Which travel pass? Still confused. and Lauterbrunnen vs Wengen

And confused if you buy the Swiss Travel Pass and Half Fare Card, how does HFC work if the STP you just walk on/off the train.

Please do not buy both. they do not work together. Get one or the other, and as you will be in the area on and off for 3 weeks, the 30-day day Half Fare Card works best. Use it to buy ticket from Zurich airport to Basel, then Basel to Luzern. Basel to Colmar and back is a relatively cheap French TER ticket.

You might wait on deciding on a Berner Oberland Pass or a Jungfrau Travel Pass to see what the 2026 coverage is. There was a major change in the Berner Oberland Pass beginning 2025. You do get a discount for these with the Half Fare Travel Card.

I doubt you will break even on the HFC for your itinerary unless you are using the half price on the cable cars. The STP is easy but it too may come short on value. The SBB app is simple to use and you will need it to determine what train route and times even with the different passes. Purchasing a ticket is just a couple of clicks after finding the train you want. You can buy for multiple people too.

Look at the Berner Oberland pass map and compare full coverage to your plans. The Jungfrau Travel Pass may fit your needs better depending on your plans. They will give your more value of just walking on as you scan your pass as the ticket. I have used a different pass on each of my trips and both provided me value.

I would pick Grindelwald over Lauterbrunnen (just there 10 days ago). Wengen is quieter without cars but understand there is one more train to take to go other places. Again it depends on your plans.

Thank you so much for your helpful suggestions.

We were just in Switzerland. Landed in Zurich stayed 1 night, Lauterbrunnen 3 nights and 1 night in Luzern, then went to Italy. After researching passes I found the magic number to see if a half fare card to be worth it was that your total full price tickets needed to equal about $240 (if your tickets at full fare equal $240 or more, buying the half fare card will save you money). I think i came across this number on a YouTube video (maybe on Alpins in the Alps). Just look up a few of the routes you know you will be taking (make sure to look at the full rate, if I remember it defaults to half fare on the app). It honestly took me probably less than 10 minutes (I also had to calculate the kids fares).

We were a family of 4 so the math said it made sense to buy the half fare cards (also allow us to get the free family travel pass for our 12 and 13 year old boys). The math said other passes were significantly more. We are budget travelers so we went with half fare cards.

I debated if we would want any other pass. On the one hand the convenience of the Swiss Travel Pass or BO pass is very nice, but purchasing your tickets through the app is extremely simple with the half fare card. Good advice I heard was if you want to buy a pass and make sure it is financially worth it, pick a pass and plan your trip around what it covers (so do the mountian tops, boat rides, etc that it covers).

We did not do any mountian top trips (those are quite $$ and would have made a pass worth it). I did not do the math when we got home. While we were there we did fell like the travel $ added up quickly (gondolas, finiculars, trains). We did have one rai ing morning and afternoon and if we had had a pass would have taken advantage of 'free' (or already paid for) travel that day.

From a mom of boys to mom of boys, thanks for your thoughtful response!