Swiss travel pass or Tell pass

Posted by marie (west Chester, PA) on 11/04/17 12:41 AM

Hello again

Just attempting to get my head straight around these passes and seeing which one would be best for us. We are planning in traveling late May, early June coming from and back to Milan through Visp or Brig and probably staying in Lucerne for 2 nights and Lauterbrunnen for 3 nights. We would be going to see Zermatt for a day trip from Lauterbrunnen and enjoy walking and hiking, but not extreme heights, so we wouldn't be taking the cable up to the highest peaks, etc. We really aren't interested in the museums unless the weather is really awful. We would be using Trenitalia tickets from Milano to Visp and then the swiss trains to Lucerne and coming back from Lauterbrunnen to Visp then onto Milan. At first I was thinking the STP would be best, but we will concentrating all of our time centrally except for the one day trip to the Zermatt area. The tickets in and out of Switzerland are not that expensive due to the trenitalia fare. Any suggestions?

Posted by Tim

Knoxville, TN, USA

11/04/17 12:58 AM

7209 posts

The Tell Pass doesn't take you to Zermatt and neither will it take you to Lauterbrunnen. Your best bet quite possibly is no pass at all. Just buy your point to point tickets.

Posted by Sam

Green Bay

11/04/17 01:06 AM

21144 posts

Add up your full fare tickets from www.sbb.ch/en, keeping in mind the the first price you see says "From" meaning it assumes you have a Half Fare Card, so you have to double those prices to get the real price. If the total is more than 240 CHF, buy the 30-day Half Fare Card for 120 CHF.

Posted by Chris F

Basel, Switzerland

11/04/17 06:44 PM

8889 posts

Marie, you need to re-assess your route. Milan to Luzern does not go via Brig/Visp, it goes via Chiasso and Lugano. See map here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/infrastruktur/trafimage/karten/karte-sts-pass-gueltigkeit.pdf
Lauterbrunnen to Milan does go through both Visp and Brig, which are close to each other.

I would skip Zermatt, it is too far for a day trip from Lauterbrunnen. Look up times on the SBB site ( https://www.sbb.ch/en ). It takes 2h41 from Lauterbrunnen to Zermatt. But, Zermatt is a side valley from Visp, you could include a night there on your way back to Milan.

As you are not planning to take any cable cars, just the rail trips you list, I too would suggest just buying normal tickets.

Posted by marie OP

west Chester, PA

11/04/17 11:32 PM

372 posts

@Chris, my mistake about the inbound train from Milan to Luzern. Thanks for your help in clarifying this route.

Posted by Laura

Rick Steves' Europe

11/06/17 11:23 PM

16895 posts

The border crossing points were mentioned on your last thread, so I don't know why you're now talking about tickets to/from Visp. Italian rail will be happy to sell you those, but if you do choose a Swiss Travel Pass, you could have double coverage (depending on the number of travel days. It sounds like your minimum route on Swiss trains includes these 4 rides during a 6-day period:

Chiasso-Luzern (66 chf)
Luzern-Lauterbrunnen (43 chf)
Lauterbrunnen-Zermatt roundtrip (180 chf )
Lauterbrunnen-Domodossola (64 chf)

And then I'd guess that you'll still take some trains, boats, or lifts around each location, even if not to the highest points, and those costs will add up.

It's unfortunate that the pass choices jump from 4 days to 8 with no 6-day option, but an 8-day consecutive pass (376 chf or $390 US) still at least breaks even for what I've outlined and saves you the cost of any additional local transport or museums.