Rail Travel Passes - Austria & Switzerland

If it's Salzburg you want to go to, and not Innsbruck, German Rail will sell you a Europa-Spezial Schweiz ticket for as low as €39 one-way per person, online (non-refundable, advance purchase required) from Chur to Freilassing. Freilassing is in Germany, just across the river from Salzburg, 8-10 min by regional train or S-Bahn, €2,10 fare.

Also, Austrian Rail has online purchase SparSchiene tickets from Innsbruck to Zürich for €29.

If you wanted to do Chur to Salzburg to Innsbruck to Zurich, that would be €39 + €14 (half €28) + €29 = €82 per person and save three days of a rail pass plus an extra country.

I don't know about discount fares in Switzerland and whether you can save money with point-point tickets, but I don't think you need to use a rail pass for Austria.

Might help to find your own schedules and prices if you spell Innsbruck the conventional way.

It looks like you only have two legs in Austria, Bregenz-Innsbruck-Bregenz (or Salzburg). It might be cheaper to just do those legs as point-point than adding a country to the railpass. Note: if you use regional trains, an all day Einfach-Raus-Ticket for €28 to 2-5 people will cover on/off travel all day long.

Most passes cannot be purchased in Europe. Get them here before you leave. I believe the Swiss pass can be purchased in Europe, but only outside of Switzerland, and you are flying into Zürich and spending your first week or so in Switzerland.

You do have to do your homework and price it point to point. With advance purchase discount and some of Lee's recommendations, it can be hard to make a rail pass cheaper.

The section on railpasses for Switzerland on this website (Rick Steves) is excellent. That is a good place to start for understanding the various passes and what they cover.

You actually do not want a Swiss + Austria pass. Point to point tickets ( bought with discounts on the German website Lee gave you ) work much better. The 2-country passes that include Switzerland are only available for first class (unless you qualify as a youth, under 26). Also they do not cover some of the train lines fully(such as the Glacier Express); nor do they provide good discounts on the high mountain lifts.

So forget about a Swiss-Austria pass and read up on the various Swiss passes to figure out your best option. Remember that 2 traveling together will qualify for the "saver" price on Swiss passes or Flex passes.

As for where to buy---check the currency converter, but I believe right now it is cheaper to buy it in Switzerland in Swiss francs that to buy ahead of time in the US (and pay shipping). You can buy the passes at the Zürich train station.

Wow. Wonderful. Thank you all for such great advice. Based on all the advice, I have come to the conclusion that 8-day consecutive 2nd class Swiss saver pass works best for us. We will buy Austrian tickets based on Lee's excellent suggestion.

One quick question. The 8th day coincides exactly with our departure from Switzerland to Austria. Is it possible to utilize the pass to its fullest upto Swiss border and than buy ticket from the last Swiss stop to Freilassing or Salzburg if that works out cheaper? Does anybody know the name of the last Swiss rail stop before Austria or Germany so that I can look up ticket prices online?

Also, can someone confirm if Swiss pass can be bought in Zurich?

Thanks again for all the help. You guys are the best.

I thought you were going from Chur to Salzburg on June 3. The Europa-Spezial ticket is for the complete trip, from Chur to Freilassing, no day of a Swiss pass is needed. And, the fare from Freilassing Bahnhof into Salzburg Hbf is only €2,10.

If you are not going from Chur, there might be other tickets for the same price from where you are starting.

You can buy your ticket into Austria in Switzerland; just show your pass and the agent will calculate the fare from the last stop in Switzerland to your destination in Austria.

Ooops--I didn't see Lee's suggestion about the europa-spezial tickets. You may be able to get one bak inot Zuerich for your return as well.

And if you do that, consider a 3-day Flex pass (212 CHF) instead of the 8-day consecutive (320 CHF). Pay for the inexpensive Zurich to Luzern trip (23 CHF) and activate the pass for the trip to Interlaken. Use the other two covered days to go to Zermatt and from there to Chur. Everything else will be covered at 50%---which is all the consecutive pass will cover on the high mountain lifts anyway.

Great. You guys are right. I can get by with smaller no. of days pass. I have to work it out right. Thank you again.

Thanks again everybody. I could book discount tickets from Chur to Salzburg for 39 euros and surprisingly I could get Innsbruck to Zurich for 19 euros. I used the following website to book my tickets:
https://ticket.oebb.at/bin/frame_ticket.pl?ticket=jticket.pl&LANG=EN

Also, for the record and everybody's benefit, I am copying this useful info for "Einfach-Raus-Ticket"

If you're travelling in groups of at least 2 persons, there is the so called "Einfach-Raus-Ticket" (works up to 5 persons). This kind of ticket costs only € 28,- for ALL persons in your group (means: if you're travelling in a group of 2, you pay together € 28,-, when you're travelling in a group of 5, you pay together € 28,- as well)! But here's the big BUT: with this ticket you're only allowed to use local trains! So from Vienna it is pretty impossible to get to Innsbruck with this ticket (unless you have at least 14 hours time). But it's a very good choice to get to Innsbruck from Salzburg for example. And – don't ask me why – you need at least 2 persons for this ticket, so single travelers have to pay the whole amount of a regular ticket. Another important hint for using this cheap ticket: don't use the homepage of the Austria railway company (ÖBB - http://oebb.at/en/index.jsp), use the German railway network (DB – Deutsch Bahn - http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml), as you can chose only to use local trains (which is compulsory for using this ticket). Just uncheck "Prefer fast connections" and check "Local transport".

Did you see my post on the RailEurope sale on 3-day flex passes and 8-day Swiss passes? They are 50% off instead of 15% reduction for 2. It is supposed to be a deal for families, but the price reduction is for the adult tickets and the "kids" are free no matter what, so it shouldn't matter. It's worth calling and asking.

Sale prices good only to April 27.

Hi Lola,
I did not and needless to say I jumped on the offer since no other combination comes close to it. Thanks for sharing the info. I saved lots of money.