I've combed through all the info on passes and can't find a definitive answer to a very simple question: Where can I buy a swiss pass while in Europe? I'm in Italy and plan to leave next Saturday for Switzerland for a week. I can't order them by mail to receive them in time. Would the Italy train station sell them? One source said that I could get them at the train station in Switz, but I really wanted to make advance reservations for everything. Can anyone give me some info?

What a sort of advance reservations did you want to make? Reservations cannot be done on almost all the Swiss trains. And you can make reservations for those where it is required w/o having the Swiss Pass.

I am afraid you must purchase the Swiss Pass in a railway station in Switzerland, that will probably be Chiasso or Lugano or Brig for you.

Will I have any trouble getting seats on trains between Interlaken, Lucerne and Lugano without reservations over the next week?
I guess I can just take the train to Lugano and then stop in the station there to buy the pass? I do plan to do the Chocolate train which requires advance reservations -do I need to wait until I have the pass?

Hi bethinmilan,

No, you won't have any trouble getting seats next/this week. If you do, just upgrade to 1st class for that journey as there are fewer folks in first.

If you'll be in Milan for some time, or if you live there, you may be able to buy the passes there. Here's a link showing the places you can buy passes -- scroll down to "Italy": http://www.rail.ch/pv/sts-sales.htm

You don't need to have the pass in hand to make your train reservations, so you can make the Choco. train reservations at any time. Of course, the reservations will cost a nominal fee, and they're not covered by the pass.

Hope this helps.

s

Thanks - as it turns out, right across from Milano Centrale is an SBB office. They made all my reservations for me, issued my swiss passes and family passes, and answered all of my questions! They are not even listed on the SBB website! It pays to look and ask around! They could not book the chocolate train for me and told me I could not book it without showing my swiss pass but I'm going to call tomorrow and try it anyway. I did get 1st class passes but there were several segments of my trip where she could not make a reservation so I'm just assuming I show up at the station and get on the train - no need to go to a ticket window - correct?

For those not in Europe, Swiss Passes I think are cheaper if bought in the states than in Switzerland currently due to the fall of the dollar.