Swiss Rail Pass. sigh...

I’m a big fan of the Swiss Travel Pass and have purchased it for my 3 trips to Switzerland (Sept. 2021, June 2022 and June 2024). I move around a lot so I get my money’s worth from it. If you plan to just stay in 1 region most of the time, it will probably make more sense to look into a regional pass.

Since we have about 65 days from the time we land to the time we go back home, it seems that we have a wealth of time that could be used to make some of it less expensive per day. So when I saw that they had a 15-day pass that was only $50 more expensive than the 8-day pass. I thought it would make sense to spend the 15 days and go anywhere we like even to some of the bigger cities that we might have skipped otherwise

We purchased it for one of our trips to Switzerland. We broke even on it, and it was convenient. We did price out our plans a bit to determine if the pass was worthwhile.

You might look at the 2-month continuous Eurail Pass, which is on sale right now (25% off). This would be $1375 for 2 people (regular price over $1700), and you wouldn’t need a Swiss Pass. . I usually do not suggest using a Eurail pass in Switzerland, but I have seen others confirm that they do work well, with a few exceptions (which I hope someone can explain to you, as I can’t).

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/global-pass

Note that neither a Eurail Pass nor a Swiss Pass will fully cover the high mountain lifts and trains (cogwheel trains, cablecars, gondolas) beyond the villages. Most are covered at 50%; the Jungfrau train is only 25%. But I wouldn’t recommend that for someone on a really tight budget anyway.

If you do intend to ride those fun and scenic lifts in the Berner Oberland, you can do that for free with a Berner Oberland Pass. This covers all trains, boats, buses, and (most) scenic lifts within a broad area—-From Bern or Luzern down to Domodossola in Italy. Lifts excluded from the full discount are the Jungfrau train and the First lift at Grindelwald (0robably became too crowded).

This will cost 435 per person for a 10-day consecutive pass. Or you could each buy a Half Fare Card for 120 CHF and the Berner Oberland pass will cost 316 CHF. In other words, the Half Fare Card cost is covered by the reduction in price for the pass. Then you use the Half Fare Card discount for the remainder of your travel throughout Switzerland.

https://www.berneseoberlandpass.ch/maps-bernese-oberland/

See the 2025 prices and map of validity here:

https://www.berneseoberlandpass.ch/assets/Uploads/Berner-Oberland-Pass-Prospekt-2025.pdf

Combine this with a Eurail Pass of appropriate length to cover your travel in the rest of Europe—-maybe a one-month continuous pass, or a 22-day Flex Pass if that works better.

That brings the cost per day for riding trains, boats, and lifts in Switzerland to 41 CHF. If you look at the actual prices, you will see that one simple lift ride can cost more than that. For example to ride up the popular Männlichen cablecar, walk the scenic Panorama Trail to Kleine Scheidegg, and ride the little train back down to Wengen would cost 60 CHF each. A regular train ticket from Bern to Wengen is 45 CHF (reduced to 33-39 CHF if there are SuperSaver tickets available, but these sell out in summer).

When you check train prices on the Swiss train site, the default selection is with a Half Fare Card, so you have to either disable that or double the price you see to get the regular price.

First, thank you for all the helpful posts!!! I am strongly considering a Eurail pass as well. I like the Swiss pass since it includes all panoramic train rides and local public transportation. This is important since we plan to stay in Airbnb instead of hotels. I know that many hotels offer a guest pass for the area. I am really amazed at how much logistics there are for a trip that does not require me to get a second mortgage. LOL

My understanding is that the Eurail pass covers the panoramic trains as well, but hopefully someone can confirm that. With either pass (Swiss Travel Pass or Eurail Pass), you need to buy a separate seat reservation for the Glacier Express, and the special panoramic cars on the Bernina Express. For the Glacier Express the extra cost is 49 CHF per person.

https://glacierexpress.ch/en/price

I am going to make a quick recommendation for affordable dlodging in the Berner Oberland, specifically in Mürren. Chalet Fontana, a much-loved bed and breakfast, has a ground floor apartment that is not fancy but very comfortable. You can read about it here, but book it on AirBnB.

http://www.ferntree.ch/chalet/fontana_summer.htm

The AirBnB availability calendar shows that it is already booked for all of August, but there are a few multi-day stays available in June, July, and Sep[tember.

