My husband and I have bought the 4-day (w/ 5th day extension) Eurail pass with Switzerland as one of our three chosen countries. My understanding is that we get discounts on some of the gondolas in BO area and those discounts don't use a travel day on the pass.
However, I cannot confirm online whether we can still receive these discounts if we have already used our 5th travel day on the pass.
Does anyone know if we must have at least 1 travel day remaining in order to get the gondola discounts?
yes, otherwise you have a lovely free discount forever
Beware, Eurail passes have less coverage of Swiss local railways than Swiss passes do. In particular, in the Berner Oberland Area, Eurail passes DO NOT cover you past Interlaken.
Thanks for the responses Nigel and Chris F, I appreciate it.
Nigel, I had thought there was a chance of the discounts applying to a window of time from the date of activation/validating, rather than cutting off as soon as the last travel day is used. Of course the benefits won't last forever.
Chris F, when you say "Eurail passes DO NOT cover you past Interlaken." do you mean that the pass doesn't do anything MORE than offer a 25% discount on SOME of the gondolas past Interlaken? If you mean anything other than that, then it's news to me! Please share more details.
Hi aadent,
As long as your pass is still valid, you will get the discount. Just show your pass at the train or lift station before boarding to get your discounted ticket. Your pass is valid for a 2-month period (for Eurail Global and Selectpasses) or 1-month (for many 2-country select passes) from the first day you use it. Your pass should have come with a Eurail guide, which explains the discounts and usage, so you might read through that for more clarification. Eurail Passes that include Switzerland will give you a 25 percent discount off trains and lifts above Interlaken (otherwise tickets cost, from Interlaken, about $8 to Lauterbrunnen, $8 to Grindelwald, $15 to Wengen, $200 round-trip to Jungfraujoch; Schilthornbahn cable car otherwise about $100 round-trip from Stechelberg, $75 with early-morning discount).
just curious, If you have used up all your travel days, how are you getting out of the Berner Oberland? Will you be buying a point-to-point ticket to somewhere like Zurich or Geneve to fly out? For example, a ticket from Interlaken Ost to either Zurich or Geneve Airports is about $75. If you are taking a shorter, cheaper train ride somewhere else in your trip, you can buy this ticket and use your pass for the trip out of Switzerland.
Aadent, sorry for being a bit ambiguous. AFAIK a Eurailpass gives you a discount past Interlaken on the rail lines up to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, but does not give you free travel, which Swiss passes do. I.e you have to buy a (discounted) ticket.
Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen is not a cable car, it is a normal railway line, just operated by a different company. The cable cars do not start until you get to Lauterbrunnen and you leave the valley and start going up the side of a mountain. Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen is CHF 7.60, of which you would pay 75%. Not $10, they do not use '$' in Switzerland.
Yes, you will of course be paying in Swiss Francs. I put the prices in $ since many Americans want to know what the price equivalent is in USD.
XE app and you won't ever have to estimate currency equivalents again.
Thanks, Rich and Chris!
Rich, the info you provided about the 2-month period was exactly what I was looking (and hoping) to find! Unfortunately, I managed to leave the Eurail guide at home and couldn't remember what I had read nearly 2 months ago. At least I did remember to bring the pass and voucher ;)
We have not used all our travel days, but we're heading to BO from Italy and trying to work the math between which of our 3 remaining big travel days are going to be the most expensive, and should use our last two travel days on the Eurail pass.
Working the numbers, we have decided to use those two days on the travel to and from BO.
Thanks again for the help!
You're welcome! I'm guessing it's going to be cheaper to buy one of your shorter, Italian train tickets and save the last day of your pass for when you leave the B.O.
