Travelling GAS May 2018 with RS. Does the tour offer any discounts on the Gondola ride to the top? Full rate looks like $80 US, early rate $60 US. It appears that the cost of the Swiss half-fare card does not make sense for one day of travel.
Posted by
Green Bay
21142 posts
You need to have 240 CHF worth of tickets to break even on the Half Fare Card. I doubt RS has any discounts, but you might email the tour department and get an answer straight from the horses mouth.
Yeah, Switzerland is expensive.
Posted by
San Francisco area
1888 posts
We stayed in Murren on the RS Switzerland tour earlier this year. The guide organized and led a trip up to the Schilthorn. He got us.a reduced rate for the lift. It was a group rate as about 24 of us elected to go. I can't recall how much it was but I will post if I do.
We stayed at the Hotel Alpenruh which is just literally steps from the lift station. It's owned by the same organization that runs the lift and the restaurant up at the Schilthorn. We were given the option of having breakfast up top. It was great fun.
Enjoy your trip.
Posted by
Green Bay
21142 posts
The sunrise price, 66 CHF, is virtually the same as the group price, which is 65.80 CHF, although a group must be 10 people and every 10th person is free. So if your guide can get 20 people together, and assuming the guide gets the first free ticket, it could be 5% less. Be aware that a Swiss Franc is worth more than a US$, so the prices in USD would be more like $86 and $69. But as this is 9 months away, it could be anything, up or down 10% or more.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14731 posts
Yes, my experience is similar to Rocket's. I did the GAS tour in Aug/Sept 2016. Our guide led a group up the Schilthorn (checking on the weather first) and purchased our tickets. For after lunch, he also organized a trip up the funicular to Almendhubel for anyone who wanted to hike and purchased those tickets. He also arranged reservations for the Mozart Concert in Salzburg. He figured out the costs and we paid him back for however many of those activities we participated in. I ~think~ everyone went up the Schilthorn so we did get a group discount. Don't buy this ahead!
Also when he took us up to Almendhubel he got us started on hikes. Most of the group did the North Face hike but 2 other women and I did the less strenuous hike. I am a confident hiker but I was glad he helped us get on the right trail head as it did not seem to be as well-marked as the other one.
You didn't ask this, but that was Day 1. On day 2 your transportation down to the valley floor and the bus is covered by the tour as well as your transportation from Lauterbrunnen back to Muerren. We were bused to Truemmelbach Falls then to Lauterbrunnen. Most of the group opted to go up to Mannlichen via cog train and gondola, hike to Kleine Scheidegg, then cog train back to Lauterbrunnen. This was about 62 or maybe 63 Swiss francs and we purchased these tickets ourselves. From Lauterbrunnen we had been given tickets for the return trip up the gondola and small train to Muerren.
This is a really fun tour!