Hello,
We will be in Muerren for 7 days and plan to get the Swiss Half Fare Pass and the Bernese Oberland Pass
The train from Lake Como that I found on trainline.com first stops at Luzern, then Inerlaken, and then Lauterbrunnen.
In order to take advantage of the Swiss half fare pass, should I only book from Como to Luzern, and then book separately Luzern to Lauterbrunnen using the Swiss Half Fare Pass?
Thank you!
If you are leaving from the town Como on Lake Como then you would buy one ticket from Como to Chiasso ( the first stop across the border) then separately a ticket from Chiasso to Luzern using the Swiss Half Fare Card.
The Swiss Half Fare Card is valid from the first town in Switzerland across the border from Italy. Chiasso is the first stop in Switzerland if you are leaving from the town Como; the train station is Como San Giovanni.
What time and day are you planning to travel?
Thank you. We plan to leave late morning (July). I also noticed that the Bernina Express may be an option but need to find out more. We would take this train if it can get us to Lauterbrunnen (or close to it)
You do not need to book separate tickets to cross the Italy-Swiss border on the EC trains. Don’t use Trainline for this. On both SBB.ch and trenitalia, there is an option to enter your Half Fare card for the Swiss portion of the journey on the direct train from Como San Giovanni to Luzern. It brings the price on SBB.ch down to 41-44. CHF.
Also, do not need to book Swiss regional trains. Buy your BO Pass when you arrive in Luzern, as it will cover the train from there to Interlaken Ost and the train from there to Lauterbrunnen and on up to Mürren (including the cablecar segment).
The Bernina Express is well to the east and out of you way unless you are starting fromnVarenna or other town served by train on the east side of Lake Como. Maybe this map of the Swiss rail system will help. It does not show many towns on the east side of Lake Como but it does show how far east you have to travel to catch the Bernina Express.
Even if you were to book this in trainline you could still enter the Swiss Half Fare card as a reduction, But note that the HFC reduction is only applied on normal price tickets. On the direct Como - Luzern trains you might actually be able to get a cheaper discounted ticket without the HFC.
Lola, I looked at the map link you included, thank you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that there are no trains from the Italian Lakes region to the Bernina Express route in Tirano and it is a bus only.
Also, we would like to take the Bernina express, but it appears that it will add several hours to our trip from the Italian Lakes to Lauterbrunnen.
There is a regional train from the village of Varenna, on Lake Como, to Tirano, the starting point for the Bernina Express scenic train journey. To look up the train schedule, put in Varenna-Esino as your departure station. It's inexpensive (7 or 8 Euro) and takes about an hour and a half.
Based on the map that Lola provided this would be our train route from the Italian Lakes region to Lauterbrunnen if we incorporate the Bernina Express (This may be incorrect). Estimates for how long this would take are welcome. Thank you
From Varenna to Tirano
Board the Bernina Express to Reichanan
Reichanan to Andermatt
Andermatt to Luzern
Luzern to Interlaken
Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen
In the SBB app, if you plug in Varenna to Lauterbrunnen via Pontresina, you’ll see all the options along that route. Choose one that says direction Tirano. Looks like 9-10 hours.
That would make for a very long day.
Last year we broke that trip up with a 3-night stay in Pontresina.
We left Varenna around 9:00 am; Stopped in Alp Grüm for an hour lunch break, and arrived in a Pontresina mid-afternoon.
I think Pontresina to Mürren would require about 5 or 6 train (or cable car) changes.
Our destination last year was Wengen.
But back to your original question:
We bought tickets in Varenna to Tirano.
When we got to Tirano, we bought ½ fare tickets to Pontresina.
When we left Pontresina, we bought ½ fare tickets to Luzern where we stopped for lunch at the train station.
We then boarded train, with our BO passes on our phones. Often, conductors would ask to see our ½ fare tickets along with the BO pass.
The way you describe is 13 to 14 hours long with 9 to 11 train changes. If you don't want your family to hate you, pick another route.
As much as we'd like to, we have chosen not to do the Bernina Express. We feel we will get sufficient views on the journey from the lakes to Luzern, Interlaken, and Murren.
I will continue working on pricing for the Swiss train tickets to determine if the Swiss Half Fare Pass is best for us.
