Which is the best rail pass to get?

Hello all,

I will be travelling to Switzerland in February 2016 for 5 days.

If based on my itinerary below, do I need to get a rail pass? If yes, which would be the best?

Day 1 - Arrive in Basel in the afternoon and travel to Wilderswil

Day 2 - Wilderswil, will be visiting jungfraujoch for day and if possible either murren or wengen or interlaken on the way back

Day 3 - Wilderswil to Lucerne in the morning, will try to visit Engelberg

Day 4 - Lucerne to Zurich in the afternoon

Day 5 - Flying off from Zurich airport

Thank you very much!

Hi SereneN, thanks for your post,

Both the Swiss Half Fare Card and the 4-day Swiss Travel Pass fit your plans. I'd recommend the Swiss Travel Pass for convenience. If you'd like to know for sure whether the Swiss Half Fare Card works out cheaper, then you can do the math as explained here. Please find pass retailers here:

• myswissalps.com/ swisstravelpass/price
• myswissalps.com/ swisshalffarecard/pric e

If the weather is bad on day 2 you can go to Interlaken for shopping, but otherwise I would recommend one of the smaller towns for better scenery.

Hi Arno,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply!

Can I confirm that out of all the routes from my itinerary, only Jungfraujoch and Engelberg is not covered in the Swiss Pass?

And is it possible to do a travel down to Mt Rigi on Day 3 from Lucerne as I understand that Mt Rigi is covered in the pass?

Also, I can purchase the 4-day Swiss Pass directly from Zurich Airport or Basel airport right?

Thanks!

You're welcome SenereN! Jungfraujoch is free to Wengen, and 25% off from there. Engelberg is free, as well as Mount Rigi. But you can best take a look at the coverage map yourself; all the details are there.

All purchase options are listed on the pages I gave you in my previous post. You can indeed buy locally, although it's much more convenient the simply buy through www.swissrailways.com/ en and print the pass at home. That way you can board your train right away upon arrival, rather than going to a ticket office first. It would be a waste of time to miss the first train just to buy a pass.

Enjoy your stay!

Thank you so much Arno!

I think I might consider purchase it in Singapore as it would be safer to get it on the spot.

Really appreciate your help on the questions! Thanks again!

That's indeed another option. Your local retailer offers the pass through www.raileurope.com.sg/ pass/swiss-travel-pass-82 and you can collect your order at the People's Park Centre in Singapore. Their current prices are higher though, and I expect them to issue a pass that still needs to be validated at the ticket office of the airport, so you won't save time. An advantage is payment in your local currency. The website I mentioned in my previous post is the official Swiss website for rail passes and perfectly safe.

Anyway, you have all the options now ;-)

I've called and checked with them and yes it is indeed higher. They mentioned that I can just activate it online through their site and all is done. There are also others that are selling the rail pass and are able to get it done within a few days, so I'll compare and see which is the best! :)

Thank you so much! :)