Good Day Everyone,
I would appreciate your experiences and advice. I am using the trains, buses and cable cars over 4 days for:
From what I researched it looks like the Swiss Half Fare card and the Berner Overland Pass together?
Thank you in advance.
It looks to me like you have 5 travel days, and the Berner Oberland Pass only comes in 4 or 6 day versions (for your purposes). That means you will be putting out either 344 CHF or 404 CHF.
Are you more interested in saving money or convenience? Having done many of these calculations, 98% of the time, just the Half Fare Card saves the most money. You do have to buy tickets for each journey. That is not to difficult if you download the SBB app and register an account, confusingly called a Swiss Pass.
If you get the Berner Oberland Pass as well, some, but not all of your trips can be done by just hopping on a train or boat.
To make the Berner Oberland Pass worthwhile, you should adjust your days somewhat to get the most out of the pass. With your current plan you're not doing enough included activities to justify the pass. This is assuming your trip is between late June-late September for availability of these locations....
1 - Wengen village exploration
2 - Wengen > MORNING Mannlichen + walk to Kleine Scheidegg > train to Grindelwald > AFTERNOON Grindelwald First > return to Wengen via Zweilutchinen/Lauterbrunnen
3 - Wengen > Lauterbrunnen > Stechelberg > Murren > Schilthorn > Birg Thrill Walk > Murren > walk down to Gimmelwald > Stechelberg > Lauterbrunnen > Wengen
4 - Wengen > Interlaken > Brienz > Brienzer Rothorn (seat reservation required) > Brienz > boat ride to Interlaken (optional stop at Giessbach) > Lauterbrunnen > Wengen
5 - Wengen > Paris
With this, get the 4 day reduced BO Pass + Half Fare Card and get a reduced Saver Day Pass for Days 1 & 5 to cover your trip from the airport to Wengen and from Wengen to Basel on the way to Paris. The Saver Day Pass has to be purchased far enough in advance to get the discount, so if you don't do that, then just purchase half fare tickets from Zurich Flughafen to Wengen and from Wengen to Paris.
An advantage of having the BO Pass along with the HFC is that you can decide spur-of-the-moment to go somewhere. Want to jaunt to Lauterbrunnen for dinner? Covered by the pass. Take a Post Bus through the valley to Stechelberg? Covered. We have a mantra: “Just buy the pass.” No second thoughts about pulling out a CC to buy another ticket when we just want to be impetuous.
