Rail Pass confusion

Michelle, a lot could depend on where you intend to visit while in the B.O. A round trip from the Western Swiss border (i.e. Geneva) into the Lauterbrunnen Valley will run you about $140. Once in the B.O., if you are just going up to Gimmelwald, Muerren or Wengen, it's only about $12-$21 for round trips. If you do this on several of your days, you're still not spending a lot of money.

If you plan on visiting the top of the Jungfrau and Schilthorn, it's a different story. It costs about $177 for a round-trip to the Jungfraujoch. It's $91 for a round-trip to the top of the Schilthorn. This changes the money picture a bit.

The Swiss has a 1/2 fare card that's hard to find on their website but it's there. It cost CHF99. It's good for 30 days and gets you a 50% reduction on all Swiss transportation. From what I have described above, including your roundtrip from Geneva, you could be looking at spending $500 for Swiss transportation. A Swiss 1/2 fare card for CHF99 could save you about $250 with a net savings of about $150. If you are not going to the mountain tops (which you MUST) and you will only travel to and from the Western Swiss border, you may not need a pass at all. Just pay the normal standard fare.

Yes, I'm trying to figure out if I need a Swiss transfer ticket for the roundtrip to and from the airport. After Switzerland, we will go onto Paris.

Once again, it depends on what you will do in the B.O. The Swiss transfer ticket cost CHF127 so it's almost even with the standard 2nd class fare to and from Geneva. The ticket is designed to get you to a single location in Switzerland from which you will not travel further. This is fine if you train into Interlaken Ost, Lauterbrunnen, Muerren or other single location. However, the ticket won't cover other local transportation. You don't get much there.

If the Swiss 1/2 fare card can be useful to you, you can purchase it at the first ticket window you come to. It will be good on any Swiss transportation which includes you trip in from the airport and the trip to and from the B.O. When you depart for Paris, you show your 1/2 fare card and you will be covered until you reach the Swiss border. The ticket agent knows how to price your ticket to Paris when you show the 1/2 fare card.

Thank you so much!! This is really helpful info. One last question - is the Berner Oberland Pass worth it with the 1/2 fare card? We are planning to do as much high mountain lifts and trams as possible in our 6 days!

For the Berner-Oberland regional pass, it looks like you would pay CHF179 for the 3+4-day pass if you have a Swiss pass of some type and CHF216 for the 5+10-day pass. That's 3 days of unlimited travel + 4 days of reduced fare travel or 5 days of unlimited travel + 10 days of reduced fare travel.

Now, to describe the unlimited travel. CLICK HERE to see the area of coverage. The RED lines show the area of unlimited coverage. This includes Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Muerren, Wengen and Grindelwald. It does not include the top of the Jungfrau or Schilthorn. The pass will provide a 50% reduction in the fare.

It's math time, I've made my cost estimates in a previous message. If you buy the Swiss transfer ticket and the B.O. regional pass, you're out CHF306 plus 50% of the fare from Muerren to the Schilthorn and from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch. Looks like you're back up to $500 for your transportation travel. I still like the 1/2-fare card but it's your choice.

"I feel like I need an excel spreadsheet just to figure out which one I need."

That's what I usually use ;-)