We will be taking the train from Zurich HB to Grindlewald on Friday may 1st at 7:02 am. Is there any reason to buy that ticket in advance? Or just wait til we go to station?
The 2nd question is when we get to Grindlewald we can’t check in to our apartment and they don’t have Reception. They are saying we can store our luggage at the train station but we need to contact the station to arrange that.
How do we do that?
And just to clarify is Zurich Flughafen the train at the airport?
Yes, Zurich Flughafen is the airport train station. Are you arriving at the airport and going straight to Grindelwald? There are trains from the airport to Interlaken Ost, some of them direct, others with a train change in Bern. At Interlaken Ost you change to a train to Grindelwald. Make sure you board the correct carriages as the train splits half way with the other half of the train going to Lauterbrunnen. Everything is marked and there will be attendants to direct you if you need help.
Here is info for Grindelwald station. Click on "Luggage" and "Lockers". Phone number and email address is shown. https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/stations/find-station/station.7380.grindelwald.html
At this late date, there is no reason to buy in advance. Cost is 88.80 CHF per person. Of course, depending on your plans, there may be ways to reduce this.
We are taking the train from airport to Zurich HB when we arrive on April 30. On Friday morning we are going from Zurich HB to Grindlewald Terminal. The train goes from Zurich HB to Interlaken OST and then from Interlaken OST to Grindlewald Terminal. So that’s pretty straightforward right?
Thank you for info on the lockers. I’ll check that out.
If you book your tickets in advance you can get quite a nice discount, but such discounted tickets are inflexible. Normal tickets allow you to just take any train of your choosing on the route, whereas with a discounted ticket you need to take the train you selected.
So keeping that in mind, if you know you will be able to commit to a particular time you can buy tickets in advance.
What other trips are you planning in Grindelwald? Depending on those you may want to get the Half Fare Card, or maybe even the Swiss Travel Pass. Otherwise you may end up spending more than necessary on transport.
There are lockers and there is a manned luggage counter at Grindelwald. There is no need to contact the station in advance.
Thank you! We decided to get the STP. We added up what we would pay using the half fare card and it was very close to the STP. So we opted for the ease and convenience of the STP. Thank you for the info on the lockers at Grindlewald.
Are you sure you want Grindelwald TERMINAL and not the main in town station? Terminal is usually where people go to get the gondola up to the Eiger.
Yikes! Really? What is the main station called?
In Switzerland the main station of a place is almost always named after the place.
So the station in Grindelwald is called "Grindelwald", the station for Bern is called "Bern" etc...
Then secondary stations get something attached to it: Eg. In Grindelwald there is also "Grindelwald Grund" and "Grindelwald Terminal".
Now this is indeed confusing for tourists, who associate "Terminal" with the end of a line. In this case however it refers to the fact that this station serves the Eiger Express and Männlichen Bahn joint terminal. Because of the confusion they do announce in the train that passengers for Grindelwald itself should stay on the train.
Personally I think they should have called the station Rotenegg, as it was originally intended...
(Before you point me at Zurich HB, that is one of the few exceptions...)
In SBB there is "Grindelwald" and "Grindelwald Terminal" -- the main train from Interlaken goes through Terminal first and ends at the main station, so just don't get off at Terminal, unless that's where your lodging is?
Whew! Thank you all for this revelation.
