[Removed user]

8 March 2018 at 21:31:26 #814675

Hi, in July my husband, twin 21 yr. olds, and myself will be doing a 2 week Europe trip, our first visit. After looking at all the numbers it seems a 4 day Swiss travel pass flex is our most economical option for Switzerland. Our itinerary is: 7/14 – fly into Paris

7/17 – TGV lyria Paris to Basel, then Swiss trains to Lauterbrunnen, cable car and cogwheel train to Murren, staying 2 nights in Murren

7/18 or 19 – cable cars to Schilthorn, hike down from Birg, depending on weather, otherwise hiking around Murren/Gimmelwald area

7/19 back to Lauterbrunnen via hiking/biking/bus?, not sure, then stay at Valley Hostel (won’t use STP this day)

7/20 take 7:02 am train to Brig, to catch 9:18 Glacier Express to St. Moritz, then local train on to Pontresina, stay 2 nights

7/22 take 7:02 train to Fussen, Germany via Samedan/Chur/St. Margrethen/Buchloe

7/23 visit Castles, take local train to Munich, then NIghtjet to Venice

7/26 train Venice to Rome

7/29 fly home

My understanding with STP is that I don’t need to purchase any tickets or reservations in advance for swiss rail segments, except will need reservations on the Glacier Express starting 90 days before. Is this correct? Do you have any other suggestions? Also, if the swiss rail website gives a connection time those are all supposed to be doable, correct? (We are 4 healthy active adults traveling with backpacks.) Thank you in advance for your help!

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[rockoyster]

8 March 2018 at 21:45:57 #878181

“My understanding with STP is that I don’t need to purchase any tickets or reservations in advance for swiss rail segments, except will need reservations on the Glacier Express starting 90 days before. Is this correct?”

Yes.

“Also, if the swiss rail website gives a connection time those are all supposed to be doable, correct?”

Yes. If the timetable shows a connection then that service is running on the day you have selected.

[rockoyster]

8 March 2018 at 23:36:42 #878182

If you were prepared to depart Lauterbrunnen at 06:00 you could go to Brig via Kandersteg. It’s a longer but more scenic train ride. Between Spiez and Brig you will avoid the Lötschberger Base Tunnel and travel on the Regio-Express Lötschberger train over the traditional, more than 100 year old mountain route, giving you a wonderful view along the impressive peaks and down into the Rhone Valley.

Just saying . . . . .

[Removed user]

9 March 2018 at 1:35:37 #878183

Thank you, Rockoyster. We are open to suggestions, so I appreciate your information. The more scenic way sounds wonderful. My only concern would be that we already have a long day of train travel with doing the Glacier Express. On the other hand, we want to enjoy as much of Switzerland as possible while we are there, so I’ll see if the family is willing to give up an extra hour of sleep. 🙂 Since we don’t need to make reservations or buy tickets ahead for that leg of the journey, we could decide that the night before, correct? Then just arrive at train station at appropriate time?

[rockoyster]

9 March 2018 at 2:14:47 #878184

Sure thing no need to make any commitments until you see how you feel. It does make a long day longer but if you set off early you’ll probably have time for brekkie in Brig. 🤓

[Removed user]

9 March 2018 at 3:44:49 #878185

How much longer is the trip to take the longer, regional train you mentioned?

[rockoyster]

9 March 2018 at 4:09:22 #878186

Hello Laurie,

Is you look up the the Swiss Train Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) for say Spiez to Brig it will give you the default fastest route which happens to be via Visp. If you then add via Kandersteg to the route you can compare the times for both options.

[Removed user]

9 March 2018 at 17:45:17 #878187

Thanks again for the info, Rockoyster. I wanted to make sure I was not way off base with our train plans before I purchased STP and other point t0 point tickets. Originally I planned to purchase STP from swissrailways.com since they were the cheapest, but I will redo the math and see if the current promo with rail Europe is better. We plan to travel all second class when possible.