Hi All, my friend and i will be in Switzerland on May 19-22 '13. we will be staying in Winterthur. we are thinking of doing a day trip to Interlaken or Gimmelwald but it seem like the train ticket is so expensive. roundtrip ticket will cost us roughly $300 each. is that the usual price? should we rather rent a car? thanks!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32351 posts
nannette, That will be a LONG day trip, as the travel time from Winterthur to Gimmelwald is ~3.5 hours EACH WAY, with at least 2 or 3 changes. I wasn't able to find a price for the entire trip, but the Swiss Rail website indicated fares to Lauterbrunnen as low as CHF 40.20 (each way). The prices may be "disabled" for the Gimmelwald section at the moment, as I believe the Schilthornbahn is currently down for maintenance. Given the short duration of your stay, I doubt that one of the Swiss Rail Passes would save you much / any money. It won't be much for the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg via Post Bus, and then one leg on the Cable Car to Gimmelwald. Happy travels!
Posted by
OP
New York, NY, USA
46 posts
i forgot what i site i visited to check the train ticket. however, $200 is still expensive for a day trip. found a rental car from 5/20-22 for €160+ 4-door compact.
any suggestion to where should we go for a day trip? altho i wanna visit the swiss alps tho.
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3287 posts
Where did you find that price? The Swiss rail site SBB says Rt fare Winterthur to Murren is 182.40 CHF. That is a lot, but not $300, more like $200. I used Murren as SBB doesn't show prices to Gimmelwald.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17427 posts
Ken-note that that 40.20 CHF price you quoted for Winterthur to Lauterbrunnen is the fare with a Half-Fare Card. That is the default ion that SBB shows on the main page, above the "Fare/Buy" red button. Regular fare is 2X that. You will see this if you proceed to purchase using the red button. The next page will have you choose a route; the one after that will have you choose class of travel and one-way or Rt. Then under "Reduction" you have to choose a fare-either "no reduction", "half-fare", or "child". Choose "no reduction" and it will show 80.40 CHF. I like to point this out as many people are misled by the prices shown on the opening page as "from xxxx". You need a half-Fare card to get that price.