Sorry about that but we are trying to figure out if it makes sense to buy a Swiss Pass for D's trip and I hope we are not missing something. She will be in Switzerland for 5 days but the itinerary is as follows Day 1 Arrive early evening in Lugano from Milan and stay overnight. She will take the express bus from the airport. Day 2 Early Bernina Express Bus Lugano to Tirano. at Tirano board train to Pontresina and stay here for two nights. Day 3. Pontresina explore the area using the mountain railway cable cars and maybe go over to St. Moritz. Day 4 Pontresina to Zurich. Stay overnight in Zurich near train station
Day 5 Get to airport and fly to Berlin from Zurich. By calculating these trips on SBB, it adds up to CH 117 while the 4 day Swiss Pass is 225 (Youth fare). Even if we throw in an additional train ride near Pontresina, it would not add up to the Swiss Pass. Currently, there is a promotion for the Engadin area hotels where if you stay two nights, the cable cars are included. We have booked one of these hotels to take advantage of the promotion. Would those railway/cable cars be covered under the Swiss Pass, if she did not have the free tickets? Am I missing something? I know the ease of having the pass is nice to have but the price differential is significant.
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
1047 posts
By calculating these trips on SBB, it adds up to CH 117 while the 4 day Swiss Pass is 225 (Youth fare). Even if we throw in an additional train ride near Pontresina, it would not add up to the Swiss Pass. By default the SBB site assumes you have a half-tax ticket when calculating the prices! For instance, the fare from Chiasso to Lugano on the first day would be CHF 16.40, the full fare from Lugano to Pontresina is CHF 53 and the trip from Pontresina to Zurich is about CHF 71.40 - that is already CHF 140.80! I would suggest you redo the calculations and make sure that you are getting the full prices from the SBB site. It still might be cheaper than the Swiss Pass, it really depends on what she does in Pontresina on the free day.
Posted by
OP
Mahopac
34 posts
Jim, thank you so much for pointing this out. I had the feeling I was missing something and this is it. Based on your reply, I went back to SBB and searched and you can find this under Tips and Tricks/prices. I wish it would have been more obvious but I guess this is what the boards are for to help us out with these things.
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
1047 posts
Well most Swiss people have a half-tax ticket and since it is mainly Swiss people using the site... They also have some other default settings, which work fine for most people, but if you want to see the whole picture you need to switch to the advanced search and select your own options.