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I do not see a 4-day Swiss Pass Flex Pass… Is that even an option? Or maybe someone can recommend the best pass for my family, please.
We are a family of 4 ( 2 adults and 2 17 YO teens). We will arrive in Geneva on June 4th and will proceed to Lauterbrunnen.
Lauterbrunnen is going to be our base from June 4th-June 7th , and we will explore, by train, towns of Grindelwald, Interlaken and Lucerne.
We intend to visit sights like Schilthorn, Top of Europe/Jungfrauch mountain, Chapel Bridge—and everything we can fit while in Lauterbrunnen.
On the 7th, we will leave for Zurich and will stay there until we fly back to the US on June 9th.
Are you able to recommend which pass we are supposed to get? We are not renting a car, we will be dependent entirely on public transportation.
If we get the 4-day Swiss Pass Flex, will our train fares be FREE while in Lauterbrunnen as we travel to the sights I mentioned.
I also considered the Swiss Half Fare cards for us, but it’s a bit hard to determine fares bust because of the many stops/transfers I have to reseach further.
Thank you for your help
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Hi dianesher, and welcome to MySwissAlps,
There is a 4-day Swiss Travel Pass Flex: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpassflex. With this pass your travel for free by trains, buses, boats and city transport and you get discount on top attractions: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpassflex/vali dity.
In order to pick the best rail pass for your trip read our page on how to choose the best rail pass. You’ll need to decide where you will be traveling to during your trip and do the math to compare point to point tickets vs. different rail passes.
Hello Diane,
A Flex pass only has value on the 4 days you nominate to use it for travel. On the other days you can’t use it for anything.
From Geneva to Lauterbrunnen you will follow the Golden Pass Line (http://www.myswissalps.com/go ldenpass) yes?
Unless your Zurich flight leaves early morning think about staying in Lucerne on 7, 8 June. That would be the time to see Chapel Bridge and other things around Lucerne rather than a day trip from Lauterbrunnen. Zurich Airport is 1 hour from Lucerne which is a great city.
Thank you for your response rockoyster. The reason I thought of considering the Flex pass is because we are not “constraint’ to using the passes in 4 consecutive days–not unless I misunderstood its restrictions. If and when we decide to “rest’ on 3rd day and go easy, then I still have at least 1 more day to pick as travel day…please correct me if I’m wrong, though.
Perfect timing, you brought up the Golden Pass Line… We never explored on that one yet but we’re thinking of taking one of the panoramic lines, just didn’t know where/how to start. When we arrive in Geneva, we are actually coming from Chamonix ( Chamonix to Geneva train). You’re saying that the Golden Pass Line is an option from Geneva to Lauterbrunnen? That’s good to know, I ‘ll check out the link you provided–not unless you have an easy/fast recommendation.
Yes, staying in Lucerne can be an option too. Do you know of any panoramic train route we can do on the 8th ( to and from Zurich or Lucerne) other than the Golden Pass Line?
Thank you!!!
Thanks, Chantal! Yes, I guess I really have to sit down and figure out ticket prices for every routes.
Your understanding of the flex pass is correct. Just wanted to make sure you knew you can’t use it to visit a museum in Zurich, or something, on a non-travel day. Many people make that wrong assumption.
Golden Pass Interlaken to Lucerne is quite scenic.
If you are coming from Chamonix you would need to get back to Montreux to get GPL to Lauterbrunnen. Alternative is to go via Brig and Kandersteg to ensure the most scenic alternative route if GPL takes too long for your plans.
Use the Swiss Train Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) to check timings.
>> We will arrive in Geneva on June 4th and will proceed to Lauterbrunnen … When we arrive in Geneva, we are actually coming from Chamonix ( Chamonix to Geneva train).
As it appears you do not intend to do any sightseeing in Geneva, is there a particular reason why you are going from Chamonix to Lauterbrunnen via Geneva?
If you are taking the Mont Blanc Express train from Chamonix to Martigny, it would not make sense to go to Geneva before continuing to Lauterbrunnen.
If you are taking a different route, as far as I know, a bus sector would be involved for the final leg into Geneva.
A bonus in relation to the scenic Mont Blanc Express route is that it is all by train, and fully covered by the Swiss Travel Pass, including the sector between Chamonix and the Swiss border.
Alpenrose
Thanks, Alpenrose!
