I've read all the info on Rick's site twice BUT I still don't understand whether I should buy a senior pass (I'm 62) and whether that will give me discounts on top of purchasing a Half Fare Card good for one month in Switzerland. Additionally, is the Half Fare Card the same as a Select Pass? (We are visiting Switzerland, Italy and southern France and planning to take trains between most locations). Also, using Firefox, if you follow the links to the Eurail pass purchase site, nothing works properly. :-(
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Anara, The "The GA travelcard for senior citizens." is an annual pass for "Women aged 64 years and over and men aged 65 years and over". It is valid for 12 months on all transport in Switzerland and is only available to Swiss residents - not what you are looking for.
SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) sells two types of passes for tourists:
1) Swiss Pass. Covers all transport in Switzerland (train + bus + boat + city transport) for varying periods. Details here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-travel-pass.html
2) Half Fare Card. CHF 120 for 1 month. Allows you to buy all your tickets at half price (= children's' fare). Details here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-halffare-card.html
Some foreign companies also resell these passes priced in foreign currency.
The "select pass" is something sold by a company called Eurail to tourists from outside Europe. Eurail is an agency and doesn't run any trains. Their pass is valid on SBB and some other Swiss railway companies, but not all. It is only valid on trains.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Don't get sucked into the Eurail Pass mess.
Switzerland - if you want a pass then get the HFC like you've already talked about. But unless you total up the cost of your trips how will you know if it's worth your money to even buy the HFC?
Italy - point to point tix are dirt cheap. No need for ANY pass. Either buy from trenitalia.com or from trainline.eu
France - just buy your point to point tix from trainline.eu because the french rail site is sometimes finicky about credit cards
Rick Steves website really pushes the Eurail Passes - but that doesn't mean you need or want them
Posted by
OP
8 posts
Thanks both Tim and Chris F for your responses! I also found much clearer and more detailed explanations of train travel in Europe at www.seat61.com, thanks to another posting in these forums. How wonderful to be able to rely upon more experienced travelers!
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
At a rough guess, the Swiss products may be a better value, but that's based on the assumption that you're not really covering much distance in the other two countries. For some people, the opposite is true.
If you want to view prices of Select pass options, what you currently (probably for a few more days) have to do from our link is to re-size your desktop browser window to a more narrow, vertical frame, like the shape of a phone.