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Food cost and travel pass in Berner Oberland

Hi all. Doing 5 full days in Lauterbrunnen in July 2022. 6 adults and 1 young child. Plan to stay in 2 of the Crystal Annex apartments at Hotel Oberland. Two questions:

  1. What travel pass? Other than train from Zurich airport to Lauterbrunnen (and back again at end of the trip), all our time will be spent in the BO. Swiss Half Fare? BO Regional Pass? The goal is to see as much as we can since we'll probably never get back there again.

  2. Per deim estimate for food for 6 adults? Breakfast is included at Hotel Oberland. At least one meal each day would be from Co-Op. Maybe one meal per day at one of the single $ restaurants from the RS Guidebook (such as Flavours or Horner Pub).

Thanks!

Posted by
11027 posts

Per diem estimate for food for 6 adults?

What do you spend on domestic trips? Perhaps add 10-20% to give yourself some cushion?

Posted by
4324 posts

Some thoughts: In the Switzerland guide Rick has a little map and worksheet to figure out if a pass makes sense, and which one. Did you do some maths? I believe the general advice is, in CH a pass makes sense. If you limit where the pass works, you will have no flexibility once you're there. Don't forget the BO is about mountains, which are frequently socked in calling for Plan B and Plan C. What if you want to go to Lucerne or Bern or Montreux for a day?

Someone posted here in the forums a guide to Swiss menus. Some of this depends on what you're used to spending when you go out, if you go out. I eat out in Los Angeles and I found Swiss prices fairly breathtaking. For a party of 7 your food bills are just going to be high anywhere, and higher than anywhere in CH. Since you have an apartment, you need to see if anyone is up for cooking on their vacation or get takeaway from Coop.

Posted by
1647 posts

A single $ restaurant I agree with Joe. A $$ or $$$ probably 25-50%. All depends on the type of entre.

Posted by
4613 posts

Our experience a few years ago was that the lunch menus were almost as expensive as the dinner menus. Therefore, eat a huge breakfast, lunch at the Coop, and dinner at a reasonable establishment.
Safe travels!
PS
We found wine to be the same price as water, so.......

Posted by
243 posts

My recollection from 2012 that 30 CHF was rock bottom for sausage, potatoes, kraut, and a beer. Even pizza was 30ish for two without beer. I agree you have to sit down and work out the rail pass for what you want to do. It is wildly complicated and difficult to optimize, but is better than not doing it at all. It also provides discounts for the Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch. Hold your nose and choose one realizing that circumstances and weather will make you realize your choice wasn't perfect. But go. It is a wonderful part of this planet.

Posted by
11247 posts

The Berner Oberland Regional Pass will serve you well of this is your only stop in Switzerland. Look closely at the Area of Validity map ( https://www.regionalpass-berneroberland.ch/assets/Uploads/Gueltigkeitsbereich-Regional-Pass-2021.pdf) and you will see ,ost routes for bus, train and lift are included with a few requiring an up charge as noted by the dotted lines. You only have to buy your train fare from Zurich to Bern, then the pass becomes valid. You can change trains in Bern and buy the pass, or buy ahead of time online and just pay the fare to Bern from Zurich.

We go there every year (except 2020) and have found the pass to be a good value. I do always do a spreadsheet including the transportation we plan to use and then apply the pass to see what my break even is. As the Post bus is included we find that very convenient as well so don’t overlook that option for some scenic rides as well as easy valley transportation. You might want to buy the pass to cover all 7 days including your arrival and departure days.

I assume 100CHF for the two of us per day for food and drink. Sometimes we enjoy wine in our digs before and after dinner instead of paying for a bottle at dinner as it is quite costly in restaurants. One of our favorites is the restaurant at Camping Jungfrau. Great pizza! But make. Reservation as even in autumn we find we cannot just walk in.

Posted by
261 posts

Stayed ar the Oberland in 2019 and we ate outside at their restaurant each nite...split a pizza or pasta for around $20 total and a glass of wine for $4.50...great location, good food & service and they held our table at same time each night...breakfast was a nice spread and Coop a five min walk from Hotel.