7103 posts
Welcome to MySwissAlps, Danielle!
Yes, this sure sounds like an 8 day Swiss Travel Pass is a perfect fit. It will cover regular trains, buses and boat trips, as well as Rigi and Pilatus. Other mountain transportation is discounted. Please find coverage details at myswissalps.com/swisst ravelpass/validity and retailers at myswissalps.com/swisst ravelpass/price. Assuming your Swiss Travel Pass is still valid during your outbound trip to Italy, you’ll be covered as far as Domodossola, so you need an additional ticket Domodossola-Florence: myswissalps.com/traint ickets/italy.
72625 posts
It helped me by breaking it down into days, not nights. Depending on the type of pass (tell pass, bernese oberland, STP etc…) and how many days you buy, the per-day cost can be around $50-70 per day. So perhaps your first day is just taking the train from the airport to Lucerne and no other travel, might not be worth it that day. Also, on the train to Florence, if you can commit to a specific train, you can often get advance-purchase deals on the fast trains (we got Spiez to Milan for $25 on trenitalia website). We are spending 2 full days in Lucerne and 4 full days in Wengen and decided on the 1/2 pass + the 4 day Bernese Oberland Regional Pass since we wanted maximum coverage for all the mountain transport around Wengen etc… The STP doesn’t cover many of the mountain cable cars in the wengen area, but the BO pass does. And the BO pass gets us down from Lucerne. FYI, attached is the Wengen area map showing what the BO pass for free and the STP covers for free.
72625 posts
Also, if you buy the 1/2 price card ($120), you have the ability to buy a day-pass. The bargain of this type is the “9 o’clock travelpass” which gives you a full day of travel on the full network M-F so long as you leave after 9 am. If you leave early, just buy a ticket to the stop where you will be at 9am and then free from then on. You can buy a 6-pack of day passes for $48 a day.