Swiss Pass Price Break Down?

Chad, what is and isn't covered by the Swiss Pass is shown on the official map here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/infrastruktur/trafimage/karten/karte-sts-pass-gueltigkeit.pdf
You can see the two rail lines up Rigi (from Vitznau and from Arth-Goldau) are solid red lines, i.e. covered. As is the cable car from Weggis (solid black line).

The nice train ride from Luzern to Interlaken is the direct route, over the Brünig Pass and via Meiringen. You can see this route on the map.

Your spreadsheet slightly confuses me as it has $-signs. Switzerland uses Franks (CHF), not dollars! All Swiss train prices are in Franks. The prices for the various passes are here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests.html
Half Fare card CHF 120 for 1 month.
Swiss Pass 4 days CHF 270
Swiss Travel Pass Flex 4 days in 1 month CHF 310

• Zürich to Luzern (I am guessing you mean Zürich Flughafen (airport station), not the city centre) is CHF 30 full fare (NOT $12.50), or CHF 15 with Half Price Card.
• In the Half Price column you need to add half the full fare.
• Luzern to Weggis is better done by a boat, which is covered by passes.
• Luzern to Engelberg (day 2) is a train, not a bus: CHF 36.80 full fare return, which is what I guess you want (NOT $9.20). or CHF 18.40 with Half fare card.

I haven't checked any more. You need to redo your prices (in CHF), based on the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) website: https://www.sbb.ch/en

Chris,

Yeah, I guess so... Surprised my prices were way off. Google failed me. I will compare on the site you gave.

The $ is just the formatting tool in excel. I just did that to note they are currency (not necessarily the currency type). I am aware they are CHF :)

Thanks for your help!
Chad

Surprised my prices were way off. Google failed me.

Why were you using Google? How would they know, would you use Google to get prices in your local supermarket? No, you would go to the supermarket's website.
Same for trains, go to the website of the company running the trains, In this case SBB is the Swiss national rail company, which also sells tickets for all other Swiss rail companies. The Swiss Passes are their "own brand" products.

$ - I wasn't sure whether that was Excel defaults, or you had got prices from some reseller who was quoting prices in $, and if so, which sort (Aussie, Canadian etc.). You can change that in Excel, my expenses spreadsheet has a mixture of CHF, € and £ with appropriate conversions.

Sorry to give you more work.

Without going through the whole thing.

Day 4: Lauterbrunnen to Jungfraujoch (and return) I get 189.60 CHF vs your 189. But who's counting pennies.
But, with a Swiss Travel Pass, I get a cost of 132 CHF vs your 94. The STP gets you free to Wengen, then only a 25% discount off of 88 CHF to Jungfraujoch, so that is 66 CHF each way. The Half Fare Card gives 50% for the entire trip, so cost is 94.80 CHF for the whole trip. Note coverage of these lines with a "1 in a circle" on this map.
https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf

Day 5: Lauterbrunnen to Zurich, I get 77.80 CHF vs your 35, and 38.90 CHF with an HFC vs your 12.50.
Zurich to Buchs SG, I get 37 CHF vs your 90 CHF and 18.50 CHF with an HFC vs your 45. and I get 49 CHF Buchs SG to Innsbruck bought from SBB.

So I think there are some inaccuracies in your calculations.

Yeah. I will rerun all the numbers. I don't know how you got such different values. I did Google for ticket sites and I swear it brought me to the site you provided.

All in all, based on the current projections I still think it would be cheaper to get the 4 day Swiss pass (and just pay for our first day out of pocket).

Thanks for the help!

So what am I missing? I picked an arbitrary date next week (not when we are going because its too far in the future).

I see 10.60, not 30 dollars.

https://imgur.com/gallery/qAmpMyV

I guess a simple question - am I assuming correctly that getting the swiss travel pass would be more worth it with my agenda. I seem to think its going to be close with the 50% travel card.

What are you missing? This: the prices shown on the SBB opening page assume one has the Half Fare Card. You have to work through the purchase steps and enter "no reduction" to get the regular price.

Lola ,

I did not know that. Thank you! :D That clears it up.

Here is a shortcut way to a ballpark estimate:

If you are definitely going up the Jungfraujoch, the Half Fare Card will almost pay for itself with the 50% reduction on that trip.

If you are definitely doing the Rigi loop ( highly recommended!) and or the Schilthorn cablecar, then the Swiss Pass might be the better deal, as both are fully covered on that pass.

The problem is assuming you will do any of these, as they are so weather-dependent.

Mt. Rigi including the boat and rail trip was free with a Swiss Pass and I highly recommend.
I believe gondola up to Murren and Gimmelwald were free with a swiss pass and the last leg up to Schilthorn was half price. Watch the weather for Jungfrau and Schilthorn. Not sure either is worth it if it is socked in, but know that one can be cloud covered and the other not. Hence we didn't do Jungfrau because it never cleared for us. :(
Chillon in Montreux was free with swiss pass and I highly recommend.
We "poked" into a few museums that we wouldn't have otherwise visited because we had the pass. Sometimes I only want to visit a museum for a short time so don't feel it worthwhile to buy a ticket.
Local transportation (buses) seems to always be free for visitors staying in the hotels.
I'm not sure I broke even on the swiss pass, but I came close.

