I will be arriving to Zurich on 5/22 around 11 AM. My home base will be Luzerne. I will have that afternoon, 5/23, 5/24 and then will take the train to Colmar, France sometime in the late afternoon on 5/25. Hoping the weather is clear so I can go up Mt Pitatus. What would be the best rail pass for my stay there. Any ideas as to another place to see while I am there? Is there a train that goes from Luzerne to Colmar? Will I need to switch trains when I get to the border of France? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
vjmasters, I do not think a rail pass would be a good idea if that is all you will be doing.
1) Zürich airport to Luzern
2) Day trip up Pilatus
3) Luzern to Colmar
I would guess it is cheaper just to buy these tickets on the day.
For train times look on the Swiss Railways website: https://www.sbb.ch/en Note, the "from" prices quoted assume you have a Half Price Card.
For info about Pilatus, including times and fares, look here: https://www.pilatus.ch/en/
Luzern town is worth a ½ day exploring.
You may also want to go on a lake boat from Luzern. Details here: http://www.lakelucerne.ch/en/
There are three mountains accessible from Luzern with trains or cable cars to the top, Pilatus, Rigi and Titlis. Titlis is the highest and has a small permanent glacier at the top. Website: https://titlis.ch/en
For Luzern to Colmar, look up train time on the SBB website. You will have to change trains in Basel. There is roughly one connection per hour.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19275 posts
Without knowing your exact itinerary and doing a more complete analysis, I would say the best option is point-to-point tickets, no rail pass.
You don't give much detail on what you plan to do in Luzern, but local tickets are bound to be less than days of a rail pass. Zurich to Luzern is also top short for a rail pass to be justified. Probably your only significantly long trip is Luzern to Colmar.
Posted by
OP
56 posts
Thank you for the replies. I would hope to explore Luzerne after I register at the hotel. This would give me from mid afternoon to early evening. Day two or day three would like to go up to the glacier. This depends on the weather. I would still have one additional day for exploring. Any ideas?
Posted by
Green Bay
21166 posts
If you can commit to a specific train, you can buy a Super Saver ticket, for 13.60 CHF on 5/25 for the 15:30 train to Basel. Normally that is a 34 CHF ticket. At Basel SBB, you can buy a ticket to Colmar for 14.40 EUR. It is a TER train, unreserved and always the same price. Trains are every 30 minutes until 20:21.
Other things to do in Luzern, take a cruise on one of the lake boats.