Switzerland - Swiss Pass vs. Rental Car

I'll let others comment on the budgets of train pass to car in Switzerland but will note that several people have come on here recently to say they received speeding tickets in the mail after they returned for speeding just slightly over the speed limit in Switzerland. The cameras are not easy to spot and the speed at which tickets are issued is just over the speed limit - be careful. Which towns up the hill above Interlaken are accessible by car? Up from Interlaken, only Wilderswil and up to Lauterbrunnen and the Lauterbrunnen valley villages are accessible by car; and over to Grindelwald is too. None of the higher villages such as Wengen or Muerren can be reached without train or cable car.

True, the children have to travel with at least one parent for the free travel, but the parent does not have to have a pass. Just a valid ticket. For the free travel for the children, you will need a Swiss Family Card which you can request for free online or at any staffed Swiss train station when you order or purchase any Swiss train ticket. Should you wish to take the train/bus to Wilderswil, the fare I see online is 61.40CHF per person.

It is a close call. Where do you go after the four days at Wilderswil? That make a difference. Two 3-day Flex Passes ( total cost $468) will take you to and from Wilderswil, plus give you additional free transport and free museum admission on those two days if you have the time, plus give you another free day of covered travel and museum admission to use as you wish ( lake boat ride, Ballenberg museum, other day trip)? Then you get 2 days of 50% off the fare for trains, boats, and lifts for two of you ( except the Jungfraunwhich you are not considering anyway). And the children are free on everything. This would give you a chance to,say, ride to Grindelwald and take the Pfingsted lift so the kids can ride the Rodelbahn, or the First lift to access the zipline ( First Flyer). Or simply ride up a lift and walk back down for a nice hike. You could make a really nice loop going to Wengen and up to Mannlichen for the easy and beautiful walk up there. Riding the cablecar up is amazing. The car rental starts at $255, but to that you have to add gas, parking, and the vignette. Then you will have to pay for activities like lake boat rides, riding up to the villages above Lauterbrunnen, museums, etc. It may well add up to more than the $468 you will pay for two passes, but it is hard to say. What I can tell you is that with the passes you will end up doing a lot more activities using lifts and lake boats, including lift-accessed hiking and visiting the high villages, and may be more likely to visit the Ballenberg open air museum. If you have a car, you may end up driving places but find yourselves deterred by the cost of activities once you get there.

Hi Pam. I love trains, but I think in your case the car may make sense. It gives you so much flexibility; you can get around on a whim instead of having to figure cost and logistics of train. For several days, you will want to visit different places based on weather, moods, etc. and car gives you that option. As far as not doing any lifts, keep an open mind. Lifts give you access to high country which is one of the big reasons to go there. Not all lifts are expensive. For instance, lift to Gimmelwald is only about $6 per adult, probably less for kids. Then you could hike up as high as you want from there. Enjoy your trip!

Wow! So much to think about. Thanks everyone for your responses so far as it gets me thinking of the best option. We will be spending only 4 nights in the Bernese Oberland area (coming from Rome) and then will train it to Normandy. While in Switzerland we'd love to venture up in the mountains on the lifts and mountain trains if it isn't too cost prohibitive. RS mentions an interactive museum that I think my kids would also enjoy, and I would like to take a boat ride on one of the nearby lakes. We will definitely take advantage of the Swiss Family Card while there. That said, I think we have 3 good options for a rail pass (www.swisstravelsystem.com had great info). (1) Swiss Flexi-Pass for 3 days for CHF254 (2) Swiss Card for CHF186, and (3) Regional Pass Bernese Oberland for CHF233 without another pass or CHF186 with another pass. I looked at the map routes covered by the Regional Bernese Oberland Pass and it looks like more is covered with this pass than the other passes? Is this correct? Also, for this regional pass the website (http://www.regiopass-berneroberland.ch/home-en/) mentions that for families, a JUNIOR CARD is CHF$30 for children under 16 accompanied by a paying parent. Does this mean that the Swiss Family Card (for free travel for the kids) won't work with the regional Bernese Oberland Pass? So, I think the rental car is out since the rail pass will give us more options to venture about. So, which pass would you recommend? Thanks!

I think a pass actually gives you more flexibility than a car, since you don't have to stop and figure out costs before you decide what to do each day. You are not going to Switzerland to drive around in a car, I assume. You are going becuase you have seen photos or videos of pritty villages perched up in the mountains, beautiful lakes, meadows filled with cows you can walk through. You will want to use lifts to access these things. You don't have to ride up the Schilthorn or the Jungfrau to enjoy Switzerland, but I think you will definitely want to ride some lower lifts, like up to Mannlichen like Lola said, to experience what the area has to offer. to do that, you would ride the train up to Wengen from Lauterbrunnen, cablecar up to Mannlichen, walk to Kleine Scheideg, ride the train back down to Lauterbrunnen. They offer a hikers's ticket from Wengen for the cablecar, hike and train back down for 44 CHF. So if you drive to Lauterbrunnen and buy tickets you will pay 88 CHF (for 2) plus 2 X 26.40 for the RT train between LB and Wengen, total about 141 CHF. If you have a pass, it is half that on a "non-covered" day (plus the fare from Wilderswil to LB). If you use a covered day on a pass, the total costs is 44 CHF for everyone. To do the Gimmelwald walk Bob suggested, it would be 24 CHF RT for the adults, and this would also be half with a pass. I can pretty much guarantee if you are going to Switzerland you are going to want to ride some lifts, so might as well plan for it and make the most of your time there.