,

The direct suburban train from the Milan Malpensa airport to Lugano is quite new. I don’t know the exact price but it won’t be expensive as Rockoyster’s example shows. These trains operate hourly and advanced booking is not required, so you can hop on regardless of a delayed plane. Apart from that there are Flixbuses starting at € 8, and the “Malpensa Express” bus (malpensa-express.com/en/index.h tml) starting at CHF 25.

Locarno is about an hour by train from Lugano. Actually, the trains from Malpensa airport continue to Giubiasco, where you can change for Locarno. The total journey to Locarno takes 2h40, with one change. This will be reduced in the near future as a new tunnel is being constructed right now. A few of the Malpensa Express buses go to Locarno as well, but with the new tunnel I think the train is the better option.

[rockoyster]

27 July 2019 at 6:30:35 #918640

Thanks for the extra info Arno. Craig is going to International Hotel Au Lac in Lugano.

[Mark]

27 July 2019 at 13:27:00 #918641

Hi Craig

my recollection my not be exact but as I remember it took about 1.5-2 hrs to get from the airport to Locarno. Lugano should be even closer to Milan. There were 4 of us and we had a Mercedes van that could probably hold 7 people and I believe it was about 400 CHF for the van and driver regardless of the number of passengers. So the more people in your party the less it costs per person. There is likely smaller vehicles available that would be less. Also note I found it made a substantial difference in price who booked the service. Our hotel gave a better price by far than the travel agent.

Our hotel provided a Ticino pass when we checked in. Generally it fully covered bus transportation and train fares with in the Ticino area. We got only a modest discount on cable cars and boat fares. I expect it would have similar coverage in Lugano.

Mark

[Removed user]

5 August 2019 at 1:17:39 #918642

Thank you Arno. This information is helpful. We are trying to make a decision between staying at Hotel International Du Lac in Lugano or staying at Hotel Geranio Du Lac in Locarno. Also considering that our flight arrives approximately at 11:00 and we will have had limited sleep.

[Annika]

5 August 2019 at 6:05:09 #918643

Hi CraigE,

If you’re concerned with fatigue or jet-lag after your inbound flight, a stay in Lugano makes more sense as it’s a shorter trip from the airport than the one to Locarno.

By the way, if you’d like more specific help in selecting accommodation, you can open a thread in the Accommodation forum listing your requirements as described at http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/how-to-get-help-finding-accommodation.