Swiss pass or not?

Your calculation is wrong.

Since the Swiss Pass doesn't cover the Italian part of your journey we need to check only the fares from the Italian/Swiss border station(Domodossola) to Mürren and from Mürren to Luzern.

The total 2nd class fare for these 2 journey is about $130/person, which is a lot less than $282.

You can check the ticket prices yourself on the SBB(Swiss Federal Railways) site: www.sbb.ch

Multiply the fares it shows by 2, because the default setting shows 50% reduced fares(since most regular local travellers have a half-fare card).

If your calculation is correct, then the Swiss Travel Pass is already saving you a few dollars, and you'll get additional value out of it during your stay. Price depends on route, so if you're heading north from Varenna to Tirano and part of the Bernina Express route, then rates will be different from the routes via either Domodossola or Chiasso border crossings.

From Muerren to Schilthorn roundtrip is another $100 value covered, and you'd be fully covered when crossing to the other side of the valley as far as Wengen or Grindelwald, and get 25% discounts above those points. It also covers some museums, lake boats, and other rides around Luzern. See https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes.

It also depends, of course, on what other day excursions you have in mind. Schilthornbahn? Rigi? Factor that in too.

From Varenna, the quickest route is south to Milan, and back north via Domodossola and Brig. That will take about 7 hours.
A Swiss Pass would only be valid from the Swiss border at Domodossola.

Varenna-Esino to Domodossola costs either €15.20 or €22.60 depending on which train you take (tickets from Italian Railways).
Domodossola to Mürren is CHF 74.80 (2nd class adult, valid on any train)
Mürren to Luzern is CHF 51.80

4 days Swiss Pass (2nd class) costs CHF 281 and only covers you from Domodossola.
74.80 + 51.80 = CHF 126.80, less than half the price.

Thanks very much for the advice!

What people often don’t talk about is the time savings of having a pass. You don’t have to stop every time and buy a ticket, and if you want to be spontaneous and go somewhere unplanned you can just go without worrying about the cost. On our trip last year getting a pass was about the same as the à la carte tickets but the ease of already having the pass and not having to fool with buying tickets at the stations was well worth it.

Kelly, this is the best advice so far. You’re right, people don’t discuss convenience at all! Anything that can make my life easier while traveling is greatly appreciated.

When I was doing the math for the Swiss Travel Pass, I was within $30 and I decided that the convenience of not having to buy a ticket every time was worth $30. As it turns out, we used the Swiss Travel Pass so often we saved well over $100 each!

Aside from convenience, the Swiss pass has the great benefit that almost any extra excursion you want to take will cost exactly zero extra francs. A quick unplanned visit to Wengen? Extra cost = zero. Want a quick peek at a museum you never heard of? Extra cost = zero. "Extra cost = zero" allows for more spontaneity because it takes the added cost out of the equation.

On the other hand if the OP ends up not doing any extra trips she'll just have "donated" $150 to the state railway of the richest country on Earth. There are better causes to hand out $150 if you don't want to spend it on yourself. ;-)

FastEddie - Exactly! We ended up doing a lot of things we wouldn't have done if we had had to pay out of pocket for each thing. Oh the things we would have missed!

I will be getting a STP for our trip this summer.
One thing I have learned is that even if a Pass doesn't save money, it almost always saves time.
My vacation time is precious! So much Wine, beer, Scotch and Schnapps and so little time!

For some stays, stringing Saver Day Passes together can be much cheaper than a Swiss Pass with similar levels of flexibility (but fewer mountain railways discounts). They start at 52 Fr. per day (more or less the same in USD) and go for sale two months before the date of travel. I'm not saying that it would be the right choice for the OP, but it can bring significant savings on long cross-country journeys.

I just priced out our 7 days in Switzerland for July using a very handy excel worksheet supplied by myswissalps.com For us with the Swiss Travel Pass is less than al a carte but a little more than the Half Fare Card. We will be getting the Swiss Travel Pass for all the reasons listed above, I want the hassle free experience along with the opportunity to add in some spontaneous uses. Check out the site and worksheet I found them very helpful.
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