Swiss Train Questions

1. You can buy a ticket from Paris to Basel (look on TGV-Europe for discount prices on advance-purchase tickets). At Basel, activate your Flex Pass and use Day 1 to travel onward to Interlaken, no ticket needed. To activate the pass, you go to a ticket agent and tell him or her you want to that. They will check your pass and passports (at least they always do with us), stamp it and start the one-month period of validity. You then write in the day of use in the little boxes provided. A 4-day Flex will have 4 such boxes. Do this before you board the first train of the day, or the conductor may think you are trying to slip in a free day. 2. To use the pass for travel to Luzern or elsewhere, you just write in the date and get on the train. Show the pass to the conductor when he or she comes around. You do not need to stop at the ticket window at all IF you are using a "covered day" on the pass. If you are using the "half-fare" feature, or riding a lift that is not fully covered, then you do need to stop and buy a ticket before boarding the train, lift, or boat. Now my question for you: are you sure you need a 4-day Flex? do you have 4 long days of travel, averaging $71 or more each? If not, you might do better with a 3-day Flex, or possibly a Half-Fare card. 9With the Half-Fare card you always have to stop and buy tickets, as there are no fully covered days, but it gives slightly better coverage on the expensive Jungfraujoch trip if you are doing that.) Next question: are you staying in Interlaken, or beyond in one of the mountain or valley villages?

Good question about the 3 or 4 day pass, as I am trying to figure that one out myself. We have two kids (12 and 15) so in general the 3 or 4 day flexi pass looks good since the kids will be free. We are in Interlaken for 3 1/2 days and plan to do the Jungfrau one day and spend other days exploring and doing some hiking. We likely will be traveling to Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, etc. at some point over those days and expect to be on the train every day. We have 2 1/2 days in Lucerne and plan to do the Golden Round Trip to Mt. Pilatus one day, and am not sure what else. And to back up a bit, do we need advance reservations for either the Basel to Interlaken leg or the Interlaken to Lucerne Golden Pass leg? Thanks for the quick response on this!

No reservations needed Basel - Interlaken (West or Ost), some trains go through while for others you can change at Bern or Spiez. No reservations needed Interlaken Ost to Luzern via Bern. No reservations needed Interlaken Ost - Luzern via Brunig Pass on ZentralBahn. You may require reservations if you are using the Interlaken Ost - Luzern via Brunig Pass on the fancy tourist train Golden Pass. Usually that tourist train has some second class carriages on it somewhere which require no reservation. They get there as fast and see the same things as the fancy tourist carriages.

For these trips I would want specific times in order to match up with checking in/out of hotels. It seems I don't need reservations, but the question I can't find an answer to is this: if I did want to make a reservation ahead of time, how would that work if I have bought the pass? For example, the pass would cover Basel to Interlaken and Interlaken to Lucerne, but how would I get that benefit with advance reservations? Thanks!

If you are using your pass to ride the train, you "can" make a seat reservation and pay for it. It costs a few CHF (5 or 6). The pass covers the actual cost of the travel (56 CHF if you bought a ticket). The seat reservation is a separate charge. However, we have ridden lots and lots of trains around Switzerland using a pass, and never made seat reservations unless we were on an IC train crossing the border (going to Italy or Austria). For the trains within Switzerland, it is very unusual to make reservatons unless you are riding one of the so-called "scenic trains" and want a particular seat. Otherwise, you just get on the train, find seats in your class, and show the pass to the conductor when he or she comes around. For Interlaken to Luzern, only a few of the trains (the so-called Golden Pass trains) even allow reservations. You can make reservations for the 10:04, the 12:04, the 15:04, and the 17:04, but for the others (9:04, 11:04, etc.) you cannot. Even on the reserved Golden Pass trains, only a few of the seats (around 16 in the 2d class cars) are subject to reservation. The rest are not reservable. We rode a Golden Pass train from Luzern to Interlaken a few years ago, an afternoon train late in June. The 6 of us nearly had the car to ourselves. In other words, you don't need to make reservations for that section.