AAA can get me a rail pass for a little more than $250. The pass is for four days, unlimited second class travel. It sounds like a good idea to me since we'll need round trip travel from Geneva to Lauterbrunnen and round trip to Bern not to mention two days of tooling around in the Berner Oberland area. Agree? Disagree?
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
I really really really dislike AAA and think that they are one of THE most useless dinosaurs of travel agents remaining. That said, it sounds like a typical Swiss Pass. You can buy it from a number of places including THIS website, RailEurope, and at any Swiss Train Station. Do you really need a full fledged Swiss Pass? Maybe, maybe not. There are several other options that might work out cheaper for you including the Half Fare card, and the Swiss Card which gives you a roundtrip transfer from any Swiss Border/airport to any Swiss destination and then again as you exit the country. All trips in between are 1/2 price. Of course AAA probably didn't tell you about alternatives because they probably didn't know. When you purchase Swiss Pass products from the RS site you get several free goodies and discounts to boot.
Yes, I agree it's a good idea to have some sort of Swiss Pass product when traveling on the Swiss Transport System which can be rather pricey. Just make sure you have all of the information so you can make an informed decision.
Posted by
Redmond, WA
295 posts
We have just researched this carefully for the 5 days we'll be in Switzerland this summer. All the options can be clearly seen on the Rail site itself - go straight to the horse's mouth, so to speak, rather than through someone who may not show all your choices. Swhttp://www.swisstravelsystem.com/iss is the place to go!