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Seeking rail advice

Posted by on

I'm baffled! Here are our plans- wondering if anybody can please help me make sense of the rail passes?

We will be traveling from Strasbourg, France to Gimmelwald on July 13th, and staying there for 3 nights. We plan to do hiking in the area, making use of the mountain trains and cable cars as well, and enjoy the scenery. We'd like to do either the Junfraujoch or Schilthorn, probably Schilthorn, one day. Then one July 16th we head to Lugano, then on to Venice on the 17th. We were hoping to do a scenic rail ride for part of that journey, and have been advised that it would be most efficient and make the most sense to head from Gimmelwald to Lucerne, skip the boat ride and take the William Tell to Lugano. We will stay in Lugano for one night before heading to Venice. We are not married to Lugano, just was a suggested route.

Does anybody have suggestions on what rail passes would be most useful, or if it'd be better to pay for individual trips? It looks like without any rail passes we would pay $166 each to get from Strasbourg to Lauterbrunnen (and a bit more to get to Gimmelwald), and $84 each to get from Lugano to Venice. Then we would have cost for whatever travel within Switzerland, but maybe a Swiss Pass or Half Fare Pass would make sense?

These prices made me look into the Eurail Select 5 day pass, which would run about $391 each. However, it seems we would still pay $44 each to get from Basel to Lauterbrunnen (and a bit more to get to Gimmelwald) and I can't even find a price for Lugano to Venice. I don't understand why the Select Pass does not cover travel all the way to Lauterbrunnen. Anybody know? The Select Pass does seem to provide a deep discount for the William Tell, and apparently smaller discounts for travel in the Gimmelwald area and the trip to Schilthorn- if I'm understanding that correctly.

Looks like the price for a 4 day Swiss Pass would be $898 total, offering only 25-50% discount on the lifts and cable cars we'd use in Gimmelwald, so that doesn't seem helpful with our plans.

Thoughts, suggestions? I was under the impression that train travel in Europe was affordable, but these prices seems high to me. Maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks so much, and I apologize for any naivety on my part!

Posted by
21139 posts

Forget about Rail Europe passes. Since From Interlaken Ost to Gimmelwald and back are privately owned operators who only give a discount with Eurail passes. Look at (maybe?) a Swiss Pass or Half fare card to cover most of the costs inside Switzerland. Use point to point tickets Strasbourg to Basel and Domodossolo to Venice.

Posted by
16895 posts

"Forget about the Eurail Select Pass" is probably what Sam means, and I'd say the same, for this itinerary.

A 4-day consecutive Swiss Travel Pass for about $265 per person does a lot to help with/cover your plans. I don't believe that any product (including Berner Oberland Pass) covers more than 50% of the mountain lifts, so you always will pay something extra for those tickets. Switzerland is often more expensive than other countries in Europe when comparing apples to apples, and those mountain lifts were not cheap to build or maintain. A train ticket from Lugano to Venice costs about $60 full fare or also offers advance-purchase discounts.

Some numbers you've quoted above do not seem correct; e.g., Basel to Interlaken is fully covered by a Select pass and the Interlaken-Lauterbrunnen ticket at 25% off would cost about $7.50 per person on top of that. Seat reservations are not required from Basel, but would cost extra if you made them. The trains from Interlaken into the Lauterbrunnen valley are on the private Jungfraubahn, not strictly part of the Swiss national railway, and have not signed the same contracts with Eurail.

Posted by
7209 posts

Usually the most economical pass for Switzerland is simply the Half Fare Card which gives you a 50% discount on ALL your travels in Switzerland...even to the expensive Jungfrau where a Swiss Pass only gets you a 25% reduction. A trip to the Jungfrau will almost single handedly pay for the Half Fare card.

Posted by
21139 posts

Yes the Half Fare card will be your best deal. 120 chf per person.
Buying a 1st class pass would be a waste as the cable cars are all one class. 2nd cl on the trains is perfectly fine. The Half Fare card gives you a better deal on the Jungfraujoch. Also, if you would like to ride first class on the train, your card lets you buy those at half the cost as well.
The train from Strasbourg to Basel is an hourly TER train and is only about 24 euro each, and if you are 60 or older its 18 euro. The Half Fare card kicks in at Basel and the rest of you stay in Switzerland.
If you are not married to Lugano, I would suggest Stresa, Italy on Lake Maggiore. It is on the most direct train route between Muerren and Milan. If you want scenic rail trip, specify via Kandersteg between Spiez and Brig. It takes a little longer, but goes up over the mountains, instead of under them as the new Loetschberg Base Tunnel make the journey from Spiez to Brig mostly underground.
From Stresa to Venice, you can buy Economy tickets now online for a discount price of 56 euro for 2.
Switzerland is expensive. Coming from France and leaving to Italy you will definitely notice it.

Posted by
113 posts

When 1 asked about 50% off that Rick mentions, the woman at the desk didn.t seem to know what i was talking about. She sold me a Swiss Travel PASS FLEX PASS which is working well for me. I have 4 different days of long travel, so she suggested I get the pass for four days and it has worked well.

Posted by
7209 posts

THE woman at THE desk, of course ;-)

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