Swiss Travel Questions

Yes, connections are easy and the DB schedule link will include track numbers for Swiss, Austrian, and Germany schedules, to help you plan ahead. Still, I'd depart Muerren at a least a half hour earlier than strictly necessary, since you don't want to miss a reserved (and presumably nonrefundable) Railjet ticket for the longest leg of the trip.

The Half-Fare Card still saves a bit for your planned trains but saves more with each excursion that you take around either Luzern or Muerren.

You will use the HFC fore more than just going up to Murren. You'll use it Zurich->Lucerne, Lucerne -> Murren, Murren -> back down to the valley for exploring because the whole area is beautiful and you'll want to explore everywhere. Murren -> Swiss Border on way to Salzburg.

Transferring trains is really much easier than navigating most USA airports for connecting flights.

Since the Schilthorn is going to be closed, have you considered Jungfraujoch, instead (if the weather is clear)? With the Half Fare Card, we paid just over $100 per person from Murren roundtrip to Jungfraujoch.

We were in Switzerland for two days with Rick Steves and four days on our own in Murren (traveling there from Chamonix). We saved money with the Half Fare Card, but I don't think the savings were really significant until we used it for the trip to Jungfraujoch.

Thanks all!

I briefly considered Jungfraujoch only because it seemed like a whole day excursion and we wanted to relax in Murren. I will check it out a bit more though and see if we want to do it. I'll have to consider the weather too. If it's not a clear day I'm not sure it will be worth it. Thank you!

"If it's not a clear day I'm not sure it will be worth it."

If it's lightly cloudy, it's still worthwhile (that was the weather when I went up). If it's raining and/or low visibility, it's not worth it. Don't decide without checking the weather that day as well as looking at the webcams on the top (every hotel has them).

If the Schilthornbahn is closed but the weather is decent, consider the Allmendhubel. It's much cheaper than the Schilthornbahn, but highly worthwhile (you get to see the tops off all three mountains, which you can't see from Mürren itself).

Mürren is a town of 400 people. Hanging around for two days without going anywhere else will be VERY relaxing, as in comatose. You'll want to walk around the other towns too, and get between the towns, and you'll need some cable cars, buses, and trains to do this. They're not expensive as long as you're not going above Mürren (on one side) or Wengen (on the other), but they do add up, and so a Half Fare Card can still help, since it will also be good on anything else that moves in Switzerland (boats, local buses, trains, cable cars, etc). Remember that a Half Fare card is CHF 120, so if your definitely Swiss travel comes out to CHF 240 or more, you can't lose. You do have to do the math to see if it's worthwhile (there's no shortcut to figuring this out).

If you're only in Murren for 2 nights then I most certainly would not spend almost 1/2 my time there going to the Jungfrau. Yes, it's a nice place, but Murren and the other villages of Gimmelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen are all stunningly beautiful. There'll be enough to do just walking around, taking the gondola to the valley floor, go for a stroll. Comatose - no way!

"Murren and the other villages of Gimmelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen are all stunningly beautiful. There'll be enough to do just walking around, taking the gondola to the valley floor, go for a stroll. Comatose - no way!"

Just to be clear, I agree with Tim. I meant that if you only stay in Mürren, without going anywhere else, you will be very bored after a few hours. It's very tiny. But if you do go to and between the other villages and the valley floor, by taking various walks, lifts, trains, or bike rides, you'll have a great, non-comatose time.