Hi knowledgeable-travelers,
My family (two adults, one 10 year old) would like to travel by Eurail from Munich to Lauterbrunnen in one day. We would like to make Lauterbrunnen our base for our two night stay. However, the Eurail schedule suggests that won't be possible; the earliest we can arrive in Interlaken is 14:00, and there doesn't appear to be any trains after that time to Lauterbrunnen. Does anyone have any ideas?
William, it looks as though there are hourly trains, starting with 14:05 from Interlaken Ost.
Swiss trains are very regular and reliable--and frequent.
The moral of the story is to shun Rail Europe and instead use one of the national rail web sites.
There are a lot of other trains.
Go to the German Rail web site, www.bahn.de for a much better listing. The English version pops up for me after 10 seconds or so or look for the international guest tab.
Enter Munich to Interlaken Ost. Enter a date within 60 days of today to get a list of the current schedule. Or enter your actual travel date if less then 60 day from today. Enter the time of day you would like to depart. A list of several choices will be displayed.
I did this and there were several choices that leave at mid day and get you to Interlaken Ost in the late afternoon. Then there are at least hourly departures that will take you up to Lauterbrunnen.
You would probably want to look at the trains that have either one or just two train changes.(Less stress) They also should have the shortest total travel time.
Eurail is a company owned by the national rail companies of Europe and packages and markets rail passes outside of Europe. Eurail is NOT a railroad. You don't travel by Eurail. From Munich to the Swiss border you will be traveling on German Rail, from there to Interlaken by Swiss Rail.
Eurail does have a European rail schedule online at (www.eurail.com/downloads/eurail/eurail_timetable_2008.pdf) but it is nowhere near as complete as the interactive one on Bahn.de; I don't see the Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen connection listed on the Eurail schedule.
Eurail should not be confused with RailEurope, which is a US company owned primarily by French Rail. They resell Eurail passes and also sell a very limited number of tickets (at a markup) for individual train connections in Europe. These are only the major connections (most expensive trains) and they don't show the schedule for trains for which they don't sell tickets. Don't use RailEurope for schedules.
On the Bahn site, you can even find discounted ticket available to purchase online and print out at home.
If you go to the Bahn query page at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en, and click on "Arrival/Departure" under "Additional Services" (RH side), then, on the next page, fill in "Interlaken Ost" for station and select "departures", you will get an hour by hour schedule for departures from Interlaken Ost, just like it would appear on the schedule board in the station. You'll see that there are hourly departures at 5 minutes past all afternoon.
Gosh, why don't you try the official Swiss rail site at www.sbb.ch/en. The train from the Interlaken Ost train station, track 2B runs into Lauterbrunnen at least once an hour (sometimes twice an hour during the day) up until 23:16 in the late evening. It's a 20-minute ride. You have no worries about getting a train into the valley. You'll be on the Berner Oberland-Bahn which is a part of the Swiss train system. Your Eurail pass will only get you a 25% discount on the train tickets for this run. It's only a few Swiss Francs anyway.
If you haven't booked a place to stay, I would recommend the Hotel Silberhorn (www.silberhorn.com). Ask to stay in their newer annex. They do respond to email. The hotel is about 500 feet from the train station. IMHO, it has the best restaurant in the valley. The hotel is not listed in the RS book as the prices are just above his budget range. However, the restaurant is listed.
Thanks for the information. I have been planing on our trip so long, I guess I overlooked the train info in the RS Switzerland book. I am glad to know we will have no problems making it to the valley. It seems like a much better base for our family than Interlaken.
William, I did the same thing. Interlaken has several train stations and the way bahn.de is set up, it isn't immediately clear. Glad to see someone else was as confused as I was. We were trying to get from Lauterbrunnen to Rome and the options are tricky.
Actually, Interlaken has only two train stations - Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost (East). For transition to Lauterbrunnen, you want Interlaken Ost. The train to Lauterbrunnen leaves from track 2B of that station.
