Trav_Eller

I am planning a fairly tight itinerary for a trip to Europe next May and June.

My itinerary in Switzerland is brief; it is part of a longer European tour including lots of rail (I like trains : ) )

I posted this question to Rhaetian rail but basically they told me to contact Swiss Rail; I've sent it to http://www.swisstravelsystem.com/ but no answer yet.

I am becoming confused by all the different Eurail and Swissrail passes.

The rail component for Switzerland is planned as follows:

Saturday 21st May 2011 Depart Paris intending to arrive in Zermatt via either Basel or Lausanne by that evening. Stay overnight in Zermatt
Sunday 22nd May. Stay overnight in Zermatt
Monday 23rd May. Glacier Express to Chur or St Moritz.
Tuesday 24th May Bernina Express to Tirano, continuing to Milan using Trenitalia.

The start and finish days are fixed, but the non-travel day could be before or after the Glacier Express. The overnight stay between Rhaetian Bahn trains could be either Chur or St Moritz. I am open to advice on that - which is the nicer town to stay in May?

Please advise me on the most economical way to book and order the tickets. It is difficult without knowing the fares for travel next May. It appears to me that the CHF99 one-month Swiss Half Fare Card may be best for this trip, or possibly the 3day or 4day Swiss pass. Would this itinerary qualify for 3-day? Commencing at the Swiss border in the afternoon of 21st May, ceasing at Tirano in the afternoon of 24th May.

If I get the Swiss pass, does it cover all the Rhaetian Bahn sections? Do I have to pay other fees such as seat reservation on top of the 1/2 fare or the Swiss Pass? If so, is that on all Swiss sections or just Rhaetian? At what point after buying the pass can I reserve the seats? If using Swiss Pass 2nd class can I upgrade specific sections - especially the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express - to 1st Class? If so, for what cost?

I have already booked the hotel rooms in Paris and Milan. The other rail trips on this tour will be Stansted-London; Eurostar London-Paris; TGV Paris to either Basel or Lausanne, then Swiss Rail from there to Zermatt; Milan-Zagreb and Ploce-Sarajevo. Some fares give a senior's price; I will be 64 when I travel. For the rest of the trip it looks at this stage that point-to-point fares will be cheaper than a Eurailpass.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I'll ask separately about the other rail sections to Croatia and through Bosnia.

Cheers, Alan
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/

kappa1

What is this? OP and one replier, both advertising, adding their web sites? Or are they the same person or know each other? Yellow triangle.

Trav_Eller

kappa1, you seem to have a problem with me.

Just for the record, I've never encountered "Upper" before and I'm a genuine traveller. You will find me asking earlier questions about this trip in the Croatia section and offering suggestions to others in the South American section.

My website is a world travel blog and I very much doubt that anyone reading here is likely to buy the only thing I personally advertise on it as it has nothing to do with travel.

If there is a problem mentioning my travel blog here I'll leave that to the moderators to let me know.

In the meantime, are you able to offer any constructive suggestions on Swiss rail passes?

Alan

mokka4

I stayed this past June in Chur and really liked the town.
I would favor it over St. Moritz.
I used the one month 99 Franc 1/2 fare card...it worked best for me! Yes, the national swiss pass is valid for the Rhaetian RR.
Seat reservations are always extra, But.. I believe that the Glacier Express is ALL first class (I could be wrong, other posters will tell you). A 3-day pass means travel on just 3 calendar dates. It seems that your itinerary has you travelling on four calendar dates, so 4 day pass would be more appropriate.
You can look up specific trip prices at sbb.ch click on english in right upper corner.
Hope this much starts to help!

Man_in_seat_61

Book London-Paris at www.eurostar.com

Book Paris-Lausanne/Bern/Geneva/wherever direct from French Railways at www.tgv-europe.com. If you're from the USA, select 'Canada' NOT the US as if you select the United States you'll be bumped to their subsidiary Rail Europe with higher prices. Tickets booked at www.tgv-europe.com are collected at the station.

A Swiss pass may well be cheaper than normal tickets for intra-Switzerland journeys. It covers the Glacier Express but you still need to pay the reservation/supplement for that train. You can do that at the station. You cancheck normal Swiss ticket prices at www.sbb.ch to compare with the pass cost.

enzian

The 3-day pass is only available as a "Flex" pass which means you select 3 days to use it and you get 50% off on other days. So this would still work for a 4-day trip. The 3-day Flex is (in dollars, second class) $246 versus $257 for a 4-day consecutive day pass. If you are not traveling at all on you rlayover day the Flex is slightly cheaper, but if you travel that day you'll have to figure out the cost at half-price.

Another option you could consider is the Swiss Card, which is $180 for second class. This give you one free trip in each direction (first day and last), so it would cover from the border (Basel or Lausanne) to Zermatt, and from Chur to Tirano. The rest of your travel is 50% off. The cost of the run from Zermatt to Chur right now is 110 CHF in 2d class and 183 CHF in first. That sholdn't change much between now and May, but the exchange rate might.

Trav_Eller

Thanks to all; lots of good info and still researching.

I think I'll opt for either the 3day flexi or 4day full Swiss Pass. I've been in touch by email with Rhaetian rail and I can reserve the seats now even though I have to wait until later for ticket sales. I am going to do that to be certain of good seat allocations.

A special thanks to the man in seat 61. If you are responsible for http://www.seat61.com/ that was one of the first web-sites I used to assist in planning this trip. As I mentioned earlier there are several other rail components. I have a question on the Venice-Zagreb trip which I'll post in the Italian section shortly. Your web-site has been an invaluable help in planning my trip and, as a very experienced traveller, I want to congratulate you on the enormous detail and accuracy of the information on it. Thank you for the work you have done there.

A final question on the Glacier Express and Bernina Express seating. Some carriages have single seats. For a single traveller, are there any drawbacks to booking those seats compared to booking a window seat in one of the paired sets?

Cheers, Alan
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/

kappa1

> In the meantime, are you able to offer any constructive suggestions on Swiss rail passes?

I was just curious about the 2 posts. And I was at least half right. The 1st post (right before mine) has been deleted (am not sure but was it somebody from Philippine, the post said?) for those who have not noticed.

Dukey1

Your best bet on both the Bernina and the Glacier is to book a seat in one of the First Class panorama cars assuming you are using a First Class pass, etc. Any single seats are fine.

PalenQ

I am becoming confused by all the different Eurail and Swissrail passes.>

Well in addition to the wealth of good advice above check out these really good sites for help with these questions - www.swisstravelsystem.com (links to specialty scenic trains like Bernina Express, Glacier Express, etc); www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com - the commercial site of man in seat 61 whose sage advice is given above.

And yes the Swiss Pass IMO is a no-brainer for what you are doing in Switzerland.

PalenQ

It appears to me that the CHF99 one-month Swiss Half Fare Card may be best for this trip, or possibly the 3day or 4day Swiss pass. Would this itinerary qualify for 3-day? Commencing at the Swiss border in the afternoon of 21st May, ceasing at Tirano in the afternoon of 24th May.>

Yes - the whole way and when weighing the Half-Fare Card figure it's cost at about $110 given current exchange rates and usualy 3% credit card fee for foriegn transactions.

and you may do more than you think - like the whole day in Zurich with the pass you could hop a ride on the lake steamers that the pass covers in full - 100% - if you have not experienced a Swiss boat on a Swiss lake IMO go for it.

PalenQ

And a factor with the Half-Fare Card is that you do have to wait in line to buy tickets at 50% off - put this into your calculations vs the freedome to just literally hop on any conveyance covered at anytime - no going to ticket windows and usually waiting some time.