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Jungfrau Travel Pass/ Berner Oberland Regional Pass/ Swiss Travel Pass/Half Fare, or some combo??

I've been reading different posts here, and studying the websites, and I'm still not sure what combination makes the most sense for us. We are traveling in the summer. I'd appreciate some help from travelers who may have had a similar itinerary:

Flying to Geneva, then train to Vevey for two nights. Hoping for a combo of ferry and train to get to and from Montreux.

Next, train from Vevey to Murren, where we will stay for 7 nights. Would like to have the ease of moving around the mountains and valley as we wish, hiking and exploring. Might spend a day solely in Murren, but I predict most days we will be exploring new areas from there. Would like to be able to take a ferry ride on one of the lakes in Interlaken.

Finally, train from Murren to Zurich, and one night there. Hope to use transportation easily there, between trams and maybe another boat ride. Then train to airport the last day.

4 adults, no kids...what do you recommend to make all this transportation easy? I'm not sure what the real difference is between the Jungfrau and Berner Oberland passes. We just want to have lots of freedom of choice to deal with whatever weather we have each day.

Thank you very much!
Laurie

Posted by
7209 posts

You want easy? Or you want Cost Effective?

Easy - Swiss Travel Pass
Cost Effective - Swiss Half Fare Card

Posted by
11779 posts

With 7 nights in Muerren, a BO Regional Pass is a no-brainer, IMO. A main difference with the Jungfrau Region Pass, which we found out the hard way a few years ago, is that the Jungfrau pass does not cover the cable car from Muerren to Stechelberg. I looked at the area of coverage last fall and it was still a deficiency.

You might benefit from the Half Fare Card in conjunction with the BO Reg Pass for the pre-and-post Muerren travels. If those portions exceed 240CHF, the HFC makes sense and you get a small additional discount on the BO Pass when you have an HFC.

Easiest might well be a Swiss Pass but 10 or 15 days is quite pricey and you still have to pay 50% of most mountain lifts, which you will use a lot when you stay in Muerren. The BO Reg Pass covers you from Brig in the West and as far as Luzern.

FWIW we go there for 1 week or two every year and always get the BO Reg Pass. We usually get an HFC if we are going elsewhere outside of the Berner Oberland.

Posted by
7209 posts

“50% on most mountain lifts” is a bit misleading. From Murren to Schilthorn is 50% which you MIGHT use at most once. All the others in Murren are covered 100%.

Posted by
483 posts

Thank you very much, Tim and Laurel! This makes more sense now, and I appreciate hearing your experiences. I think the Berner Oberland pass will work best for us - and I was surprised to see it will cover more than I realized, getting us all the way to Luzern. (Actually Gstaad-Murren-Luzern...that's most of our travel needs!)

So now I'm trying to figure out the best options for 24 hours in Zurich before flying home...and also fine-tuning the Lake Geneva part of the journey.

I appreciate your speedy replies - thanks again!

Laurie

Posted by
7209 posts

Geneva is not a city where I would spend any length of time as a tourist which is ironic because my family lives there and I spend lots of time there.

Remember unless your flight out of Zurich is super early it is extremely easy to stay that night in Lucerne and just train from there to the airport next morning.