MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Swiss Travel Pass for Zermatt + train from Germany
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We are traveling from Frankfurt > Baden-Baden > Interlakin > Wengen > Zermatt > Zurich
My assumption is that the Swiss Travel pass will be needed to go between cities but is it worth purchasing while in Zermatt? It looks like I would only need to get from Tasch > to Zermatt and everything else in Zermatt is walking? Or do I need it to access the cable cars as well? With the full travel pass, it is still only 50% off on the train from Tasch and cable cars, correct?
If anyone can help figuring out how to get from Germany to Switzerland using trains, that would be helpful as well :).
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The Swiss Travel pass would suit your needs, valid from Basel SBB and for the rest of your stay in Switzerland. You are correct about the discounts offered by the pass on railway and cable lines that are not already free with the pass.
From Germany take any express train to Basel. You can buy from Bahn.com – look out for ‘Sparpreis’ tickets as they are cheaper
Thank you. So would you say that the pass is not necessary while in zermatt for 6days?
Hi Ryandbrantle, welcome to MySwissAlps!
If you want to use cogwheel trains and cable cars around Zermatt, the 50% discount offered by the Swiss Travel Pass is extremely useful. Without a pass you’d have to pay full fares, and that adds up quickly. Please find a downloadable validity map and a list of covered activities here: https://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/validity.
Whether it’s the best solution depends on the rest of your trip. How long does your stay in Switzerland last? Will you also be staying in Interlaken/Wengen, and do you plan to make mountain trips while being there? Such questions are important to determine which pass is best. I recommend to use this guide: https://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass.
There are many train connections from Frankfurt. You’ll find all details by entering your trip in the Swiss timetable (from Frankfurt, to Interlaken Ost). This page explains how it works: https://www.myswissalps.com/timetable. Do you necessarily have to travel via Baden-Baden? If not, note there are direct ICE trains available between Frankfurt and Basel. Or you could travel to Mannheim and board the direct EC train from Mannheim to Interlaken Ost. Those options aren’t necessarily quicker than traveling via Baden-Baden, but they do require just 1 change of trains and you might prefer that.
You’ll find a lot more information about traveling from Germany to Switzerland by train at
- https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/germany
- https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/germany/price
If you have a valid Swiss Travel Pass on the day of your inbound train trip, you only need a ticket from Frankfurt to the Swiss-German border. Please see “Traveling beyond the area covered by the pass” at http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/howtouse.
I hope those answers help you out. Feel free to ask any further questions!
This is a lot of information, thank you! We land in Frankfurt and plan to spend day 1 in Baden Baden (we don’t have to stop but I’d like to experience a little Germany since we’re there 😊),Then we will be in Switzerland an additional 10 days (leaving the 11th day out of Zurich). We will spend 2-3 days based In Interlakin but yes traveling to Wengen and possibly Grindelwald. The rest of the trip will be spent in Zermatt where we want to spend 3-4 of those days skiing. In Zermatt does buying the ski pass get us on the cable cars or is that completely separate? Does the half fare Swiss travel pass still get us discounts on the mountain trains/cable cars or is the full fare card necessary? I’ve tried looking at the map but it hard to make out what is what. 🙃
Hi Ryandbrantle,
A 15-day Swiss Travel Pass might be easiest for your plans. It may look like a lot more than you need, but the price difference with an 8-day pass is only CHF 40 (2nd class): see http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/price. That’s an amount you’ll quickly spend on full-fare tickets for the 2 days that wouldn’t be covered with an 8-day pass. A Swiss Half Fare Card would work too. You’d have to make calclations to be sure.
Both the Swiss Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/validity) as well as the Swiss Half Fare Card (http://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard/validity) offer discounts on the mountain tops near Zermatt. The legend at the downloadable maps, plus the explanation near the download, may help you interpret the maps. Otherwise you can scroll further down. You’ll find a list of activities and their discount percentage their. In addition you can study the Tickets section of the mountain tops near Zermatt. Scroll down for an overview of rail passes that offer discounts, for example:
- https://www.myswissalps.com/gornergrat/tickets
- http://www.myswissalps.com/kleinmatterhorn/tickets
- http://www.myswissalps.com/sunneggarothorn/tickets
Both passes don’t include ski lifts. If you plan to use them intensively, getting an additional ski pass might be beneficial. If you book ski classes (see http://www.myswissalps.com/activities/winter/beginnerski) , access to mountain lifts may already be included.
You need to calculate very carefully the costs of the various options you have. For modern day skiing it is highly impractical to use anything other than the full-blown ski pass if skiing ‘intensively’ for more than one day. That means that although you might get a STP discount on main links such as Gornergratbahn, this limits the ski area you can access. So ideally, you should aim to not have a valid Swiss Travel Pass for the days you are skiing in Zermatt as they will be ‘wasted days’
Whilst it is theoretically possible to ski using just the main railway and cable cars as uphill transport, it is very restrictive because you will undoubtedly want / need to use the ski tows, chair lifts etc that are the main links on the ski network.
We will 💯 get the full ski pass. But I was more or less asking if having the Swiss travel pass is worth it while I’m Zermatt especially since we will be skiing 4 of the days
Hi Ryandbrantle,
In that case you could look into the Swiss Travel Pass Flex (https://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpassflex) as well. You wouldn’t use free travel days while in Zermatt, but a ski pass instead.
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