Swiss Advice Please!
 

My husband and I are spending six nights in Zurich during the last week of May. We would definitely like to visit Interlaken, Lucerne, Basel, and Biel. Would the 4-day Swiss Flexipass be the best bargain for us or should we consider a different pass?

We would also love to visit Florence during our time there for a day or two. We've heard that plane tickets between European countries is extremely cheap when purchased in Europe. Is this true? Any advice to finding an affordable round-trip ticket?

Lastly, my husband is a huge fan of fine watches, and would love to take a tour of a watch factory or something of that sort. Any suggestions?

Evaluate your plans with www.railsaver.com

Best wishes,

Rex

A four day Swiss Flexi Pass is $156 for second class and $234 for first class - you can travel 4 days within one month with this pass.

A four day Swiss Saver pass (2-5 people traveling together) is $136 for second class and $208 for first class. This pass is for four consecutive days of travel.

I guess it comes down to your specific travel plans. The Swiss Saver Pass also entitles you to 25% discount on rail/cable lines not covered by the pass such as the Jungfrau, Schilthorn etc. The Flexi Pass may offer this as well, I'm not certain.

In my experience flying within Europe is expensive, but I've not booked from within Europe.

We used the 4 day flex pass from Zurich and were pleased with it. I would suggest going to Appenzell....it is a small town and when we were there, there were virtually no Americans, charming very quaint place....and the train trip there was great as well. There is a flea market on the lakefront in summer in Zurich on Sundays...we got some beautiful linens, prints, and china at great prices there...pretty unusual for Zurich! It is one city we both love, friendly people, very safe, good transportation...only drawback is prices.

Go to www.easyjet.com. The flights within Europe are very cheap.

A nice choice to visit Switzerland and your choice of destinations is great, been all those places many, many times ? but always driving and witnessing the nature?s beauty. Four days to cover all is not enough but manageable. Drop Basel as it will divert you geographically and is not consistent with Luzerne and Interlaken. You can chose you train itinerary to ?Chur? and take another train to ?Arusa? and then proceed to Interlaken. When you reach Zurich, drop by the Railway counter in the Zurich Airport itself and they are very helpful. The sites mentioned also are very user friendly with some options.

You can take the train ride from Zurich to Milano and then to Florence, two days are sufficient excluding the travel time.

The various passes available make it a lot of work to find the best deal. Don't neglect to consider the cost of point to point tickets instead of a pass. We stayed in a remote village where we had to use the train system every day, and still the saver pass was slightly costlier than tickets would have been, but I opted for the pass to save time buying tickets and give us the flexibility to change our plans according to the weather.

Consider also taking the train to and from Florence. The scenery is very good, and the train station in Florence is in the city, while the airport would require some sort of connection.