Swiss Travel Pass: Travel Pass? Half Fare Card? or Point to Point Ticket

Seems like you have a choice, either 2 15-day Swiss Travel Passes plus the free Family Card, or 2 1-month Half Fare Cards plus the free Family Card. The 5 yo travels with you free regardless, but the Family Card allows the 8 yo to travel with you free as well.

The 15-day travel pass is 429 CH per adult 2nd class (no reason for 1st class). In the BO, it will give you free travel and mostly 50% on mountain lifts, except for trips from Wengen or Grindelwald up to Kleine Scheidegg or the Jungfraujoch, which give a 25% discount. It is also good for city transportation in Zurich, as well as many free museum entrances.

The Half Fare Card will probably save most money, but you will have buy tickets for each journey. It works for Zurich transport as well at half fare, but no free museum entrances. It also gives a full 50% discount for travel to Kleine Scheidegg and the Jungfraujoch.

A slightly better itinerary, in my opinion, is to go Zurich-Interlaken-Luzern-Munich. You can take the fast way from Zurich to Interlaken which goes via Bern, then travel to Luzern by scenic train. In Luzern, you are closer to Munich, so that makes it a shorter travel day.

Thanks Sam for your useful tips. Leaning towards half fare card with family card. Just wanted to check how do I buy individual tickets using the half fare card for myself and family. Is it through the SBB app or ticket machines or will I have to stand in line to buy tickets? Pass seems simpler as you can simply board the train but perhaps more expensive for my trip than needed. Just worried about if there is additional hassle of entering half fare card number or stand in long lines. With both luggage and kids to be board on trains with sometime not much connection times, trying to figure out what's easy.

Great tip on switching the itinerary around to end in Luzern. I will check if the bookings can be moved around.

thanks

You can buy tickets via the app, or from ticket vending machines. You simply select the Half Fare price and that is what you pay. When a ticket inspector comes by, you show him/her the ticket (or code on your phone) and the Half Fare Cards. The tickets you bought and paid half fare are only valid with a Half Fare Card. No numbers to enter.

More about the route from Luzern (or Interlaken) to Munich.

There are direct trains to Munich from Zurich HB every 2 hours. These trains also stop at St Gallen on the way. The fastest way, and the way the SBB website or app will route you, is to Zurich. But I notice that those trains depart from the underground platforms at Zurich HB. The trains from Luzern arrive at the upper level platforms, and it is a rather tight connection if you don't know your way. You can always take an earlier train to Zurich so you will have more time.

As an alternative, since you asked about scenic train rides, you can take a train from Luzern to St Gallen and get the direct train to Munich from there. This train is called the Voralpen Express. It passes through some scenic areas of the low Alps. You would have to leave Luzern earlier, but the transfer time is a comfortable 37 minutes. You do have to use the underground passage to switch platforms, but if you use the ones on the east end of the station, there are some snack shops in the passage to grab a pretzel and a beverage along the way at the Bretzlkoenig, Or the Dunkin Donuts.

To see this route on the SBB website (or app) you need to put in an intermediate station in the "via" box. You can use "Uznach", then it will show you the Voralpen Express.