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Germany, Switzerland, and Austria rail tickets

Hello everyone. I have a question about purchasing rail tickets/rail passes.

My family and I are going to be traveling on the German, Swiss, and Austrian rails in the next couple of weeks, and I'm not sure if I should buy a pass or just purchase the tickets in advance on RailEurope or Deutsche Bahn.

We are going to be traveling from Stuttgart to Grindelwald, from Grindelwald to Bern, from Bern to Lucerne, from Lucerne to Salzburg, and from Salzburg back to Stuttgart.

I know that Salzburg is included in the rail pass for Germany, so would it be effective to buy German and Swiss rail passes? Also, there are going to be 5 of us: 2 seniors, 2 adults, and one youth.

I would appreciate any help or tips. Thank you! :)

Posted by
19240 posts

At this late date, you might be better off to just get rail passes. Had you booked earlier (about 3 months before travel dates, you might have gotten Stuttgart to Interlaken Ost and Luzern to Freilassing, Germany (across the river from Salzburg, a €2 fare), for less than €500 for all five, but I'm sure discounted tickets are gone by now. (If the youth is under 15, it would be less than €400 for those legs)

If you are willing to take regional trains, Salzburg back to Stuttgart would be €56 for all five of you (with a Bayern- and a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket).

You can but the tickets with one or both ends in Germany online from the German Rail website, but you will have to get the Swiss tickets from Swiss Rail or just buy them from the counter in Switzerland.

Getting tickets from RailEurope will just cost more.

Posted by
13 posts

Thank you, Lee! So you would suggest buying my tickets from bahn.com? Do you know the Swiss website for purchasing tickets?

Posted by
17245 posts

If you are thinking of the 3-country select pass for 5 days, that will cost you $385 for the adults and somewhat less for the youth. The problem is that the adult passes are only for first class, and the youth is 2d. Assuming you will ride together, the adults are paying 1st class prices to ride in 2d class.

You'll also have to pay a supplement from Interlaken to Grindelwald, but it won't be much. The 3-country pass won't help you much at all if you are thinking of riding the lifts and high mountain trains in Switzerland.

Even tho' it's late, I'd check and see if you can get a discounted fare from Stuttgart to Zürich. Then add up the fares in Switzerland (get them from the Swiss rail site, sbb.ch or rail.ch for English). Once you get to Grindelwald, the hops from there to Bern and Bern to Luzern are short, around 30-35 CHF. Normally, I wouldn't consider using a pass for those, but if the other legs of your journey are expensive, it might work out.

I checked on the rough cost of tickets for your Swiss travel (regular price, not special fares) to see if any kind of pass would help. The total is around 177-180 CHF, with 137 of that going to the inbound and outbound journeys. (Those two coincidentally add up to pretty near the cost of a Transfer Ticket, at $118, so that won't benefit you either).

You might be able to bring that down a little with "special offer" tickets for portions if it, but as Lee said they are probably no longer available.

You should re-check those fares yourself for your actual dates, but, if the total cost in Switzerland is around 180 CHF, I can't imagine the cost of your travel in Germany would ad enough to make it worth buying the passes.

Posted by
13 posts

Thanks! Is the select pass your talking about from Rick Steves?
I will check for discounted fares in Switzerland. Thanks for the tips!

Posted by
17245 posts

You can get a Select Pass from Rick Steves or from Rail europe--it's the same pass and the same price.

But first check the prices of individual tickets. The 5-day pass costs $385, meaning that your 5 trips will have to average $77 each for the pass to be cost-effective. I don't know what the cost of your travel in German, but 2 of your legs in Switzerland---GW to Bern, and Bern to Luzern---are way under $77. That is why I'm thinking you are beett off with tickets.

Also, depending on your day of travel, you may be able to get a discount fare on SBB.ch between selected Swiss cities ("Supersaver" fares). These should be indicated on the website. I saw one from the border (Schaffhausen) to spiez (on the way to Grindelwald) that would bring down the cost of your first day's travel considerably. I don't know if it's available on your specific day of travel, but it's worth a look.

The Supersaver fares were offered for a limited time in winter and now they have re-instituted them, for travel between May 18 and august 22. That should help some summer travelers in Switzerland.