Swiss Pass Pamphlet & Gimmelwald Trains?

From Interlaken through Lauterbrunnen Valley all the way PAST Gimmelwald up to Muerren is covered 100%.

Also from Interlaken all the way to Wengen (other side of Lauterbrunnen Valley) is covered 100%.

To expand on what Tim has said, yes the Swiss Pass covers you the whole way. The other information you have have had might have been either for a Eurail global or multi-country pass, which only gives you a discount on the train to Lauterbrunnen and the gondola - or it could have been for the ride up the rest of the gondola from Murren, which is offered at a discount to Swiss Pass holders.

Congrats on getting a real Swiss pass and not a Eurail pass. Your pass will cover you 100% on the train from Intelaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen, the post bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg gondola station and the gondola to Gimmelwald. As mentioned above, the pass will also cover you 100% up to Murren (connected by gondola from Gimmelwald) as well as the Jungfraubahn cog train from Lauterbrunnen up to Wengen. Above Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg and the Jungfraujoch, your pass will cover 50%. Same for the gondola from Murren to the top of the Schilthorn.

As a side note, the Eurail pass will only cover 25% for the travel mentioned above. Plus, it does not cover the post bus at all.

My wife and I visited Berner Oberland this past September and loved it. We are returning September 2010 and this time, we are staying at the Alpin Palace Hotel (RCI timeshare)in Murren. Does the Swiss Pass cover the mountain railway from Lauterbrunnen to Murren. The Murren BLM station is within sight of the hotel.

Thank you.

Mike, all valid Swiss passes and cards except the 1/2-fare card will cover this BLM/cog train run. The Swiss 1/2-fare card will cover 1/2 the fare.

There are 2 different routes from Lauterbrunnen to Muerren and the Swiss Pass covers both of them.

Thanks Larry and Tim.

we just received our Eurail passes for France and Switzerland. It appears that the Golden Pass has a surcharge and requires reservations. True??

we are travelling from Colmar to Luzern to Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen on one leg,
then Lauterbrunnen to Geneva to Lyon on last leg.

are reservations required? is there a better side of the train for viewing? is there a surcharge? should we reserve our seats before we leave for Europe?

thanks forum

Kai, I believe that there is no extra charge for normal panorama seats if you have a Eurail 1st class pass. There are 8 seats on top of the engine (really) that are premium seats on the segment from Montreux to Zweisimmen. You see what the engineer sees. They may charge a few Swiss Francs extra for these seats.

Wow, this clears up a lot for my May 19-23rd trip. Rick's guidebook says anything above Interlaken is not covered. I'm glad to know that it is. We fly into Geneva and out from Zurich and want to take The Golden Pass train with four nights in Murren. Is it less expensive to buy the Swiss Flexipass from the US or to buy it there?

A little bit off the track.... We are driving to the Lauterbrunnen area in early October, from France, then on to Germany from there. We have two nights and were thinking of spending perhaps both in Gimmelwald. Do you know of a good place to leave the car and also, do we need this Swiss Pass then to go to Gimmelwald, Schilthorn, etc? I wasn't certain if the Swiss Pass that's being talked about was for travel elsewhere in Switzerland too. Thanks for your help - our first time there.

Swiss Passes are for travel ALL over Switzerland. You are not required to have a Swiss Pass to travel to Gimmelwald; you can always just buy a point to point ticket at the gondola station in Stechelberg. It will be most convenient for you drive on through Lauterbrunnen all the way to Stechelberg (about 2 minutes). You will park your car there at the gondola station. The first stop on the gondola is Gimmelwald, the second is Muerren, and the third is the Schilthorn.

If you have a Swiss Pass then the trip from Stechelberg to Gimmelwald and Muerren is free. The section from Muerren to Schilthorn is reduced by 50%. Also a Swiss Pass lets you hop on and off as many times as you like. But again, you can always choose to just buy a single journey point to point ticket.

Tim, Thanks for that great information. Can you tell me the easiest way to find the point to point ticket prices/times? I'm guessing I can type in Swiiss rail pass and find that. I seem to have the most trouble finding train info.

You can easily see the train schedules for Switzerland at www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm. Once you put in your departure, destination, date and time info, select Fare/Buy. The fares usually come up. The system may ask you "Via" and offer a couple of route choices. Just choose one. If you choose to use a day on your Flexi pass, you are fully covered on all fares except from Murren to the top of the Schilthorn (50%) and from Wengen to the Jungfraujoch (50%). On your information sheet that you recevied with your pass, you are fully covered on all routes with solid red lines on your selected Flexi days. 50% on the red-dotted lines. You can also ride the buses.

More info from the Swiss website: "On the days between the first and the last validated day, your Swiss Flexi Pass offers a 50% discount on train, (postal) bus and boat rides, as well as on most mountain-top excursions."

Larry, thanks very much for that info, that helps a lot.

Thank you all for all the great information on transport in this area. We are going in September and I have been quite confused by what is covered and to what degree.

Rick's info on rail passes talks about a 50% discount with the Swiss flexi pass for days between days which are fully covered. Does this mean that a day on the pass must be utilized before this provision kicks in? Does it also mean that one gets tickets for half price and a day is not utilized from the maximum days on the pass? Do the lifts above Muerren count as a day against the flexi pass when purchased for 50% discount?