Hello All,
The title sums up everything I feel right now. There are so many swiss passes & swiss travel cards options. I'm travelling from Paris to Lucerne, spend 3 days in Lucerne to visit Titlis & Jungfrau. Does any pass would help me? or I better off buying individual tickets for every leg of the journey.
Thanks in advance.
It is complicated. You have to kind of know in advance what you plan to do which is hard especially in Switzerland where weather can be a crap shoot. Make a list of your train trips and look for any activities that might be included in the passes. Some excursions can be on the swiss travel pass as well as some museums. Even within a city/region, the weather can be different on each of the mountain tops. For example, in Lucerne, Titlis, Pilatus and Rigi all can have different weather. Rigi is included in the pass, as far as I know, the others are not. Also in Lucerne, there is a small, nice art museum on the pass while the transportation museum is not. In Berner Oberland, it definitely can be clear on Schilthorn and clouded in on Jungfrau or the opposite. I'm not sure how fun either is when there is no visibility. I'm not sure of the status of Schilthorn, when I was there the trip was half price on the Swiss Travel Pass, and then last year the Swiss Travel Pass covered the entire trip, but now I'm hearing it might be different again.
For a short visit that includes the Jungfrau, a Half Fare Card is usually the best choice. It will give you a full 50% off the pricy Jungfrau trip, as well as everything else. The savings on the Jungfrau trip alone will almost cover the 120 CHF cost of the card.
When Travelling in Switzerland as a tourist there are 3 options
1) Pay full fare for each trip
2) Buy a Half Fare Card and pay ½ price for each trip
3) Buy a Swiss Pass and pay nothing extra for unlimited trips.
Depending on how much travelling you will be doing, the cheapest option could be (1), (2) or (3).
Unfortunately you have to list out and price up all your trips to work out the best option.
The "from" price on the SBB website assumes you have a Half Fare Card, as most Swiss residents do. You need to click on the price to find the full fare.
Details of both the Swiss Pass and Half Fare Card are here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests.html
These passes give discounts on some mountain railways. Details are on this map: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf
Even if you get an Swiss Pass or Half Price Card, that does not cover you from Paris to the Swiss border. You would have to buy that ticket separately. What are you doing after Luzern? Probably going to an airport or the Swiss border. That trip needs to be included in your calculations.
Are your really planning to daytrip to the top of Jungfraujoch from Lucerne? You can, but just confirming, since travel time is 4 hours each way.
I didn't catch that you'd visit Jungfrau from Lucerne. Not only is that quite a distance, but you could get there and find that there is no visibility.
I read that as "Titlis or Jungfrau". With only 3 days in Luzern, you only have time for one mountain. Pick the day with the best weather, and go for the nearest (Titlis).
Thanks to all of you, I booked individual tickets for my trip. Below are the prices (includes 2 Adults & 1 child)
Luzern → Engelberg rounds trip - 93 euros
Basel -> Luzern - 85 euros
Luzern -> Zurich - 58.5 euros
I'm also thinking of Visiting Rigi or Pilatus from Luzern which I haven't booked.
Did I get a better deal or buying pass would have been cheaper?
1) It makes no sense to prebook Swiss Tickets.
2) If you are visiting the Jungfrau then you should purchase a Swiss Half Fare Card (it's a no-brainer)
3) If you have a Swiss HFC you should have used it when you purchased the tix from step 1
Johny, I don't know where you got these ticket prices, but obviously not from SBB, as they use Franks in Switzerland, Not Euros.
As Tim said: "1) It makes no sense to prebook Swiss Tickets."
The "correct" price for these trips are:
Luzern → Engelberg return CHF 36.80 adult, or CHF 16.00 child (that is a local 1 day pass) = CHF 89.60
Basel → Luzern CHF 34.00 x 2½ = CHF 85
Luzern → Zürich (I am guessing Zürich airport, not city) CHF 30.00 x 2½ = CHF 75
Total CHF 100.80 (per adult) - does not justify a Half Price Card
Total for 2½ persons = CHF 249.60. You paid €236.50, approx CHF 267
These are the prices you would pay at the station, and are valid on any train that day, second class.
Looks like you got slightly overcharged, but not by much. Reseller websites never know about local deals, like the 1-day pass to get you to Engelberg.
