Hi, my family of 5 will be traveling from Paris to Interlaken by train. This is really confusing me as there are different train sites and the pricing is fluctuating a lot. Can anyone recommend what site to book our train reservation on? Also....after a few days in Interlaken we will then head on to Munich....can someone also recommend what site/train to use for this?
Thank you,
Marcy
I suggest that you book tickets from Paris to Basel SBB (the Swiss border station where you will change trains) on SNCF Connect, the French railways' ticket selling outlet. Tickets are much cheaper in advance and sales typically open 120 days beforehand.
Once in Switzerland, your ticket-buying strategy will depend on whether you buy a Swiss Travel Pass or not (the other usual option being a Half-Fare Card). If you have the pass, you will not even need tickets to get from Basel to Interlaken. It is quite convenient! If you do not have it, you will need to buy tickets: the SBB (Swiss railways) website or app is the best way to do so. No advance purchase required (there are some "super saver" advance fares, but not worth it if you do get a Half-Fare Card). In any event, get a Swiss Family Card so that under-16s in your party can travel for free (check detailed T&C's).
For Interlaken to Munich, I assume the best way to buy the ticket for the Zürich-Munich section is the Deutsche Bahn website, but I'm not 100% sure there.
If I'm not mistaken you can book all those trips at www.sbb.ch
Thank you, so I guess even if our train/transportation while in Interlaken will be very limited we will still need to buy a Half-fare card or $134/pp to book a train then on from Interlaken to Munich?
You do not need a half fare card. But depending on your plans this may save you money. But that is something for you to decide on.
If you plan on visiting the Jungfraujoch the Swiss Half Fare Card will be your best option.
For booking the best site is the Swiss Railways website: www.sbb.ch
They can book you from Paris to Interlaken, and from Interlaken to Munich.
Man in Seat 61 probably has suggestions about inter-Europe training. He also suggests some third party sites and some train tour companies that might be helpful.
If you can commit to a particular train departing at a time certain, one cost -cutting strategy for your train tix is to- as Balso brilliantly recommends above- buy the first ticket at www.SNCF-connect from Paris to Basel. Buy “Prems” tickets which go on sale 120 days in advance at discounts up to 70% off. Switzerland’s national train company, SBB, does not offer Prem’s tickets but it does offer
“Supersaver” fares beginning 60 days in advance at fares that can be 60% off the walk-up ticket price. You can buy Supersaver tickets to complete the Basel to Interlaaken portion— trains leave Basel for Interlaaken about every 30 minutes. You can quickly check the SBB website for timetables or, at my favorite for its ease of use, www.TheTrainline.com.
For your Interlaaken to Munich ticket, check Deutsche Bahn ( DB) website at www.Bahn.com. DB will sell advance tickets called “SparPreis” tix that are deeply discounted beginning 180 days in advance. And quite often you will find buying tickets from one national train company is significantly less costly than on another’s— even on the exact same train!
It’s a bit of work to do this, but since there are 5 in your family, you likely will save hundreds of dollars overall on your train tix by spending just a couple hours online. As these deeply discounted tix are nonrefundable and not exchangeable—be sure to book them after you’ve nailed down your accommodations because once you’ve bought them you’re locked in.
Have a great trip!
Actually if you book this on www.sbb.ch the SBB will do the matching of a cheap fare on the TGV with a cheap fare on the Basel - Interlaken leg for you. And because it is an international trip you do not pay VAT, which saves another 8%...
Hi all...I found this on the SBB site, does this look correct and only $68 from Paris to Interlaken? I was looking around the site and just wondered if it looked correct as the price seemed good, maybe too good to be true?
Thank you!!
Outward
Paris Gare de Lyon to Interlaken West
Paris Gare de Lyon
Interlaken West
2nd class
1 × STANDARD - Non-flexible offer, Paris Gare de Lyon – Basel SBB
Valid: Th, 22.06.2023
Departure time: 07:20
CHF 29.00
1 × Seat reservation, Paris Gare de Lyon – Basel SBB
Valid: Th, 22.06.2023
Departure time: 07:20
included
1 × Discounted International Extension Ticket - Non-flexible offer, Basel SBB – Interlaken West
Valid: Th, 22.06.2023
Departure time: 11:28
CHF 39.70
Total price:
CHF 68.70
@WengenK, That’s great to know! I find the part about saving on the VAT particularly interesting.
