What would be my best option for my train travel in Switzerland? Below is my travel itinerary. There are two of us traveling.
Day One
Geneva Airport to Wengen
Day Two
Travel up to Jungfraujoch
Day Three
Possibly go up to Schilthorn
Hike some of the way down
Day Four
Wengen to Luzern
Day Five
May go up to Mount Pilatus
Day Six
Luzern to Zurich
Day Seven
Zurich to Zurich Airport
Thank you in advance!
Here is what you do. Go to www.sbb.ch/en and price every single journey and add them up. You may need to go to www.schilthornbahn.ch to get the Schilthorn price. Add them all up and that is your base price.
Compare that to half of the base price plus 120. That is the cost if you buy a Half Fare card.
Compare that with the price of an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass, keeping in mind that it only gives you a 25% discount on the trip From Wengen to Jungfraujoch and back, and 50% discount on the Schilthorn trip above Muerren.
You now have the cost of all three options. Dollars to doughnuts the Half Fare Card will be the lowest cost.
Unless you have a specific reason to stay in Zurich on day 6 or if your day 7 flight departs very early, I recommend you skip Zurich and spend another night in Luzern. Luzern has a direct rail link to the Zurich airport (2x hour, 70 minutes), so you're in easy reach of the airport.
With your planned trip to the Jungfrau - you should at LEAST purchase the Swiss Half Fare Card. The savings on that trip alone practically pays for the HFC.
The HFC is almost always the best bet. However, if you want added flexibility of jumping on/off wherever and whenever you want then the Swiss Pass should be your choice.
You only need 1 product (either Swiss Pass or Half Fare Card) - not both.
