tickets for travel in Switzerland

If you just want to go up Mt. Pilatus and do the adventur park, you can ride up from Kriens on the cablecar. The Golden Round Trip includes a boat trip and train ride to make a loop trip. The Silver Round Trip does the same loop but with the first leg by regular train instead of boat. The Golden is 91,80 CHF and the Silver is 20 CHF less. You can cut the cost of either of these in half with a Half Fare Card, which costs 99 CHF. Whether that would be cost-effective depends on what lifts you plan to ride in the Berner Oberland. If you are going up the Jungfraujoch, for example, the Half Fare card will almost pay for itself; it is the only pass that give you a full 50% off on the last leg of that journey, from Kleine Scheidegg to the Joch. If you are going up the Schilthorn and not the Jungfraujoch, the combined savings from the Golden Round Trip and the Schilthorn trip will fall a few francs short of covering the cost of the Half Fare card. Add one more lift ride and it's covered.

Kathy, I assume that your van will be thirsty when you get to Kriens. Swiss fuel isn't the deal it once was, but I'm sure it will look good if you're driving from Italy. .... Just down the road from the Ibis is a McDonalds, and near the McDonalds is a filling station (Shell I think) which I remember as having decent prices. And in Interlaken just west of Interlaken West station is a Migrol, again usually decent. Hope that helps....Happy trails...

Hello Kathy, I just did the Mt. Pilatus trip. I took the cog rail up and the gondolas down. My ticket price was 32 CHF because I did have the halfprice rail card Lola mentioned. I did not take the lake boat. The card is 99 CHF and you can buy them at a railway station. I guess the key is deciding what routes you want to ride and how much of a discount you get. The half price card would save you 32 CHF for Mt. Pilatus, but you have to figure the costs of the other trips to see if it will make financial sense to buy the half price card. There is also a pass sold in the Berner Oberland area for travel for a certain number of days.... 3, 5, 7 for example. But that would not cover, I don't believe, Mt. Pilatus. The round trip to Jungfrau is $159. So if you had a half prce card, you would save a little money on just those two trips. And some rail passes may allow youngsters under a certain age to travel free.....decisions,decisions.

If you take the early morning Jungfrau train the pass is only $99 for adults. The train stops at a viewing area before reaching the destination so the kids could get out and take a look or use the loo. Happy Travels!

How unfortunate to be stuck with a rental vehicle in Switzerland because the public transportation is so incredibly clean, efficient, user-friendly and family-friendly. When you purchase Swiss Transportation Passes from the USA you are entitled to the "Free Swiss Family Card" which entitles all your kids <16 years old to travel absolutely free with you anywhere you go in Switzerland. Since you probably won't be doing that then the next best thing is to purchase a "Junior Card" for each of your kids <16 at any Swiss Rail Station...they are approximately 20chf each. This card functions exactly like the "Free Swiss Family Card" in that it allows all of your children < 16 to travel free with you. Yes, that includes all the way to Pilatus and Jungfrau.

I agree with Tim 100%. FORGET the car rental. In Europe they are a real pain anyway. The Swiss train system is prompt, clean, efficient and cheap. And the price discounts on various cable cars make them all the more logical.

kathy lists her address as Vicenza, so apparently they live there and are taking their own van.

Hi All, Thanks for your recommendations! We own our own vehicle that we are driving from Italy- so no rentals for us! I'm still figuring out our final plans for what we're doing in the Berner Oberland area. Although it is recommended to spend more time there, we are only there for one day. Since we have 4 kids (ages 11,9, 5 and 4) we are deciding between the Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg hike on the Jungfrau side or the North Face Trail from Allmendbhubel on the Schilthorn side. I did see the Junior Card which we will buy for our two older children (it looks like under 6 ride free). Thanks for the recommendations for how to do Pilatus in Luzern. Kathy

Kathy, I'm not sure what time of year you'll be traveling but keep in mind that even in the summer you can have bad weather in the Berner Oberland, so you might not be able to see the mountains on your one day there. You'll definitely want to plan your choice of hike around the weather!

Yes, good weather is important for Switz! We're heading there this weekend, the forecast looks fabulous, but I know weather can change quickly there! We're very flexible- always ready to have to change plans for the day at the last minute.