New traveler here! I’m confused as to whether paying for a half fare card would even be worth it if some cities offer a guest pass for free travel anyways? For instance, zurich and Luzern offer it from what I see.
I still purchased the HFC and the berner Oberland pass, but I’m wondering what everyone else does.
The city guest passes only offer free transit in and around the city. Their areas of validity can be quite large in some cases, but the expensive cable cars and mountain railways are never covered. Neither are intercity trains. For those, you need the half-fare card.
Conversely, the discounts offered on urban trams and buses when you have the half-fare card vary between cities from "zero" to "small".
Personally, I am on the verge of buying a yearly half-fare card due to frequent work trips, but I only consider the guest passes to be a nice bonus!
Wether you get a guest pass, and wether it is worth something varies.
You don't get one in Zurich. The ones you get in the Bernese Oberland are pretty much useless.
However for example in Ticino you get free public transit in the whole canton which is a great deal.
So for the Bernese Oberland getting the BO pass is probably the right thing.
