atlantamsc

HELP!!!!!!!

Trying to figure of the best swiss pass to get as its truly confusing. Half card? Half card with swiss pass flexible? Ill be heading from Genoa to Zermatt at the end of the month and departing from Zurich back to the states.

7/4 Genoa- Milan on Trentalia 10.30 euros plan to buy separately from swiss pass.
7/4 Milan to Zermatt SBB - 51 CHF
7/5 Gornegrat- 86 CHF
7/6 Klein Matterhorn 99 CHF
7/6 Early Afternoon Zermatt to Bern 88 CHF - will spends 3 hours in Bern before heading to Lucerne that evening. Will have bags sent to Lucerne
7/6 Bern to Lucerne - 38 CHF
7/7 -Rigi- 68 CHF
7/8 Lucerne to Zurich Airport 29 CHF

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

kybourbon

Search Milano Centrale/Brig on Trenitalia. See if you can snag a Smart fare (22€ on the EC train). From there, you could let your Swiss pass start (depending on which one you decide to get).

Download the map (pdf) of validity (under traveling in Switzerland, where is the Swiss pass valid) and it will show you where/what the various Swiss passes cover. YOu may have to zoom around a bit to see certain areas.

http://www.swisstravelsystem.com/en/...Questions.html

PalenQ

I would look at the 8-consecutive-day Swiss Pass which negates any need to buy a Half-Fare Card because you get 50% off just about everything not covered in full - you are moving around a lot and that I think may be your best bet. Great sites for info on Swiss trains and passes, etc - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

neckervd

Compare the Swiss Half Fare Card with the Swiss Travel Passes.
Half fare with both:
Zermatt - Gornergrat
Zermatt - Kleinmatterhorn

Standard fares for other legs (free with Swiss Travel Pass, half fare with Swiss Half Fare Card):
Big - Zermatt: 38 CHF
Zermatt - Berne - Lucerne: 115 CHF
Lucerne - Vitznau - Rigi RT: 113 CHF
Lucerne - ZRH: 29 CHF
Total: 295 CHF

with Swiss Travel Pass:
Travel Pass for 4 days (251 CHF) plus Lucerne - ZRH (29 CHF): 280 CHF

with Half Fare Card:
Half Fare Card (120 CHF) plus half fare tickets (148 CHF): 268 CHF.

In both cases you have to add 43 CHF for Gornergrat and 50 CHF for Kleinmatterhorn.

The Half Fare Card solution seems to bre a bit cheaper, but the Travel Pass is better: everythng included (trams, citybuses and museums too), except for Zermatt and the last day; any kind of itinerary change possible without any problem.

BTW: the Swiss Travel Pass is valid from Domodossola. Check the fares between the discounted web tickets Milan - Brig and Milan - Domodossola and buy the cheaper one.

PalenQ

Flexipass vs consectuvie-day pass? Kind of tough to figure out - as of Jan 2015 you no longer get 50% off on days between days you use on the pass but you can buy a Half-Fare Card at 50% off or about if bought thru U S agents about $65 - if taking the Jungfraujoch along that would pay off itself but on a consectuive-day pass you get 25% off Wengen/Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch but 50% on just about everything else that moves in Switzerland.

neckervd

The Swiss Travel Pass Flex solution would be more expensive

PalenQ

If traveling nearly every day or daily then the consecutive-day pass is usually the better of the two vs flexi - you always get 50% off if not fully covered or almost -no need to buy a half-off Half-Fare Card.

PalenQ

Travel Pass for 4 days (251 CHF)>

Always check U.S.prices for the exact same pass - often IME cheaper here than there - sometimes significantly so - plus no foreign trnsaction fees - not always the case but for the past several years often has been.

Half Fare Card (120 CHF) - ditto with this.

bvlenci

We've just returned from a five-night stay in Switzerland. I bought 2nd-class Swiss passes for me and my husband; there's a discount for two people who are always traveling together. We got the pass for four consecutive days, and started it on the first full day we were in Switzerland.

I'm working on a trip report, and a condensed version of the following will probably be part of it.

