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Half-fare card

Posted by on

Hi-

I am booking my train tickets in and out of Switzerland early and have found the rates on Trenitalia (coming in) and DB BAHN (going out) are cheaper if I just book the whole way with their early saver fares rather than to a border town and then switching to the Swiss Rail system for those tickets even using a half-fare card.

I had originally planned on doing the route where I split it up and use the Half-Fare card for the Swiss end. Pretty much the only things we are planning to do are sleep in Muerren, do hikes in that general area, and visit the Jungfraujoch and/or Schilthorn. We want to be able to use the cable cars, etc. to get around.

Since we are a family of 5, all 3 of our boys would qualify for free travel with us if we bought the Half-Fare card via the free Swiss Family card.

Just wondering if the Half-Fare card still seems to be the way to go since it is not really benefitting us for travel in and out of the country. It may still be worth it though because of the expensive high alps journeys. Are there other discounts that I may not be aware of in my situation?

Please share if you have any other good ideas. Thanks!

Posted by
20089 posts

Sounds like you need to do a little spread sheet work. Add them all up with full fare tickets including the kids, then add em up again with half fare cards. Lowest price wins.
The only other option is the Swiss Transfer ticket, which is 201 chf with a half fare card adder. So that covers your travel from the Swiss border or airport, then the return out of the country, plus a half fare card for the time in between. But you are getting to your "holiday destination" already from other countries' railway tickets, so that is mute. You have to buy this before you enter Switzerland.
Other discounts? I don't think there is a word for that in Switzerland.

Posted by
3099 posts

The cost of the Jungfrau trip from Mürren alone is 205 CHF per person if you don't have discount cards.

http://www.jungfrau.ch/en/tourism/travel-information/tickets-rates/mrren/fares-for-individual-travellers/

(Less for the Good Morning or late-day ticket). But if you pay full fare that is over 1000CHF so I think you are definitely want Half Fare Cards for the adults,,with the Family Cards for the kids to make their trip free. That makes it 240 CHF total for this trip and you get 50% off and free Kid travel on other lifts. Seems like a good deal to me.

Besides, are the Trenitalia and DB discount tickets really going to get you the whole way to and from Mürren? I thought a Saver ticket on Trenitalia only goes as far as Spiez,,where you change to a Swiss regional train.

Posted by
3099 posts

Also, dependingonnthe age of your kids, you may well want to go over to Grindelwald and ride the First lift for the zipline and/or TrottiBikes. That would be an expensive day w/o Half Fare Cards and free travel and lift ride for the kids.

Posted by
16893 posts

With a one-month Half-Fare Card for visitors at $126 per adult, you can get a Swiss Family Card which will let your children under 16 travel free. If you choose to buy full-priced tickets as you go, then you might have to pay 30 francs per child at a Swiss station to get a similar Junior Card, but the kids are still close to free when they travel with you. One full-fare roundtrip to Jungfraujoch and one roundtrip to the Schitlhorn can easily add up to $300 per adult, so the Half-Fare Card would save money for that plan. If the weather's not great, you may not go to Jungfraujoch, but could apply the discount on other trains/buses/boats/lifts that day.

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