My husband and I will be arriving in Zurich late May, 2013 and heading straight to Lucerne for two nights, Murren for 3 and then off to Salzburg before flying back to the U.S. out of Munich. I have read until I'm blurry-eyed the rail pass options. At this point, it seems prudent to buy a Swiss Saver Flexi-pass for travel in Switzerland. I'm stumped however on how this would work for the trip across the border to Salzburg. I figure a one-way regional train ticket will be fine from Salzburg to Munich. HELP! Any suggestions or new ways of looking at the myriad of options will be exceedingly helpful. Many thanks in advance.
Posted by
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
20 posts
Deb,
I see no one has answered your concern. I know how it feels. We travelled through Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Hungary last year with a Eurail pass for all four countries. That was definitely the way to go. You should look into a Eurail Austria-Switzerland pass. Such a pass exists between Austria and Switzerland but it is not available between Italy and Switzerland where we are travelling next month. We are paying full fair in Italy and going for a half fare card for travelling in Switzerland. We calculate our train fares for four of us to be around $3,000. Calculate which deal saves you the most. Try searching for the Eurail pass for Austria and Switzerland unless you have already purchased your flex-pass. You will love Salzburg! We took a tour through the mountain and lakes region (Salzkammergut) east of Salzburg to a place on the water called Hallstatt. It is one of the most beautiful places you will ever see. It takes about 2-1/2 hours by car from Salzburg but the drive is wonderful as well. Our tour guide took care of everything (MCM Tours). Enough of our trip... I hope you and your husband have an excellent vacation!
Posted by
Budapest
27 posts
For the Austrian part it is possible simply to visit Austrian railways website https://ticketing.oebb.at/inet/pub/en/ticket and purchase ticket to Salzburg, can be as low as 19 euro per person. Alternatively also possible to buy international ticket from Swiss railways website - http://sbb.ch/
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3287 posts
Two- country and Eurail passes do not work well in Switzerland. They do not cover travel and lifts in the BernerOberland as well as a Swiss pass. Just buy the ticket to Salzburg in Switzerland at the station,show your pass and they will adjust the price to account for the Swiss Pass which covers travel to the border. You can also check SBB about 2 months in advance to see if there are any discount tickets for the international journey.
Posted by
OP
Sandwich
2 posts
Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. Sasha, what you suggest confirms what I had been hoping to achieve. In terms of the travel day, I know it will be a long one to Salzburg from Murren, given our desire to take the more picturesque route into Austria. I'll check into whether there are any discounted fares for that portion of the trip as well as whether we can make a reservation ahead of time for that full day of train travel.