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Selecting the right Travel Pass (or not at all)

Hello, i know there have been probably hundreds of questions like this and even more articles i can find online, but my specific case is a bit tricky.

I'll do it short - i'm going on a trip to Lucerne and Italy on November and so far here are the things i know i will do or really want to do:

  • November 22nd: Land at Zurich Airport and take a train/bus to Lucerne

  • November 22nd-24th: Stay at a hotel at the Altstadt (Old town) of Lucerne, get to the top of Mt. Pilatus using only the panorama gondolas and the aerial cableway from Kriens.

  • I'm not interested in any of the museums or the Transport museum, all the things i will do are in or really close to Lucerne and i guess i will use the boat rides on the lake once or twice.

  • November 24th: Take a train from Lucerne to Milan, there i'm planning on renting a car.

As you can see i'm not doing a lot of inter-city traveling, you can sum it in Zurich - Lucerne - Milano, therefore i'm not sure how the Travel Pass will save me money, on the contrary it can just cost me more then i would pay without it. In addition i'm not interested in the Museums free admission i will get with it, and since i'm not doing any special Round Trip to Mt. Pilatus it won't save me in that part too much either.

So if you were me, would you pay for some of the Passes or i will do better (and cheaper) without it?

Thank you!

Posted by
21166 posts

From what you describe, no. Just pay as you go.

Posted by
488 posts

As a note for November 24th. Be careful renting the car in Milan. The city is filthy with ZTLs and getting from, say the Hertz near Milano Centrale out of the city without crossing a ZTL can be a bit of a navigational maze. Driving through a ZTL with a rental car can be a 100 Euro fine that will hit you months after your return. I'd recommend researching Milan's ZTL map and plotting your escape. I recently returned a rental car to that Hertz, and it was a twisty path to get there without earning a fine.

Posted by
1131 posts

You can go to www.rail.ch and price each of the one-way connections to see if they cost more than the rail pass. We are going from Geneva-Bern day 1, Bern-Murren day 2, and Murren-Zurich day 3, and initially I was like, there is no way I would get my money's worth from a rail pass, but actually the 3-day Swiss Rail Pass ended up being cheaper than buying a la carte; plus, that way you also don't have to worry about buying tickets each time you get to a station, but you can just hop on board. Also in our case we are traveling with 2 kids, and their fares are free with adult Swiss Passes.