Swiss Trains

How many nights will you stay in Luzern? How many nights will you stay in Interlaken? What are your travel plans after you depart Interlaken?
We need answers to these questions to make an intelligent recommendation.

Yes, you get a discount off the Berner Oberland pass with the Half Fare Card, but it is not the full 50%.

If you're staying in a hotel in Lucerne, there seems to be a pass they provide for free public transit in the city and with discounts for transit in the region.

https://www.luzern.com/en/information/useful-information/visitor-card-lucerne

I don't know about the Berner Oberland.

Thank you for responding.
We are staying at an Airbnb in Lucern from Wednesday-Saturday.
We plan to do a boat ride to Weggis for a day & then another day go to Mt Titlis.
Do you happen to know is there any other way to obtain the city pass if not staying at a hotel?

Then in Interlaken we will be staying in a hotel there from Saturday-Tuesday & plan on visiting the top of the Jungfrau 1 day & the Schilthorn another.
This is where we were planning on the BO pass to get to the mountain villages.

From there we fly out of Zurich back home.

One last question, are all 4 of you over 15 years old? If so, then I think you should just get Half Fare Cards for each of you at 120 CHF each. I think the Berner Oberland pass will be overkill if you only intend to do the Schilthorn for a day and the Jungfraujoch for a day. The Schilthorn above Muerren is only covered by the BORP at 50%, same as the Half Fare Card. For both of these trips you will have to buy tickets anyway, since you must pay for the Jungfraujoch above Eigergletcher even with the BORP with a reduced rate.

Hi mwrafter,

I suggest you go to the sbb website and check out the particulars of the Swiss Pass. A pass with it's added features such as museums and is good on several boats on Swiss lakes might be a good option. It's what my husband and I use when we travel in Switzerland.

We enjoy riding the boats on Lakes Luzern, Thun and Brienz. It will get you up the Rigi (and back down again). We especially enjoy the flexibility to change plans at the drop of a hat, esp. during inclement weather. And we enjoy not having to take the time to buy a ticket every time we want to go somewhere. To be honest we never do the math, just buy the pass. Last year at the end of April we bought it after we arrived at the Zurich airport. In the past we had purchased it in advance. The wait at the airport to purchase our passes was an hour. No so bad but took longer than we expected.

It might be possible to purchase a ticket from Munich to the Swiss border and have the Swiss Pass start at the border. We did this once crossing the border on a boat on Lake Constance. When we got to the Swiss side there was no ticket office to validate our pass which we had purchased in advance. No one checked out pass on the way to Bern so we made it a point to have it validated in Bern. I was a bit nervous about it but it was not a problem for us. YMMV!

You do what works best for you as far as train tickets/passes.

Just my two cents worth.

Have a wonderful time in beautiful Switzerland and Germany!

Traveler Girl

4 8-day 2nd class Swiss Travel Passes will run you 1676 CHF and you will still need to buy some tickets as the Schilthornbahn above Muerren is 50% discount, same as the HFC, and you only get a 25% discount going to the Jungfraujoch above Grindelwald or Wengen.

So if you are looking for maximum convenience and money is no object, The STP is the way to go. If you are looking to save money, and don't mind buying tickets (easy) then the HFC is the way to go. 480 CHF for 4 people.