So what am I missing? I picked an arbitrary date next week (not when we are going because its too far in the future).
I see 10.60, not 30 dollars.
https://imgur.com/gallery/qAmpMyV

Chad, That price from Zürich Flughafen to Luzern says "From CHF 10.60", "From" is the important word.
First, don't bother about dates. Swiss train prices are fixed, they do not change depending when you buy the ticket.
That "from" price will be a discounted advance purchase available for some less used trains. If you click on the red "from" box it will give you all the options (you have to fill in the form, just use a fictitious name, "xxxx yyyy 01.01.1990"). The possible options are:

• Price with Half Price Card: CHF 15, one way, any train, any day.
• Full price with no discounts: CHF 30 (CHF, NOT dollars!). This is always exactly double the price with the half price card, hence the name!
• Advance purchase price, available only on some off peak (less used) trains, when purchased on the internet and still requires a Half Price card: CHF 10.60. These tickets are only valid on the train for which they were purchased.

You only need look up one price (full fare), then divide by 2 to get the Half Fare Card price.
I hope this helps.

Julesmessen, you must have taken the cablecar up the Schilthorn last year. From January 2018, the Swiss Travel Pass has covered free travel for the entire route Stechelberg - Mürren - Schilthorn.

https://schilthorn.ch/cmsfiles/tariffs_schilthorn_2018_english.pdf

Look for this specific information just below the " group,fare" table.

Thanks for all the clarification on that guys! I greatly appreciate you helping.

We do plan on doing Rigi. We were not planning on Schilthorn, but we might do it now that we know its free (if we get the swiss pass).

We were thinking of doing Grindelwald - First and do some hiking there. Still trying to figure out where we will be staying in that region before we make that decision. Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen

Wow, Lola, thanks for ruining my day! :)
Chad, If you end up doing Schilthorn, Murren and Gimmelwald are on the way and are charming. Gimmelwald in particular. The Lauterbrunnen Valley is stunning as well. I liked Grindelwald, too, but not nearly as much as Gimmelwald where we returned three times!

Rigi is a great trip with wonderful views and numerous hiking opportunities.

Grindelwald First is only covered 50 percent with the Swiss Pass. The hike from the tip station to Bachalpsee is very scenic. Continuing on to the Faulhorn hut for lunch is well worth the time (although the food is not all that great; you go for the views and the experience).

I need to check, but I believe the Schynige Platte cogwheel train is also covered on the Swiss Pass. If so, a great hike is the Panoramaweg from there to the First top station. The trail follows the ridge line and offers views down in either direction (Brienzersee or Grindelwald valley) at various times. I con’t remember the exact distance but you can look it up. Something like 10 miles, but not a lot of elevation gain or loss. You just need to be sure to arrive at First top station before the gondola closes, or you have a long walk down!

Sorry if I ruined your day, jules. I just thought it would be useful information for the OP and others that the Schilthorn is now covered. We have never been up there and I am not sure I will take advantage of this when we are in Mürren this summer (I do not like heights) but others in my party might.

Lola, I was joking, and I'm glad to know that it is now free. I intend to someday go back to the area and would like to see Schilthorn under better conditions.
James Bond enthusiasts tend to enjoy Schilthorn.
We thought Lauterbrunnen was incredibley beautiful, but there isn't a lot to do if the weather isn't favorable. I would say because Schilthorn is now free, it is a decent option even if the skies aren't clear because there are the indoor James Bond exhibits and activities.

My favorite way to see Mount Rigi is by taking the ship on the lake, from Luzern to Vitsnau, where I catch the cog-wheel train from the ship dock (across the street) that goes up the mountain with a stunning beautiful view of the lake (out the left window). To get back to Luzern, I like to take the cable car ride for amazing views from the air, down to Weggis. At Weggis there's a long downhill sidewalk to get to the lake and ship dock, for the boat ride back to Luzern.
(I didn't find the train route from Luzern to Arth-Goldau to Rigi Kulm to be very interesting in comparison. The railway from Arth-Goldau seemed to me to be more of the back way there.)

On Mt. Rigi, you can go to the top (Rigi Kulm) and then walk a path down or take the train down to Rigi Kaltbad. You can take the Blumenpfad (labeled flower path) from Kaltbad either way from the cog-rail station for exhilarating views of Rigi and Lake Lucerne below. (Actually, if you walk down to Rigi Kaltbad from Rigi Kulm or Rigi Staffel, you can join up with the Blumenpfad at the viewing platform before you reach Rigi Kaldbad.)
The cable car ride to Weggis starts at Rigi Kaltbad.

The Swiss Travel Pass fully covers the lake ship, the cog-wheel train, the cable-car, and the train from (Luzern and) Arth-Goldau. (In other words, all of Rigi public transportation.)

I just have one clarification / question to Lola....

I've only done part of the ridge hike starting from First - went to the Faulhorn and beyond - long story. I was under the impression that the elevation gain was 3000 ft which is not insignificant. I think the elevation gain is more gradual doing it from Schnygge Platte which is what we are planning this summer. I'm very glad to hear you didn't feel it was much elevation gain:). but just want to clarify for anyone reading this to look it up. I'm pretty certain it's at least 3000 ft.

Hi Jill, here is a good trail profile I found.

http://www.hikingwalking.com/index.php/destinations/sw/sw_bernese/grindelwald/schynige_platte/schynige_platte_detail

It shows the elevation gain to the Faulhorn if you start at First as 1470 feet, while if you start at Schynige Platte, you will have a more gradual ascent, but 2100 feet to gain.

The cumulative gain, with all the little ups and downs, would be a bit more, but still nowhere near 3000 feet.

Thanks Lola! That's so good to know! I'm not sure where I got that 3000' number. Thanks for the link and clearing it up:)