MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Swiss rail passes. Do they go on sale?
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We are traveling to Switzerland in June with our grown children. Will be purchasing 6 Swiss Rail Passes. Do they ever go on sale? Can you get a discounted rate on purchase of 6? If I only need for 10 days do I need to get 15? 1 of the 10 days will be traveling from Basel airport to Grindewald and another from Zermatt to Geneva airport. Could not find costs on those routes. Want to keep things simple as we will have 2 small children.
Thank you for any help,
Chava
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Hello chava and Welcome to MySwissAlps,
Swiss Travel Passes sometimes appear at promotional prices but not often.
They will be reported on this forum when an offer does come up. There is no bulk discount. You do know about the Swiss Family Card (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw issfamilycard) which is free with the Swiss Travel Pass?
As well as the Swiss Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass) there are many reigonal passes (http://www.myswissalps.com/re gionalpasses) which can work depending on where you are based and how much travel you plan. Before you can know for sure which pass suits your travel plans you need to do the sums based on the cost of all your planned trips on trains, boats, cable cars etc. You can use the Swiss Train Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) to work out the fares for any trip (including Basel EuroAirport to Grindelwald and Zermatt to Geneva Airport). When you go to buy a ticket the fare you see on the right hand side of the page will normally be the half-fare price. Double it to get full fare. With A Swiss Travel Pass it is free provided it is shown as free on the Area of Validity map ( PDF downloadable from http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity).
You should read “How to choose the best travel pass” (http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass).
So the bottom line is you have to work out your itinerary and then you can work out what pass works best. If it turns out you will only do reasonable sized trips on 8 of your 10 days then a Swiss Travel Pass Flex may suit you. You do pay a premium for the flexibility of having it available for any 8 days in a 30 day period though.
The Swiss Transfer Ticket (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstransferticket) is an option to cover the trips on the days when you arrive and depart Switzerland. That may stretch out an 8-day pass to cover your needs.
When are you travelling?
Thank you very much for all the information. We are arriving in Basel then we’ll take a train to Grindelwald. We have rented a house in Grindelwald for eight days and then will travel to Zermatt for 2 nights. Then we must leave Zermatt and go to Geneva for our flight to London where we have some work before going back to the United States.
I looked up the transfer ticket that you mentioned but since we are flying into one airport and out of another I do not think it will work.
I will use the link you sent to check the cost of the rail from Basel to Grindelwald. Again thank you very much for your Speedy reply
The Swiss Transfer Ticket does not require you to arrive and depart from the same place. Have a look at http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstransferticket/vali dity.
Thank you. It seems that the transfer pass will cost 151 Swiss Frank’s which would be more than getting a 15 day pass. If I’m correct it will be better for me to get the 15-day
Hi Chava,
Yes, that makes sense. The difference between the 8- and 15-day Swiss Travel Pass is only CHF 87. Regular tickets for the two trips you mentioned in your first post would be costlier. You can keep on eye on pass prices here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/price
Thank you. I will go ahead and get the 15 days pass. Wish we could stay longer 🙂
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