Has anyone ever done a decision tree / flowchart type guide for figuring out when passes are a good idea or not? It seems so many questions come up because it's hard to follow the guidance on SBB and even Man in Seat 61 is difficult for me to understand. Maybe a visual format would help.
Apologies if this already exists somewhere.
Stan, I think it's an additional challenge because a traveler doesn't know how many other uses may come up. For instance, in Lucerne, are you going up to Rigi ( all covered) , Stanserhorn ( all covered) or Pilatus (discounted)? For us, if it's a 14 day trip, all in Switzerland, I'll pay for the convenience of the Swiss Travel Pass, and never look back. And once I have the pass, I'll find additional uses, (eg sunset boat ride because it's a nice evening.)
Perhaps you're the one to invent the flow chart! Good luck!
Pat, I think my brain is too full to do any more thinking. But yes I see the compilcations there are, but at least the decision points at which you need to do those calculations would be identified. It seems like every time it's asked, the same questions and points are made.
Pat expressed the problem perfectly. It is very difficult to know in advance exactly which mountain lifts and what daytrips one might want to do; so much is weather -dependent.
Twenty years ago when we went to Switzerland for 2 weeks of hiking, based in 3 villages, it was easy—-a Flex Pass for 4 days covered our travel between the airport, all the village bases, and back to the airport. And at that time, for a few years when we were visiting Switzerland multiple times, a Flex Pass served as a Half Fare Card in between the validated days for full use. So it was easy.
Now there are lots of options, between consecutive day pass, flex pass, and the various regional passes. I am pretty much worn out with trying to help people with individual itineraries; my general advice is to get a Berner Oberland Pass, with a Half Fare Card, if you are spending 4-5 days or more in that region and want to ride lots of lifts. Or it you are spending 2 weeks in Switzerland and traveling around a lot, the 15-day Swiss Travel Pass might be beneficial for trains and boats, but it won’t fully cover all the mountain lifts.
Ha, Lola! I am soooo in line with your thinking. I used to do the math, projecting the optimal lifts and trains we would take. Each and every time the HFC plus BO Reg Pass was the answer with the exception of one year where we stayed a long time in the Berner Oberland and went to several other locations over the course of 6 weeks. Then a Swiss Flex Pass covered 15 days very nicely in conjunction with and HFC and BO Reg Pass to round out the package.
For the OP, I have used Excel to do my assessment. I also found the SBB guidance difficult. I had to create something that made sense to me and that involved listing all of the travels I wanted to do, long haul as well as day trips on mountain trains, lifts, and buses. All you can do is your best estimate of optimal activity. As the others have said, you’ll find ways to use passes that you didn’t expect and joy-riding is certainly an option when you don’t have to reach in your pocket and gulp at the extra expense,
