MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Swiss Pass for 5 adults- 2 weeks
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Hello,
We are planning to take our adult children to Switzerland, for some hiking and sightseeing for 14 days arriving Sept.4. We hope to stay in the Lauterbrunnen area for perhaps 6 or 7 days and go up all the mountains by cable car, funicular, etc that we can as well as do some hiking. The second week we want to see as much of the country as possible.
The Swiss passes seem wonderful but we care confused as to what would be the most convenient and cost effective. If we get the Swiss Saver- does that mean there is one pass for all 5 adults and we must be together for every jaunt?? Or does everyone have their own pass? Is the Swiss Pass worth spending the money and where do we buy it? I understand various places have different prices. There seems to be many places to order it from. We want traveling to be easy.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! By the way, our adult children( including a daughter-in-law) are between 26 and 31 years of age. Any suggestions that would be of interest to them would be helpful. Thank you!!
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Hello Vlasta, and welcome to the forum! If you want travelling to be easy, a Swiss (Saver) Pass would be a good choice. It allows you to get on and off trains, buses and boats without having to purchase tickets for each trip. Mountain transportation is discounted though, so if you want to make use of cable cars and mountain trains, you do have to buy disounted tickets (this goes for almost all Swiss rail passes). Especially for your second week, in which you want to explore as much of the country as possible and probably will be making many long train journeys, a Swiss Saver Pass will be worth its money. I’m not quite sure if this is the case for your first week in Lauterbrunnen as well. If you’ll stay within this region and explore the Jungfrau area only (Lauterbrunnen – Mürren – Grindelwald – Interlaken), you might be better off with a Swiss Half Fare Card (which does require you to buy discounted tickets) or with a Jungfraubahnen Railways Pass. So you could take one of these for your first week and an 8 day Swiss Saver Pass for your second week.
To make sure which pass (or combination of passes) is most economical, you should calculate the costs of the exact journeys you have in mind and compare the discounts of several rail passes. Please follow the instructions on this in our rail FAQ.
A Swiss Saver Pass is indeed one ticket for all people using it, so if you order one Swiss Saver Pass for the entire family, you should travel together to profit from its discounts. Of course your travel party can split up as well, but in that case only one of you can take along the Swiss Saver Pass. The other ones will have to travel without it. You could also choose though to purchase several Swiss Saver Passes. A Swiss Saver Pass is available for 2 people or more traveling together. This means that you could purchase one Swiss Saver Pass for two or three people out of your travel party and another Swiss Saver Pass for the remaining ones, based on which ones of you will probably be travelling together most of the time. There’s no difference in costs between one Swiss Saver Pass for the entire travel party or two Swiss Saver Passes for couples/smaller parties. This makes splitting up and still using your Swiss Saver Pass easier.
If this is not a good solution for you, you should consider the regular Swiss Pass, which is individual (but more expensive) or another individual pass. Saver variants only exist for the Swiss Pass and the Swiss Flexi Pass. All other types mentioned are individual passes.The Swiss Saver Pass (and other Swiss rail passes) can be purchased either online (please review the header ‘Order your Swiss Pass here’) or locally at larger Swiss railway stations. It depends on exchange rates and shipping costs to your country of residence which option is cheaper.
You could take a look into the overview of hikes and day trips in the Bernese Oberland to find out which activities appeal to your children.
Thank you Annika. This makes things clearer for me, and I will be able to do better planning and research for this trip. Two passes makes much more sense. Are the names put on the passes?? Our party of five could possibly split up in several ways. So far we do not know at what point in our trip we will be in the Lauterbrunnen area. I suppose that means the Swiss pass or half fare card would be best? I will follow your rail FAQ instructions? I’m sure I wil be back with more questions. I appreciate your help.
Hi Vlasta, I’m glad that this has helped you. Yes, the names will be printed or written down on your Swiss Saver Passes, which would make splitting up in several ways a bit harder. So if you choose this option, you should try to consider in what ways you’ll split up most often and order your Swiss Saver Passes based on this assumption. But again, you could also opt for individual passes.
If you don’t know exactly when your stay in Lauterbrunnen will take place, it’s hard to say which pass, or pass combination, is best for you. If your stay in Lauterbrunnen is clearly separated from long train journeys throughout the country, the combination of a Jungfraubahnen Pass/Swiss Half Fare Card for the first week and a Swiss Saver Pass for the second week would make sense. But if you’re not sure in advance, and if you want to be able to decide on the spot where you want to go, you may also want to make use of a Swiss Half Fare Card of Swiss Saver Pass during the entire stay. This at least gives you the freedom of adapting your plans each day. If weather is bad around Lauterbrunnen, for example, but better elsewhere in the country, you could decide to make one of your longer train trips from Lauterbrunnen. Also, the price difference between an 8-day and 15-day Swiss Saver Pass is relatively small.
Good luck with your calculations and feel free to get back with other questions!
May I add, there is thread on “Swiss Pass + Jungfrau Pass” I came across. The places are there and calculations(similar) are there for your reference :
Thread: “Passes to get : Swiss Pass + Jungfrau Pass”http://www.myswissalps.com/en/forum/topic258-passes-to-get—swiss-pass–jungfrau-pass–.aspx
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