When are you going, by the way?

http://www.ferntree.ch/chalet/fontana_summer.htm

We fly out may 19th and return July 22nd

And where does Switzerland fit in your plans? Are you starting in the south (Italy) and working your way north? That is a good plan for cooler weather in the hotter places like Spain and Italy.

If you start in Italy, say, you could skip Eurail coverage for that country. Travel on the regional trains is very inexpensive, and to use the fast Frecce trains on Trenitalia you need to pay extra for seat reservations—-I believe it is 10 euros. If you buy your tickets for the fast trains well in advance, you can get very good prices. For example, from Rome to Firenze in late May is only 19,90€ each, little more than the cost of a seat reservation with your pass.

You could spend 2 weeks in Italy, or Italy plus Austria (advance tix from Bolzano in Italy to Innsbruck in Austria are only $21.54 for 2 people if bought several months In advance—-price quoted in $$$ because I used Trainline to find this price). Then 2 weeks in Switzerland on a Swiss Pass. And then need only a 30-day Eurail pass.

But you should look at ticket prices in other countries before deciding to buy a Eurail pass at all. Given the low cost of advance tickets in some countries,the availability of cheap regional trickers in Germany, the need to pay extra for seat reservations when using a Eurail Pass, it may not save you money at all to buy the passes. You might have the advantage of flexibility—-just hop on a train at a whim—-but even that advantage is lost where seat reservations are required.

Our general rule of travel in Europe is Swiss Passesnor Berner Oberland Passes in Switzerland, Two Together Railcards in the UK, and advance point to point tickets everywhere else.

The Swiss Travel Pass is awfully expensive if it is just needed for local transportation. There are local deals that are a lot less costly.

Yeah we've looked at it and it looks like the eurail pass is going to be a much better deal. We start in Naples and we're going to go to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast and then to parstum
Then we go to Rome, Florence, Venice and then I'm thinking we'll go from there to San Moritz. And from there we're going to fussen for crazy Ludwig's castles and then to Prague, Krakow and Budapest. From there likely back to Berlin parts of Germany and then we still haven't planned what's going on past then. But we are going to Scotland in July to Inverness because they have the highland games on July 12th

I will also look into how much trains are in Italy. I really don't want to spend the extra money if I don't have to.

The Circumvesuviana and Campania Express private trains from Naples to Sorrento are not covered with a Eurail pass. And depending on your choice of travel from there to Paestum, you may find nothing covered by the Eurail Pass there either, unless you return to Naples. Then a ticket on the Regionale from Naples to Paestum will cost €7,60. That price is pretty typical of Regionale tickets in Italy.

The only reason we broke even on the Swiss Travel Pass was that we got it on sale, and used it for the excursions up to Schilthorn, Mt. Rigi, art museum in Luzern, and Chillon in Montreux. I have to say, it was convenient. We also did a fair amount of train travel.

Why St. Moritz? Are you taking the Glacier Express? St. Moritz and Zermatt have some of the priciest hotels in Switzerland, so not exactly budget friendly. Probably the same for owner rentals like AirBnB. And most of those will have minimum stay requirements.

You could save almost 100 CHF by taking unreserved regional trains on the same tracks instead of the Glacier Express , tho’ you would have to change trains a couple of times along the way.

Yeah we want to take the glacier Express. After looking at the rail schedules it looks like Venice to Zermatt is a better trip and then after we get to San maritz we would probably just go up to murren and play around in that area for a while

Coming from Italy, I would not go Zermatt to St Moritz to Muerren, as that is a huge zig-zag, west to east to west. Better would be Milan to St Moritz (via Bernina Express or local trains without reservation fees), then St Mortiz to Zermatt, then Zermatt to Muerren. Still a zig-zag, but a but a better zig-zag.

Yeah figured that out. Thank you. We are excited to see the area around murren. We will go to st Moritz first and go to murren after Zermatt.

Many sources recommend staying somewhere other than St. Moritz, which is very expensive and apparently not exceptionally picturesque. I think Pontresina is probably a better alternative. I have only passed through the area on a regular train running the Bernina Express route; I haven't stayed in either town.