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Please help me decide between SHFC + Jungfrau pass vs Bernese Oberland pass vs individual tickets

Me and my wife are arriving the last week in June to Zurich then taking the train to Lauterbrunnen. We will be spending 6 days there visiting the various famous mountains and hikes in the area (first, Mannlichen, Schilthorn etc though we haven’t officially finalized the specific hikes). We may do a day trip to Lucerne or brienz for a lake boat ride, but again not set in stone. At the end of our trip we are taking the train back to Zurich and flying home.

I’ve already purchased a SHFC as that seems to be the only unanimous pass that seemed logical for me to purchase. But I am highly confused on if I should also buy one of the two major passes (Jungfrau or Bernese oberland) or just buy the individual tickets. It doesn’t seem to make much sense to get the Swiss travel pass as we are not going to multiple major cities in Switzerland and that is not a huge benefit for mountai transports.

Any help at all would be lovely.

Posted by
1054 posts

To know which is best you really have to narrow down and decide your priorities. Without knowing a pretty good idea of which specific places you plan to visit it’s impossible to answer your question. A pass can be nice for the convenience, but it requires you making a hypothetical flexible plan that’s realistic with the time you have and your own personal abilities and desires. Come back with that and I can advise you :)

Posted by
21 posts

Sure so let’s say this is my plan

Day 1: land in Zurich and train to Lauterbrunnen. We land at 5pm and with deplaning and transportation we may not have much time to spend doing anything this day besides experiencing the Lauterbrunnen area

2: Grindelwald first and hike to bachalpsee lake

3 Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg

4.Trip to brienz. Maybe boat ride. Lauterbrunnen valley walk in evening

  1. Wengen, murren, Gimmelwald

  2. Heading to interlaken early for paragliding. Maybe spending time in this area for rest of day. Next day we leave

Posted by
29 posts

just to set expectations on the first day. If you land at 5, you won't be out of the airport and down to the station until 6 ish. The earliest you could possible get to Lauterbrunnen is nearly 9pm. Just keep that in mind that your first day is pretty much a throw away.

Your best bet is to look at the sbb.ch website and see what all those train rides and gondolas/boats cost, and then compare that to the cost of the Jungfrau Pass.

Posted by
176 posts

We both the half price fare card when we went to Murren a few years ago. It worked out well and we saved money for sure

Posted by
1054 posts

I did super quick, rough calculations that your plan includes around 525 chf of train/cable car/boat rides at full fare (no discounts/passes), but a few adjustments I’d recommend bring it to around 650 chf.
1. Paragliding is better from Murren (AirTime -- they can meet up with you in Lauterbrunnen or Murren) and I wouldn’t waste a day in Interlaken. You can see Interlaken on your Brienz day by taking the boat from Brienz to Interlaken Ost.
2. Instead of taking a day in Interlaken, do Schynige Platte
3. I’d highly recommend adding Schilthorn to your Murren/Gimmelwald day. The views are amazing up there.
4. Wengen goes on your Mannlichen/Kleine Scheidegg day, not Murren/Gimmelwald

Assuming you add in Schynige Platte and Schilthorn, here would be rough numbers….

Full Fare = 650 chf per person
Half Fare Card only = 450 chf per person
Half Fare Card + Reduced 6 day Berner Oberland Pass = 510 chf per person
Half Fare Card + Reduced 6 day Jungfrau Travel Pass = 475 chf per person

For an extra 25 chf, the JTP is worthwhile in this scenario, as the only tickets you’ll need to buy are your airport rides from Zurich Flughafen to Lauterbrunnen and back + a half fare roundtrip ticket to Schilthorn. Everything else you just get to hop on/off at your leisure without purchasing tickets. And if you mean 6 days including travel days, then you may be able to reduce that number more by doing a 4 or 5 day pass, as it doesn't sound like you need it on Day 1 and possibly not on Day 6? If so, a 4 day would put your numbers at only 430 chf per person.