We’re planning to land in Zurich, and then buy individual train tickets to Luzern, where we have reservations for 3 nites. Then we thought we would buy a Swiss Travel Pass in Luzern, assuming that is possible. We’ll be in Switzerland for another 12 days.
Does that sound like a good plan? Is there an advantage to buying the pass in the U.S.?
Thanks in advance.
John
No real advantage. It comes in 8 and 15 day varieties. Since you will be there 13 days apparently, buy a 15 day at the airport train station and use it to take a train from the airport to Luzern.
Thank you, Sam. I wasn’t very clear in my question. While we are in Luzern, we were thinking of going to Mr. Pilatus and Mt. Rigi on two of those days. So, would it make sense to buy at 15-day Swiss Travel Pass at the Luzern train station?
Thanks again.
No it makes more sense like Sam said to buy the Swiss Travel Pass in Zurich airport. The train to Luzern is covered with the pass as well as Pilatus and Rigi.
Lets put it it this way, what are your plans for your 13 days in Switzerland? Maybe just a regional pass for the Luzern area is the best. Hard to tell what is best without looking at the whole plan.
Thanks again for your reply. The number of days I quoted was off a bit. We arrive in the afternoon on May 2, and plan to go from Zurich to Luzern. Since there is an 8-hour time difference between California and Switzerland, we suspect jet lag will be having fun with our brains and our sense of time. So May 3 may be a day to spend in Luzern seeing what's there. We would be likely to see Pilatus on the 4th and Rigi on the 5th, depending on weather and our levels of consciousness. Hence we thought we might buy the pass on the 3rd or 4th. Then we have 4 nites in Lausanne, 5 nites in Lauterbrunnen and surrounding territory, 2 nites in Appenzell, and back to Zurich on the 17th. We depart early afternoon on the 18th. Depending on when we buy the 15-day pass (i.e. May 3 or May 4), we can use the last day to get from the Zurich hotel to the airport, or we can pay for the trip to the airport.
In case you see any egregious miscalculations on my part, you could let me know.
Thanks so much for your assistance thus far.
John
We just got ours last night. Would recommend getting them from SBB.ch site (cheaper than other sites). I know you can get them at the stations, but we just like to get everything done ahead so we can not worry about them later. Just us.
Jonathan
For a two-week trip, we like the 8-day Flex Pass for 467 CHF. It is a “choose your own adventure” pass, meaning you pick which 8 days you want to use it. We skip the days that are relatively inexpensive, such as a day of hiking from our base, and use it for the longer more expensive journeys.
Count up your travel and daytrip days and see if this makes sense. You may or may not want to include Zurich to Luzern, which is quite inexpensive, but maybe it fits within your 8 covered days.
Note that a Swiss Pass will fully cover Rigi but not Pilates.
Whatever you decide, you can buy it ahead if you like, or at the Zurich airport, or in Luzern if you want to pay for that journey and avoid spending time buying passes on your arrival,day, after the long flight. But compare prices, as often there is a fairly significant difference between the Rail Europe price in dollars, and the SBB price in Swiss francs. And consider whether your credit card imposes Foreign Transaction Fees.
