Paris to Murren With Swiss Saver Pass
 

We will be leaving Paris on July 15th and ending up in Murren, Switzerland. We are planning on getting 8-day Swiss Saver Passes, but the train goes direct from Paris to Basel. Can someone tell me how we go about activating the pass on day 1 and using it for the portion of our trip from the Swiss border to Murren? We will be in Switzerland exactly 8 days so this seems to be the best pass to use.

You will need to activate the pass at Basel SBB station there are orange boxes with an eye symbol on them and you punch the ticket in these, or ask at the SBB ticket office.

Thank you so much.

I don't always use passes, and this information may be dated, but twice I have had difficulty getting a ticket agent outside of Switzerland to apply my Swiss pass to the portion of the trip inside Switzerland. Perhaps there were language barriers; perhaps they were just having a bad day; perhaps they just didn't know how to do it.

So if I had a Swiss pass now, I would ask the agent what the fare is to the Swiss border, and what it is to Murren. If they differ, I would just buy a ticket to the border and ask the conductor to activate the pass when we have entered Switzerland. I've done this and it worked, although I got the impression that the conductor was not really happy to do it, so when I got to my destination in Switzerland, I went to the ticket agent and asked him to insure the activation was correct.

So now

"tipsygus" is incorrect. You cannot activate a pass at a machine; that is for validating tickets. A pass muct be validated by a ticket agent to activate it---you show your passport, etc. I think you will have to do this at Basel when you change trains.

Once the pass is "activated" you don't need to see an agent again; just write in the date yourself each day you use it---before you get on the train.

Just ask that the pass be pre-validated before you purchase. You can nominate a start date. I've just done this.

Also, if you are planning on spending much time in Murren, then consider getting a Swiss Saver FlexiPass (e.g 3 or 4 days in a month) and combining it with a 'Schilthorn Holiday Pass' for 90CHF. This will give you 6 consecutive days of unlimited rides on services between Lauterbrunnen and the top of the Schilthorn.
If you pre-validate your pass, the FlexiPass option will also give you more flexibility should you change your start date.

Wow -- I'm glad I asked. I guess we'll make a reservation (from the U.S.) for Paris to the Swiss border. Our dates are set in Switzerland, and since we'll be there for exactly 8 days I'll just have the pass pre-validated. Then once we're in Switzerland we'll be "home free." Thanks for all the good info.

Well, no, the seat reservation and the train ticket are two separate things (except on certain of the best trains). You will probably need to reserve seats all the way and pay for the reservation. But you need only pay train fare to the Swiss border.

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you.

I never used the Pass per se. With the Swiss Card, the pass is self validated by writing with a pen.

Last two years we have bought tickets from Munich to the first station within Switzerland, not the border as a line in the dirt.

For example, last year, the ticket was from Munich to Schaffhausen. Then the Swiss Card took over.

Those discount card include a trip from the "border" to the first night's destination.

I asked the same question about validation the first year I had one when we flew into Zürich. The ticket agent handed me a ball point pen.