bmmorse1

My family will be flying into Paris on 9-3-2016. We will be staying in Paris for 2 nights. From Paris my mother and brother will be going onto Zermatt. My daughters and myself will be flying to Venice and meeting my brother and mother in Zermatt on the 6th of Sept. From Zermatt we are going to Interlaken for 1 night 8-9 from the 9-12 we will be at a family reunion in Schmerikon and back to Paris on the 12-17th. My question is what Swiss rail pass should we get? We will be going up the Matterhorn and also to the Jungfraujoch area.but other than that no museums as we visited those on our last trip. Would it be more cost effective to just purchase route to route tickets other than the Swiss pass? Thank you for your help with this matter. Also how far in advance can you purchase train tickets?

swandav2000

Hi bmmorse1,

There is another option between paying full-fare train tickets and getting a Swiss Pass -- and that is the Half Fare Card. It costs about 120 chf and gives you half off practically everything that moves for one month.

You have to do the math to determine which pass or card will work best for you. You probably know the Swiss rail site at

www.sbb.ch

where you can get all the fares. I always had to do a spreadsheet to keep track of which fares would be covered in full or in part by which pass or card, etc, in order to work out the best option for my travels. It always came out that the Half Fare Card was the best one.

There is no cost advantage to buying Swiss train tickets in advance, but if you just want to have them in your hands, I think you can get them about 90 days early.

Have fun as you plan!

s

neckervd

I'm not sure whether I understood your plan:

Sept 3rd: jetlagged arrival at Paris city center around noon
Sept 5th: Paris city center dp around 15.00 - ORY or CDG - VCE ar around 20.15 - Venice hotel ar around 21.00
Sept 6th: Venice hotel dp immediately after lunch, Venice SL dp by train 14.20 - Zermatt ar 21.13
Sept 8th: Zermatt dp 8.13 - Lauterbrunnen ar 10.55, dp 12.07 - Jungfraujoch 13.52/16.30 - Lauterbrunnen ar 18.21
Sept 9th: Lauterbrunnen dp 8.33 - Lucerne 10.55/11.40 - Schmerikon ar 13.10

So you will see almost nothing of Paris, abolutely nothing of Venice and may be even less of Matterhorn and Jungfrau (if there are thick cluds and fog).

I would prefer a decent visit of Paris followed by a train ride to Schmerikon, may be with a stop over at Dijon, Strasbourg or Colmar

PalenQ

I doubt if the Swiss Railpass is the best deal for you - the Half-Fare Card alone seems your best bet IMO.

for lots of good stuff on Swiss trains and those areas you are going to check www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. for Paris-Basel-Zurich tickets www.voyages-sncf.com - book far enough in advance for discounted but non-changeable non-refundable I believe train-specific tickets.

bmmorse1

Thank you everyone for help with the trip. And trains we have visited Venice before and just wanted to go back for a night because we loved it sooo much!!! I will look into the half fare card for Switzerland. We will end our journey back in Paris 12-17 th.

PalenQ

You can buy the Half-Fare Card at any Swiss station - no need to buy it in advance in which case you'll probably have to wait in the same line as you would to buy just to activate it for the one-month period (there are year-ones too if staying in Switzerland for a long time).

PalenQ

Half-fare Card currently costs $126 p.p. in the U.S. - compare with prices in Switzerland - often either higher or lower In my years of tracking - have not compared for a while though so don't know which is better and if so by how much - if much higher buy here - figure in any credit card charges for purchases in Swiss francs and check mailing fees for ordering here too.

PalenQ

www.capitainetrain.com also books French tickets like Zurich to Paris - same fares and trains as www.voyages-sncf.com but said to be much easier to use for foreigners.

PalenQ

From Schmermikon be sure to take time to take a boat ride on the Bodensee - Lake Constance - Lindau is a really really sweet old town sticking out into the idyllic lake.

neckervd

Schmerikon has a pier of the Lake Zurich steamboats!

PalenQ

Oops - Googled wrong Schmerikon or spelt it wrong - got one by St Galein and the Bodensee - at least I thought - well a cruise on Lake Zurich is also outstanding - maybe better because you can see both sides of the lake close up as the lake is fjord-like, kind of.

In Zurich I also liked the hill-climbing trams that lead out of town to sweet hiking trails thru forests.

Also check out the Bahnhofstrasse - said to be the richest street in the world or something like that - HQs of big banks and many swank boutiques line it - go right west from the train station exit.

neckervd

Indeed: Schmerikon is a stop of the Voralpen Express which goes from lake Lucerne via Lake Zurich to Lake Constance. So you have the choice!

PalenQ

Boats across Lake Constance give you the chance to savor a bit of Germany for a day! Again Lindau, also easily reached by train is a real gem:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lind...w=1745&bih=868

PalenQ

another thing I loved about Zurich was the lakeside esplanade on the eastern side of the lake from Zurich south - on a nice weekend it is a smorgasbord of ethnic groups out picknicking, walking, sitting in lakeside cafes, etc.

Zurich has so many nice things that most tourists just miss - not saying for a novice traveler I would chose it over say Lucerne or Alpine areas but as a world capital quite nice - not to mention museums.

Bern to me remains however my favorite city in Switzerland.