BTW "child" on Swiss trains is under 16. I trust your child is.
Pilatus options and prices are here: https://www.pilatus.ch/en/
Rigi here: https://www.rigi.ch/en
Have a hilarious trip.
Thanks Tim & Chris.
@Tim - I dropped the idea of Jungfrau as it’s too long from Lucerne (quite rightly suggested by other members)
@Chris - I used Trainline to book tickets as suggested by seat61. Darn it! I still got costly tickets booking in advance.
Pilatus mountain is 100 CHF per person again. OMG! Swiss pass would have been cheaper isn’t it?
What’s Lucerne guest card? I found the procedure but didn’t find if there is any fee for that.
Hilarious Johann, The "Gästekarte Luzern" (which is officially translated as "Visitor Card Lucerne") is free for as long as you are staying in a hotel in Luzern.
Info here: https://www.luzern.com/en/footernavigation/services/visitor-card-lucerne/
The Visitor Card gives you free use of buses and trains within zone 10 of the city network, as well as a range of discounts for cableways, mountain railways, museums and excursions in the Lucerne-Lake Lucerne Region.
This is common in Switzerland, many towns and cities give free transport within the town/city to all hotel guests (you pay for it in hotel taxes).
"I used Trainline to book tickets as suggested by seat61." - He recommends Trainline for tickets to or from Switzerland. Swiss internal tickets should be bought direct.
See here: https://www.seat61.com/Swiss-trains.htm#Swiss_train_tickets
Do you need to buy tickets in advance?
No. Swiss domestic journeys don't need to be pre-booked, trains cannot 'sell out' and regular full-price tickets are available in unlimited numbers, valid on any train that day. For any Swiss domestic journey you can just turn up, buy a ticket at the station and hop on the next train.
I'm with you on the confusion! I have a July trip in Paris-Colmar-Lucerne-Milan-Nice. I will have three nights in Lucerne and my only plans so far are to do the hike from Fronalpstock to Klingenstock and to take a boat trip on Lake Lucerne. It seems like the Swiss pass is costly for what I'm doing but maybe I'm missing something. Would the Swiss pass apply to my train travel from Colmar to Lucerne or Lucerne to Milan or is that totally separate? I have not purchased those train tickets yet. Thanks for any input.
Would the Swiss pass apply to my train travel from Colmar to Lucerne or Lucerne to Milan or is that totally separate?
Sue, a Swiss Pass is valid for all Swiss-owned rail routes, not for rail lines run by foreign companies. For a cross-border train that means it is only valid for the part of the trip in Switzerland, to or from the first/last Swiss station.
In your case I doubt a Swiss Pass is the best option.
You can see what the last Swiss station is on the official Swiss Pass vaidity map here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf
It is my impression that it used to be that Trainline did not charge fees which is probably why Seat61 recommends it. My experience on one transaction and from other people was that they do, sometimes, but the fees tend to be smaller. There seems to be no rhyme or reason on when Trainline adds fees. In my experience with Loco2, they do not add fees. However, again, you don't need to prepurchase tickets in Switzerland.
Trainline has begun charging fees, about 3% on US credit cards, to cover the card fees. Somebody has to pay for those triple bonus points.
Thanks, Sam, for the explanation. I've been using Loco2 when I can't use the country specific site.
"I'm with you on the confusion! I have a July trip in Paris-Colmar-Lucerne-Milan-Nice. I will have three nights in Lucerne and my only plans so far are to do the hike from Fronalpstock to Klingenstock and to take a boat trip on Lake Lucerne.
It seems like the Swiss pass is costly for what I'm doing but maybe I'm missing something. "
No, you're not missing anything. The Swiss Travel Pass is expensive because not only covers most transportation, but also museums, in the whole country. If you only have three nights in the country (plus getting from Colmar to Luzern and Luzern to Milan), and are only in Luzern rather than seeing other parts of Switzerland, it's going to be hard to make a pass pay off.
For me, spending 10 nights (both in 2014 and 2017), going to various places in the country, seeing museums, and taking a lot of covered transit (as well as a few routes that were discounted but not fully covered), the Swiss Travel Pass worked well. For your itinerary, it wouldn't.
