My husband and I are thinking about traveling around Germany and Switzerland with the majority of our travel in Switzerland. We have been hearing about the Swiss Travel Pass and want to know if that is the way to go. Any thoughts? Also could we merge the two? Use Eurorail in Germany and Swiss in Switzerland for better economy. Any information will be appreciated. Thank you.
Posted by
Green Bay
21145 posts
For all such questions, the answer always seems to be....Depends.
Sketch out where you want to go. Eurail Pass is not valid everywhere in Switzerland, including in everybody's must-see, the Berner Oberland. Trains are expensive in Switzerland. Often the product that saves the most money is the 30-day Half Fare card. It costs 120 CHF per person, but then everything is half price, including the mountain railways. You still have to buy tickets for each journey, but 90% of the time, it beats the Swiss Travel Pass, which is very expensive.
Germany, on the other hand is relatively inexpensive, and there at all kinds of special tickets that give you unlimited travel in a given Land (kind of like a US State) for a day.
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/index.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0059_FLYOUT-ANGEBOTE-REGIONAL-ANGEBOTE_LZ01
In addition, there are big discounts for long distance tickets bought in advance.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
What Sam said -- especially note his comment about the mountain lifts, which can be expensive enough that one trip up the Schilthorn or Jungfrau can make the Half Fare Card almost a no-brainer. Sadly, you do have to crunch the numbers for the specific trains/lifts/buses you want to take to make sure you pick the best alternative for YOUR trip.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
If you're going to be traveling in Switzerland and you're not sure of the Pass to get and you really don't want to "number crunch" then just get a Swiss Half Fare Card and be done with it. 50% of ALL travel including the super expensive Jungfrau. If you take just that 1 particular trip (Jungfrau) then the savings from the HFC will pay for the purchase price of the HFC. No-Brainer
Traveling in Germany can be very very cheap - you can travel all over Bavaria all day long into the wee hours of the next morning with a Bayern Ticket (Bavarian Ticket).
Posted by
OP
18 posts
Thank you so much for all the advice. It's given us good ideas on what to do.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
It's hard to do any comparison without more info on the number of days and length of train travel in each country. The more your trip gets planned, the more you can make an informed decision. If the majority is in Switzerland, the Swiss Travel Pass (such as for 4 or 8 consecutive days) or Half Fare Card will probably better fit that focus. See a comparison of pass coverage toward the middle of the page at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes.
If you have just one long ride in Germany, for instance, you can book a ticket ahead through DB for a better (but nonrefundable) price. However, if that ride is immediately following a flight arrival into Frankfurt, you may be less comfortable to commit in advance. If a German Rail Pass (not a Eurail product) or a Eurail Select pass covering 2 countries was making sense for other reasons, then it would allow you hop on any German train without advance booking. Short rides are where you might make use of an unreserved, regional day-ticket. See also https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/germany-rail-passes.