To drive or not to drive in Switzerland

I've been to Switzerland many times; and have never had the desire to rent a car. Nor have I felt that by strictly using the rail system I was "limiting" my sightseeing opportunities. One thing to also keep in mind, many of the top sights are way up in the alps, and most mountain villages don't allow cars; so in the end you will have use trains anyways-even if you do rent a car. Also using Switzerland's rail system (IMO) is an essential part of the overall Switzerland "experience". Just as the US is a car-centric country, Switzerland is a rail-centric country. The entire country is designed around it's rail network, just as the US is designed around the interstate highway system. It's fascinating to see the difference.

Trains in are the best in all of Europe from my experience and they seem to be always on time too.

Agree with others - the Swiss rail is the best in the world. And goes everywhere. they also combine with the famous Post-Bus (postal) and reach every nook and cranny of the alpine villages. A pass is the way to go. In the cities - the trams are great too. If you feel you want to drive over the Gottard Pass or other famous route - you can rent for the day - but again - the Buses do those to and stop for short breaks so check it out first!

Have a great time too!

Thank you, ALL, that responded to my posting, as I soundly slept this morning. Your replies were much appreciated and reassuring in their content. It's good to know that we can lean on our fellow travelers for sage and reliable advice.

My husband and I are well acquainted with the benefits of rail travel in Europe as we've experienced it on prior excursions... we prefer to plan our trips and come and go as we desire but have always wondered if we were missing out on fully appreciating an area by not utilizing a car occasionally. It sounds like Switzerland has its country fairly well-covered by rail and in this instance it may not be necessary. Our big decision now is which rail pass will work better for us - the Swiss Pass or the Swiss Saver. I expect that depends on how many stops we'll make and how many days of travel will be involved. Again, any feedback on that note will be appreciated. Thanks everyone :-)

Pamela

I've driven in Switzerland. The drive from Zurich to Interlaken is particularly scenic. One note about Swiss roads, however. The Swiss probably use more tunnels per mile than any other nation on Earth. Yes, you pass by some amazing scenery, but you pass under a lot of it too.

One final note- if you drive into Switzerland from another country, you need to purchase a sticker pass. You can buy it at a rental agency or at the border (which probably slows your trip down by no more than a few minutes).

Pamela--a "Saver" pass is for two or more people traveling together. It can be either a Consecutive Swiss Pass ofr a FlexiPass; the "saver" part is just a 15% discount. As for consecutive day Swiss Pass versus FlexiPass, that depends on hos long you will be there and how much moving around you will be doing. Also th elength of each day's travel, because it needs to be aat least $40 or $50 to be worth covering with a day on the FlexPass. That is, to go from Zürich to Luzern, you wouldn't want to use up a day on your FlexPass, unless you were going to also take a boat ride or something on the same day. For most people, the Flexi Pass is the best deal, because it works as a half-fare card on your "off" days, giving you 50% off everything between the first and last day of travel. But the convenience factor of having everything covered is worth something too. Count up your travel days, see how long each hop is, and you can probably figure it out.