Swiss Travel Pass or Eurail Switzerland-Austria?

Hi guys! We have finalised our itinerary for our visit in June next year, but I am having a HEAP of trouble deciding which rail pass is best (a frequent problem I notice!!) Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I have done the math re point to point fares, and a rail pass of some sort is definitely the way to go. Our itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 - Arrive Zurich airport, train to Lucerne

Days 2 & 3 - Lucerne (boat ride and maybe Rigi/Titlis?)

Day 4 - train to Lauterbrunnen (via Interlaken)

Day 5,6,7 - Lauterbrunnen area (maybe trip to Grindlewald, definitely Wengen, Murren and probably Junfraujoch

Day 8 - Train to Berne (special request from hubby)

Day 9 - Train to Innsbruck

Day 10 - Train to Salzburg

Days 11,12,13 - Salzburg (maybe trip to Hallstadt...)

Day 14 - Train to Vienna

Day 15 - Fly to Amsterdam

The Swiss Travel pass looks like the best pass for Switzerland, with all the extras included, but maybe the Swiss/Austria Eurail would do? What do you think?

Karen

Hi Karen,

Welcome, and thanks for joining us! The main difference is that the Swiss Travel Pass includes museums, urban transport (city buses, trams), and free traveling to Mount Rigi, Grindelwald, Mürren and Wengen. The Eurail Austria-Switzerland Pass either does not cover this, or only offers a discount. In order to compare them price wise, these pages will help you out:

• myswissalps.com/ swisstravelpass/ validity
• myswissalps.com/ eurailaustriaswitzerla ndpass/ validity
• myswissalps.com/ train/ticketspasses/ practical/ chooserailpass

Thanks Arno, I will check it out further....it seems the Eurail pass is cheaper and, of course, includes Austria in it, but we will be using some kind of transport most days in Switzerland, so I'd better do my sums!!

You're welcome Karen. Please share the outcome of your calculations if you can. And, do take into account that Swiss Travel Passes are cheaper online. That will most probably be true until late December; I don't know what happens to the prices after that. Plus, until November 3 you can buy passes that can be validated for a year (normally 6 months). All the details are here: myswissalps.com/ swisstravelpass/ price.