I had first calculated the costs of buying separate tickets for everything but I made a mistake in my calculation, and realized it almost as soon as I bought the passes. However, it was too late to rescind the purchase. In the end, using the passes cost us about 40 CHF apiece more than buying everything separately would have, but there is also a certain convenience factor, so I didn't feel it was a terrible decision. We traveled by train only three of the four days; if we had traveled more often or longer distances we probably would have broke even.

The pass also functions as a Swiss Museum Pass, on public transportation, on most boats, and gives discounts on most mountain trains, funicular railways, etc.

Since Swiss trains don't require reservations, you can just get on the train and use the pass instead of a ticket. This is vastly different from the situation in Italy, where almost all trains require a reservation, which has to be bought separately, and sometimes costs as much as a discounted ticket, including the reservation, would have cost.

I also looked into the half-price card, but it definitely wouldn't have saved us any money. The Flexi pass would have been very hard to justify on prices.

I had read that you could get discounts on the Swiss Pass by buying them on the Rick Steves website. This doesn't work if you live outside the US, because he sells the passes only to Americans.

You can buy your passes on the internet and print them at home, avoiding their ridiculously high delivery charges. If you do so, you have to furnish names, passport number, and effective starting date of the pass, which can't be changed later. If you get the traditional (non-internet) pass, you can decide on the spot when to begin using the pass.

On the website, they said the pass had to be bought at least three days before travel. I had indicated a starting date of June 6th, although we were leaving home on June 2nd, spending some time in Milan and on Lake Como before arriving in Switzerland. I had to call them the day before we left, because I still hadn't got the print at home documents for the passes. (I was really expecting the online pass to arrive in an hour or two.) When I called, the woman who assisted me pointed out that there were still three days left before my starting date of June 6th. I explained that we would be traveling in Italy beginning the next day, and finding a printer might not be easy. It seemed that this possibility hadn't been considered at all. However, she understood the problem and called the appropriate department and told them to expedite the delivery, although she still couldn't guarantee I'd have them before leaving home. I did get them later that day, though.

I would say that if you'll be visiting lots of museums, taking trains every day, and making more than a few trips on mountain railroads (which tend to be expensive) the pass is worth what you pay for it. And even if you don't break even, there is a convenience factor that is worth something.

PalenQ

Where did you buy that pass and when? In the U.S. now at least there are no longer any saverpasses and individual passes have been reduced in price to make up - if you bought that pass before Jan 1, 2015 here you could have bought a Saverpass and used it anytime within six months of issuance.

Curious if not as to who is still selling saverpass - for my info on advising folks - if they can buy from www.sbb.ch a Saverpass it could be a better deal than buying two solo passes here.

Thanks in advance!

PalenQ

Well I cannot find any Swiss Travel Pass Saver so I guess Saverpasses are a thing of the past - just seems to have solo passes now. I would like bvlenci to say if he/she bought the pass recently or before 2015?

bvlenci

Well, I'm beginning to doubt my statement. The Rick Steves website mentioned the discount for two people traveling together, and I tried to buy from his site because he offered another discount as well, but I was not successful, as he sells only to Americans.

I bought the passes online from my home in Italy, from the sbb.ch web site. The "print-at-home" passes can't be used at any time. You have to indicate the starting date when you buy them.

tipsygus

I understood from the Swiss Rail website that Saver Passes were phased out from the beginning of 2015 and were only usable until I think June 2015. There was a statement to this effect on the Swiss Rail website in January 2015.

PalenQ

tipsygus - that is my understanding as well. No more Swiss Saverpasses but cheaper solo passes - and also no more 50% off on flexible travel days between fully covered travel days on a flexipass - but you can now buy a Half-Fare Card at 50% off - about $65 in U.S. prices. Consecutive-day passes of course give 50% off most everything not covered in full so no need for Half-Fare Card with that.

PalenQ

I bought the passes online from my home in Italy, from the sbb.ch web site. The "print-at-home" passes can't be used at any time. You have to indicate the starting date when you buy them.>

this too is at odds with paper passes which can be activated within six months of issuance - if you do not want to enter a start date you can always buy the same pass at any Swiss station for the same price as online - well pass prices can vary or order one thru like RailEurope or their agents and get a paper one you can start when you want. Most folks I think know exactly when they want their pass to start however.