I wonder if getting (two) Swiss Half Passes (for me and my wife) is worth it or not. We will have our two teenage daughters with us, both within the allowed age range (up to 15 years). How many trains or busses would we have to take to make buying two Swiss Half Passes worth it. Our trip will cover Lugano-Lauterbrunnen-Lucerne-Bern in Switzerland.
Thank you very much for your advices.
How are you arriving and departing Switzerland? If you have 240 CHF of train tickets for one person, it pays. even if you don't crack that nut, the fact that you can get a free Family Card so the kids travel free is a big benefit. Any usage of lifts above Lauterbrunnen and Luzern will make them pay. They work on any public transportation in Switzerland, like city buses and trams.
Hi Sam,
Do we need one ticket or two tickets to cover cost of our our children?
We will be driving Milan-Lauterbrunnen-Lyon-Bern-Lucerne-Lugano-Milan.
Thanks.
If you are driving, you might just buy as you go. You might look at a Berner Oberland Passes. But yes, just one parent needs the Half Fare card to get a Family Card.
So it is best to buy only one Half Pass in our case?
Thank you, Sam.
Each adult needs a half price card and a half price ticket for each trip. The half price card is specific to one person.
If only one adult has a half price card, the other must buy a full price ticket!
How many trips you need to justify a half price card depends on the length of the trips. You need to do the arithmetic yourself. You can look up prices and times on the SBB website: https://www.sbb.ch/en
Note the "from" price is the price with a half price card. You also need to cost in your trips border/airport to Lugano and Bern to border/airport and any mountain railways, which have a discount with the half price card.
A map showing railways/buses/boats covered is here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/infrastruktur/trafimage/karten/karte-sts-pass-gueltigkeit.pdf
They appear to be driving, so just looking at savings for mountain lifts and railways.
Don't forget to buy a vignette sticker and attach it to the windshield when you enter Switzerland.
Lugano-Lauterbrunnen-Lucerne-Bern is not an accurate account of your travels. For example, when you arrive in Lauterbrunnen you're going to want to go up into the marvelous alps that surround Lauterbrunnen on all sides. There's the Schilthorn, Jungfraujoch, First, Wengen, Murren, etc - and you can't drive to ANY of these must see destinations. My guess is in just that area alone you'll be using trains/funiculars/gondolas enough to justify purchasing the Half Fare Card. Just savings with the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Jungfraujoch and back will almost cover the purchase price of your Half Fare Card.
Thank you for the replies and the tips. It seems that it will be advantageous to us to buy for each adult a Half Pass to get most savings and to encourage us to make side trips. I will order them online, in addition to the Vignette to drive on Swiss roads.
Our trip is more an exploratory trip than it is a mountain visit trip. I just happened to choose a travel plane that will take us driving on a road that is close to Lauterbrunnen. We will stay only one night there, but we could take one side trip from there with a mountain destination, such as Jungfraujoch or another destination close by. We will have 2 nights in Bern and 2 nights in in Lucerne, and 4 nights in Lugano and 5 nights in Milan.
Since a round trip to the Jungfraujoch from Lauterbrunnen is about 190 CHF, the Half Fare cards will just about pay for them selves on that trip.
But they most certainly will NOT pay for themselves if the day you planned to go up the mountain is very rainy or foggy and you decide not to go up. Why waste all that money for something you may cancel, if the break even is so close.?
Our drive through Switzerland will take 6 days, and our overnight stops will be at Lauterbrunner (1 night), Lucerne (2 nights), Bern (2 nights). If not buying the Swiss Half Pass is better, are you recommending not to do any purchse of such passes? We would get two free rides for our daughters, plus 50% of my wife and I. If the weather is bad whenw e will be in Lauterbrunnen, the weather may be good when we will be in Bern or in Lucerne, and there may exist a mountain rain or lift there. Right?
Not in or near Bern. The mountains near Bern are the Berner Oberland (loosely translated as high land near Bern), which is where Lauterbrunnen is. When you go to Bern you are going to the lowlands.
So it is best to plan for Lauterbrunnen, and to hope for good weather there and then.
