My wife and I will be visiting Switzerland, Austria and Germany in early May and using trains as our transportation. After checking RS' sites, it seems the Pass Free Day Saver 3 country, 7 days in 2 months may be our best bet. However, before purchasing I'd like comments from "seasoned train travelers" regarding the following. Will the Pass Saver include The Golden Pass Scenic Train Monteux to Spies/Interlaken; the HarderKulm funicular; the Berner Oberland Train -Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen; Cable car to Grütschalp; Germany's ICE trains Munich to Hamburg, Hamburg to Hannover; plus standard trains for day trips from Munich (in Germany and to/from Salzburg)? Also, will the Pass Saver be of any benefit when using public transportation within the cities noted? On a slightly different note; we will need to get from Northern Germany back to Paris for our flight home. We could fly out of Hamburg or Hannover to Paris or take the train. My assumption is that the time it would take to get from the hotel in Hamburg or Hanover to the airport, through security, through immigration in France, and from CDG to the Hotel in Paris would be 5 hours or so, plus the flight time. I'm guessing the train from Hanover to Paris is about 6 hours (plus a possible layover or change of train in Frankfurt or Cologne or Dusseldorf)--or about the same time as flying. However, we would need a Pass Saver that would include France (and maybe Belgium or Luxembourg) in addition to the Switzerland, Austria, and Germany Pass we were originally planning to purchase. Any comments would be helpful
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17436 posts
Jon, for your trains in Switzerland, check under the "Switzerland" page in the Railpasses section on this website. There is a chart tha compares coverage of a 3-Country Pass to the various Swiss Passes. The short answer is that beyond Interlaken, going into the mountains, it covers only 25% of the travel to Lauterbrunnen; probably the same for the cablecar up to Grutschalp and the train to Mürren but I'm not sure. This is not expensive travel, however. For the Golden Pass line, it does cover the route: http://www.goldenpass.ch/CMS/default.asp?ID=256 But you'll need to pay separately for reservations. From Montreux to Interlaken the reservation fee is 12 CHF for a one-way trip in either 1st or 2d class.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
I don't do Switzerland. The rail pass should cover any Bahn train in Germany without any reservation fee, except ICE Sprinters, of which there are few. In metro areas, like Munich's MVV, it will cover the S-Bahn only, not U-Bahn, trams, or buses. In Munich, an all day pass for all modes of transport in the entire MVV is €19,60 for both of you, which is probably less than a day of the rail pass for each of you. For just the downtown inner zone it's only €9,80 for two. I'm sure there is something similar for Hamburg and Hannover. For day trips from Munich, you will probably be better off with a Bayern-Ticket, an all day (after 9 AM workday) pass, valid for unlimited travel in 2nd class on regional trains, €29 for up to five people. So, I'm saying, you might not need 7 (or even 5) days. You might not even need a pass at all. To go from Hannover to Paris with a pass,you will definitely need France as a country, but not necessarily Benelux, depending on your route. You CAN go from Hannover to Frankfurt to Paris with only Germany and France.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Your fastest daytime train routes for Hamburg-Paris are 8-9 hours. Take 90 minutes off each route if you depart from Hannover. There is a direct CNL night train from Hamburg to Paris that departs at 19:17 and arrives at 09:23. It stops in Hannover. If you book now on the German Rail site, you may still be able to get discount fares. Couple those with the discount options given by Lee and you'll probably pay less than you would for railpasses plus seat reservations on daytime trains that require them or supplements for accommodations on the night train.