Train pass advice Lucerne Murren Wengen

Hi there.

I would love some advice. My husband and I are traveling to Switzerland at the end of July, for the first time! I have been spending hours trying to determine if it's best for us to purchase a Swiss half Fare card for trains and activities, or to just buy the Swiss Flex Pass.

We are flying into Salzburg for 3 days, then plan on taking the train to Lucerne for 4 days, then on to Murren for 3 days, and then to Bern for 2, and then to Zurich to fly home. Was thinking the flex pass for 4 non consecutive days would work, but now I am questioning myself. Do the 3 legs of transportation to get to Murren count as one trip? And is the flex pass for a day of travel, regardless of how many different trains you get on? or is it per train? I was also thinking to just take the train from Salzburg to Buchs, and then getting off and grabbing a different train to get us to Lucerne, using the flex pass.

So I guess my question, is which would make more sense? I wasn't able to find how much the trip is from Lucerne to Murren, so that didn't help me determine if it was cheaper to get the flex pass or to just show up and buy individual tickets per trip with the half fare card.

Thank you so much for any help or advice you can give me. Very, very excited for our trip, and I just want to make sure I purchase the best choice for us.

Hi kimlewis, welcome to MySwissAlps!

Here's a few tips that hopefully help to make a choice:

• The Swiss Travel Pass Flex is too expensive for the average itinerary, and for yours as well I think. It allows unlimited traveling, regardless of how many trains you take on a day (click "How to use" on the linked page). A 4-day pass would not make sense as you will most probably also make day trips by cable car, etc. on the "non-travel days". You would pay the full regular price without a pass on these days. A Swiss Travel Pass Flex Combi could work, but again this is too expensive in most cases. Either a Swiss Half Fare Card or Swiss Travel Pass will work better I guess. You can do the math if you want to be sure.
• Regardless of which ticket or pass you choose, there is no need to get off the train in Buchs and take a different train to Lucerne. Just make sure you have purchased everything in advance and stay seated. For Lucerne, you would usually change train in Zurich.

Thank you for the quick reply!

i do have a question about the Swiss travel pass. I didn't think it was an option for us, because we had days between when we would need to take a train, and I assumed we would then need an 8 day pass, which seems expensive if we are only traveling every few days. I guess the words consecutive travel days confuses me. Sorry for needing clarification on this matter. Thank you!

Hi kimlewis,

I think the confusion might be that you focus on the town to town traveling only. But that's probably not the only traveling you will be doing. I assume you will be making day trips by boats, cable cars, cogwheel trains, etc. These trips are at least as expensive as town to town transfers, and often even more expensive. An 8-day pass may very well your most convenient and economical option. Note that a "rail" pass is not for trains only, it's for all public transport.

You'd better make a list of all traveling you plan to do, and museum visits as well (most museums are free with the Swiss Travel Pass). Then do the math as explained in the link I provided in my previous post.