We will be traveling from the Mulhouse Ville station in France to Luzern (via Basel). The next day we travel to Locarno and the following day to Rome. While traveling through Switzerland, should we purchase point-to-point tickets or would we be better off with some type of Swiss pass? What type passes can we purchase at the train station in Basel, if any? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
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Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Linda, although train travel in Switzerland is more expensive, it looks like you are not doing a lot of it. A 2nd class ticket to Locarno from Basel is CHF76 (about $75). The least expensive Swiss pass is the Swiss 1/2-fare card at CHF99. It's good for 30 days and it gives you a 50% discount on all Swiss transportation. Thus, the P2P is far less expensive if this is your only train travel.
(As a hint, don't buy the 1/2-fare card thinking that you can give it to a friend to use for the remaining days. You have to sign it and the conductors check it each time against your passport :)).