@Rockdarlingdesigns, The SNCF website shows the train you identified is the only one on that date with at least 5 seats. What I am now seeing on SBB is you CAN BUY the tix for CHF 68.70 (about $75) so I would try to buy it NOW. (TODAY) because they will only go higher in price and it’s the only train on 6/22 that has at least 5 seats available. If that is not the case, or they don’t have 5 seats, I would go to SNCF’s website and buy the Paris to Basel tix ASAP and buy the Basel to Interlaaken Supersaver tix on SBB when they first go on sale about April 22. That leg on a SBB Supersaver ticket should be about $35.
Have a great trip!
I also checked tix for Interlaaken Ost to Munich Hbf on June 25. DeutscheBahn has the least expensive fare
now on sale for €45. SBB has them for €55. These trains depart at 7am or thereabouts. Those who want to sleep in on June 25 will pay the price as most other trains are €140.
This thread’s been fun for me because you can see how doing a bit of work can save you a lot of $€$ (!)
Have a wonderful time in Europe!
you all have been awesome....I thank you so much!!!
Sorry, another question...so I'm trying to fill in our birthdate for the train ticket and on each one it keeps taking it back by 1 day....for example...if my birthday is 05.02.1980 it keeps moving it to 04.02.1980 (moves the day back by 1)....is that supposed to do this? It did it on all 5 tickets...
The SBB site changes my date of birth also. . I think it may be a security measure to protect your date of birth which train conductors will have knowledge of when they check the name on your ticket with the name on your passport. Contact SBB immediately if your online ticket sent to your e-mail does not match the date you Intended to travel, but the date of birth is sort of irrelevant to SBB. I usually take ID such as my driver’s license which also has my DOB.
Well I ended up just putting in the wrong birthdates...a day ahead so that when it then took a day off it was correct. This is dumb if it's a security measure. I couldn't find anything on their website explaining this. I wonder if we will have issues now that I did this to show our correct birthdates.
I think you figured out a workaround that works.
B the time June rolls around SBB will be aware this glitch.occurred.
The date of birth thing is probably a bug caused by you being in a different timezone. Do not worry about it. They only need your date of birth to calculate if you qualify for a child or youth tariff. The conductor is not going to be interested in that. They may, or may not ask to see an ID. The railways are not interested in who is travelling, trains do not have passenger manifests. All they want is that people pay, and having names on tickets only serves the purpose of keeping people from making copies and handing them out to their friends.
When you buy a ticket at the station it does not have any personal details on it at all. The railways are not interested in that.
One more thing: Normal full price tickets are flexible, so for example a full price ticket Interlaken - Munich allows you to take any train on the route within the period of validity of the ticket. (Usually 2 days I believe for such tickets). When you buy a ticket you pay for transport, not for a place on a particular service.
But a discounted ticket will come with restrictions, usually in the form of particular trains you must take. Many tourists expect that to be the case, and are surprised to hear that this is in fact the exception, not the rule.
However if there is a disruption, if one of your trains does not run, or you miss a connection due to a delay your ticket automatically becomes the default standard ticket, so then you can just take any trains you want. And you do not need to do anything for that in Switzerland or Germany. There is no need to exchange tickets or visit the ticket office. Just take the next train...
And a last thing: Reservations are separate, can be bought together with the ticket, and are compulsory for Paris - Base and recommended for Zurich - Munich, but not needed for trains within Switzerland. Do not waste money on that.
Thank you for the information. I thought I'd found a work-around by putting our birthdates in a day before the actual day and then it would populate correctly but after I purchased the tickets they are still all incorrect. I've been stressing about this and do not know how to correct. I'd sent the booking site an email but have yet to hear back. So you are saying it's not like an airline where they would check our passport to our tickets? They only care about the ticket name and name on passport (if we were to get checked) matching? All of our tickets but 1 are adult tickets as my kids are older (20, 18) my youngest is 14. I really appreciate the insight.
I'd agree - nothing to get stressed about... don't worry about it
