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Another Scenario to Figure out Train Passes

Hello, I will be arriving in Switzerland April 7th for 2 weeks. My itinerary is as follows:

Lucerne - 2 nights
Grindelwald - 4 nights
Zermatt - 2 nights
Montreux - 4 nights
ZRH - 1 night

There are 7 of us - 2 are in their mid 80s (my mom passed away a few years ago and these are her best friends from high school), 4 of us are the daughters, and a niece. Only 3 of us are very active. We are interested in food, wine, history, and architecture. I have traveled extensively and have been elected the tour director/planner.

Along with the above transportation routes, we'd like to take the Jungfrau Railway, and the Gornergrat Railway to the Matterhorn, weather permitting. We would also like to visit Gruyere and Maison Cailler in Broc while in Montreux.

So, my question is which pass should we buy? I have never been to Switzerland, but I have done research on the types of passes. i have a few concerns that may sway the decision one way or another. I don't particularly want to have to buy tickets for each time we get on a train. (I guess I could simply buy them for everyone and pass them out.) What if I have missed something in my research and there are other routes we may want to take? I could buy the half-price card. The full pass is more flexible but is expensive in my opinion. The flex pass would work as we are only staying 2 weeks, but what if we want to use the train more often than I assume now?

Any help would be appreciated! At this point I have analysis paralysis! :)

Posted by
23129 posts

Yes, the Flex Pass does not give any discounts if it is not active that day. You'd probably need at least an 8 day Flex Pass, costing 439 CHF, Since a continuous 15 day pass is 499 CHF, you will have a lot more flexibility for only 60 CHF.

Posted by
1275 posts

The Swiss Travel Pass may seem expensive to you, but I think you might not realize how much Swiss transportation actually costs. I did some quick rounded math for you on the following list….

Zurich Flughafen > Luzern
Luzern > Boat ride to Vitznau + Rigi roundtrip
Luzern > Grindelwald
Grindelwald > Jungfraujoch roundtrip
Grindelwald First roundtrip
Grindelwald > Murren/Schilthorn/Lauterbrunnen Valley roundtrip
Lake day from Grindelwald roundtrip
Grindelwald > Zermatt
Gornergrat roundtrip
Zermatt > Montreux
Montreux > Gruyeres/Broc roundtrip
Etc unknown in Montreux
Montreux > Zurich Flughafen

These are the numbers per person
Full Fare = 1150 chf
Half Fare Card = 725 chf
(150 for HFC + 50% fares)
15 day Swiss Travel Pass = 740 chf
(499 for 15 day STP + 240chf in supplement fares for Jungfraujoch (25% off) and 50% off Schilthorn, First & Gornergrat)

As the STP is only coming out about 20 chf more expensive than the half fare card, the convenience is worthwhile for a group trip, as you avoid having to purchase so many tickets and can just hop on/off unplanned additional activities. The reality is that for a 2 week trip to Switzerland, I typically tell people to budget $1000 USD per adult. My calculations are coming in around $940 for you with the STP, so you're at the number I'd expect.

Posted by
18 posts

Thank you both very much for the replies! I appreciate it, especially knowing how many others have asked similar questions. I was leaning towards the STP, and this clinches it.

Wanderweg, thank you very much for the calculations and research you did!

Terri

Posted by
3765 posts

Another way to look at this is as follows: Buy a pass for convenience, then get most out of it.

For example with the STP you also have free travel on the lake steamers on lake Geneva. So if the weather is nice you can just add a boat ride to your day. You can also easily go a day to Bern for example if the weather is bad etc...