jodej

My husband and I are travelling to Switzerland and our itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 - arrive Zurich early morning, take train to Lucern - will be discovering sights within the town of Lucern
Day 2&3 - Lucern - day trips from Lucern, Mt. Pilatus, Bern, etc.
Day 4,5 & 6 - travel to Montreux - trips to Chateaux de Chilion, Fribourg, Lausanne, Chocolate Train to Gruyere to name a few
Day 7,8,9,10 - travel to Lauterbrunnen - trips to Jungfrau, Wengen, Murren, Grindewald, Grimmelwald, hiking, etc.
Day 11 & 12 - travel to Zurich - do sights around Zurich, museums, etc. Possible trip to Appenzell, Basel, etc.
Day 13 we will either stay in Lugano or do another night in Zurich and then from either Zurich or Lugano we are taking the train to Venice.

Our itinerary is set as the hotels are booked and it may seem strange to start and end in Zurich, but it seemed more time efficient since we werent doing the Glacier or the Bernina Express this trip.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but I am pretty sure that we will benefit from the Swiss Pass, however I don't believe the 8 day will work and I think the 15 day will be too much. Also wondering the Swiss Pass will work if we decide to stay in Zurich another night and leave from there and go straight to Venice as the Pass would only cover us for travel in Switzerland. The schedule shows the train going straight to Milan. Would we have to book Zurich to Lugano and then Lugano to Venice?

Any suggestions from the seasoned Swiss travelers on what may be the best Pass to buy - Consecutive vs Flex, 8 day vs 15 day.
Thanks - Jodej

neckervd

You must be fond of train rides as you plan to do most train legs several times. I suppose you know that you will have much less time for visits if you spend so much time in trains.
Your itinerary, as I understand it:
Zurich airport - Zug - Lucerne - Pilatus - Lucerne - Rothrist - Berne - Rothrist - Lucerne - Rothrist - Berne - Fribourg - Lausanne - Montreux - Lausanne - Fribourg - Lausanne - Montreux - Montbovon - Gruyeres - Broc - Gruyeres - Montbovon - Montreux - Montbovon - Spiez - Interlaken - Lauterbrunnen - Jungfraujoch - Grindelwald - Interlaken - Spiez - Bern - Rothrist - Aarau - Zurich - Aarau - Basel - Aarau - Zurich - Appenzell - Zurich - Zug - Lugano.
For Italy, you need a ticket from Chiasso to Venice. You can buy it at any Swiss railway station or in the web

jodej

Thanks Neckervd...I knew my itinerary would get critiqued, but we didn't want to be moving from hotel to hotel, so staying in Luzern, Montreux, Lauterbrunnen and Zurich seemed the best solution. This way we also have the option of not doing any trips and just enjoying the area where we are staying.

My main concern was the Swiss Pass and if there were any suggestions on which pass may work best. Is there the option to buy two passes, a 4 day and an 8 day?

neckervd

May be you don't realilze that you could leave Lucerne in the morning and stop over a few hours at Berne, a few hours at Fribourg and a few hours at Lausanne on your way to Montreux. All these places have luggage lockers and the trains run every 30 minutes from 6am until midnight.

As to your itinerary, it would be easier to go from Lucerne to Meiringen - Interlaken - Lauterbrunnen or so (for your second stay), then by panoramic Golden Pass train via Gstaad to Montreux for your third stay and finally via Fribourg - Berne to Zurich airport.

As you want to move a lot every day, your best bet is the 15 days Swiss Saver pass for 405 CHF/pax.

jodej

Thanks neckervd! Yes we are aware that we can drop our luggage in lockers and we have talked of doing that.

Will also take into consideration your advice to do Lauterbrunnen after Lucern. We don't go until the end of August so there is still time to tweak the itinerary.

Appreciate your input - thanks!

Jodej

swandav2000

Hi jodej,

You may want to consider buying the Half Fare Card instead of any of the passes. The HFC costs 120 chf and gives you half off practically everything that moves for one month. It's been the cheapest option for my own trips since about 1995.

Have fun as yoy plan!

s

jodej

Thanks Swandav2000 for the suggestion. My husband seems to think this would be the best. I like the idea of the Pass as you don't need to go to the ticket counter (if I understand correctly). However in the end it is all about saving money.

Jodej

swandav2000

Remember there are ticket machines in most (all??) stations - in English. It only takes about 30 seconds to buy tickets --

s

kybourbon

>>>Also wondering the Swiss Pass will work if we decide to stay in Zurich another night and leave from there and go straight to Venice as the Pass would only cover us for travel in Switzerland. The schedule shows the train going straight to Milan<<<

If you don't want the 15 day pass, Zurich has it's own pass (Zurich card) which includes museums.You can get a 24 hour or 72 hour card.

http://www.zuerich.com/en/Visitor/zuerich-card.html

It's also usually possible to buy a discount ticket (supersaver) from Zurich to Milan for about 23chf (they can sell out) on the EC train. You would then buy a Milan/Venice ticket from Trenitalia. Online on Trenitalia, there are discounts available as cheap as 9€ (includes seat reservation) super economy or economy fares. These fares can sell out also.

neckervd

Swandav: don't forget that jodej wants to travel about 2000 km around Switzerland (maximazing zic-zac travel and backtracking). I'don't think that the half fare pass would be a good solution for that.