We will have a day at least to explore Geneva on June 1st right before we travel to Chamonix and stay until the 4th.
I have very limited information right now on train routes, so we initially just picked Geneva as point of origin to connect to Lauterbrunnen..
Following your recommendation, so it would look like this?
Leg 1=Chamonix to Martigny via Mont Blanc Espress ( bus to Vallorcine, then train to Martigny)
Leg 2 = Hop on Martigny-Lauterbrunner train ( via Visp/Spiez/Interlaken)
This entire route is thru Mont Blanc Express? Is this the same as the Golden Line Pass?
Another questions… So how does it work? We buy our Swiss Pass and just print the passes? Since it’s described as “ticketless”, can we simply hop on the trains/buses and simply show our passes. Do you think we will have ample time to change platforms? What if we miss our train, can we just hop on to the next train schedule? Thanks again.
Thanks,rockoyster! I plugged in Montreux to LAuterbrunnen in the timetable link you sent me and it showed connections to Visp/Spiez/Interlaken—missed the Brig route, route.. When finding the right train on the platforms, is there a specific information I need to watch out that will tell me that I’m taking the GPL?
If you are starting from Montreux then follow the GPL via Zweisimmen. Forget Kandersteg. That was only if you were to go direct from Chamonix to Lauterbrunnen via a GPL alternative.
The timetable will tell you what train number and platform you need at Montreux. The Panoramic trains are pretty obvious.
Hi Rockoyster,
Not sure what I’m doing incorrectly… Everytime I plugged in Montreux to Lauterbrunnen via Zweisimmen route on the timetable for June 4th, it always goes back or reverts to June 3rd. I checked the other website, reservations.mob.ch, and it tells me that the GPL line on this route runs on June 4th, but I don’t understand why it won’t come up if I do it on sbb.ch.
Is there a link that shows schedule of trains that I can print out. Thank you!
Hi dianesher,
You are the third or fourth one reporting this issue tonight. There must be a technical issue tonight. Anyway, the Golden Pass train runs on June 4th.
Thanks, Chantal. I will try again later, hopefully I will get the accurate information.
If the issue you’re having is when you select a date, it automatically goes back one day, I’ve had this issue every time I’ve used the SBB site since I started looking up Swiss rail tickets a few weeks ago — it may be some sort of browser issue? Once you’ve selected the date (and it’s subtracted one day on its own), use the little right arrow in the date box to advance to your intended date, and it should work (at least it does for me)
I think it is possibly a time zone issue. Guess.
Has anyone having this problem tried using the SBB Mobile App to see if that is also affected?
>> Everytime I plugged in Montreux to Lauterbrunnen via Zweisimmen route on the timetable for June 4th, it always goes back or reverts to June 3rd … Is there a link that shows schedule of trains that I can print out.
I have attached a timetable for trains Montreux-Lauterbrunnen via Zweisimmen for 4 June 2018. The services highlighted in yellow include the Golden Pass MOB Panoramic coaches between Montreux and Zweisimmen.
Alpenrose
Thank you Tanman, Rockoyster and Alpenrose for your responses.Thanks Alpenrose for the link, I wish I can figure out how to do or find that myself.
After reading your responses last night, I tried and searched again and I was unsuccessful. This morning, I tried many times until it finally showed the June 4th schedule ( print out is different from Alpensrose’s attachment)–seemed like hit or miss for me. Buy when I clicked” Purchase Tickets”, it tells me ” No record”. Is that normal since it’s too early to purchase?
I intend to purchase the 4-day travel pass 30 days prior to travel date but I was only curious to check how much it cost WITHOUT the pass.
Since it says “Reservation Recommended” on that MOB/GPL route, WHERE do I make that actual reservation for that specific time we’ll travel on the 4th? Is there a separate link?
Thank you all
Hello Diane,
Congratulations! You’ve uncovered another bug. 🤓
I’m seeing same thing here.
For reservations read http://www.mob.ch/en/reservat ion-procedure. There is a link at the top of that page which takes you to the MOB reservation site.
BTW 2nd class full fare is CHF61.40 on 20 April.
Thanks for the link, Rockoyster.
Thank you, that’s about CHF200+ already for a family of 4 just for this 1 trip.
I have to make my 4-day pass – CHF1272 really worthwhile 🙂
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