My family of 4 (teenagers 19 & 16) will be travelling Germany and Switzerland in late August. When we leave Germany we will travel from Garmisch to Wengen (full train travel day on 8/29) and then stay in that region for 4 nights before departing from Zurich airport (2pm flight on 9/2). I am trying to figure out best value options for us.
- I looked at the Berner Overland regional pass and I believe other than Jungfrau and Schilthorn, are all other lifts, trains etc. included so that if we go up and down from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Murren, to Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald - is all that included (trains and gondolas?)
- Is there a place to see all the prices of these gondolas so I can price out what costs would be if we did individually?
- I believe we will be getting a Bavaria regional pass that will get us to the German/Swiss border at Lindau. If we have the BO regional pass, that would start at Bern. Are there cost effective options to get from Lindau to Bern and then also from Bern to Zurich airport when we depart? I'm wondering if a swiss pass might be better if the cost of these two trips outside the BO pass are really high?
- If we have an extra day in Switzerland in the BO region, is Luzern a good option to sightsee, or other ideas?
Thanks!
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11775 posts
Yes, all trains and lifts in the area are included. You can even ride the train to Bern. The map on this link illustrates all of the routes covered. We have purchased the BO pass on 3 trips to the area and used from 150% to over 200% of the value. This site allows you to view fares from one location to many others. Example: click on Wengen and a chart comes up that shows you destinations and fares.
I do not know about Lindau to Bern, but the Swiss Half-Fare Card gives you 50% off every train trip in Switzerland and a discount on the BO Pass. So Bern to Zurich would be at half-fare. Since the Half-Fare Card costs 120.00CHF, you'd have to do the math.
For a trip we have coming up in May (not in the Berner-Oberland) I calculated every segment and pass possibility and found although we would be using transportation (train or lift or both) for 8 consecutive days, only the Half-Fare Card made sense and saved us some money.
For a 1 week stay in the BO last fall, plus 4 nights in Zermatt, the Half-Fare Card plus BO Pass saved us CHF 552.00 and in the BO alone we used more than 200% of the value of the BO Pass.