Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card, equal costs?

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 September 2019 at 18:48:14 #823942

    Hi If cost adds up to the same for the 3 days of travel for the travel pass and the half off pass is it best to get the half of pass so I have options for the other days or easier to use the rail pass so I don’t need tickets?

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    Luke
    Participant
    105 posts
    21 September 2019 at 18:53:08 #922488

    Hi Bedibovio and welcome to MySwissAlps!

    If the Swiss Half Fare Card (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard) and the Swiss Travel Pass – 3 days (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass) works out to the same cost then I’d generally for the Swiss Travel Pass – just hop on a train and go (most of the time)!

    To make sure you are doing the calculations correctly look here if you haven’t done so:

    http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 September 2019 at 19:07:34 #922489

    Thank you. We are arriving in Geneva November 24th and going to Zermatt for 2 nights and then to Lucerne and Zurich. When I did the math it came out about equal. From Zurich we are mainly visiting watch museums for my son. So we were thinking of renting a car to go to Shaffhausen, Basel, Bienne and Chaux der Fonds on the way back to Geneva. Do you think having the car makes sense vs trying to do all those stops by train?

    Luke
    Participant
    105 posts
    21 September 2019 at 22:41:02 #922490

    It is pretty rare that a car makes sense in Switzerland – unless you are a bigger family splitting the cost then a rail pass would make more sense economically.

    Use the SBB timetable to plan out all your trips and see how to works for you: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable – trains are super convenient in 95% of situations.

    Note the pricing is listed here too but by default it lists the Half Fare Card price so double it for the normal fares if you want to look into that while checking the schedules.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 September 2019 at 23:59:02 #922491

    The Swiss transport system is famously efficient. You can get to all the places you mention by train and journeys are rarely more than 2 – 3 hours or so. I would think a Swiss Travel Pass would be more convenient.

    Don’t forget that the half fare card has to be purchased first

    Annika
    Moderator
    7104 posts
    22 September 2019 at 9:58:08 #922492

    I fully agree with Luke and 1960man that Swiss public transportation is excellent, and I’d definitely recommend it over hiring a car which comes with quite some disadvantages. Please read about the pros and cons at http://www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrain.

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