RicardoVerdi
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 10 years ago
My first post here ... There are a bewildering amount of passes for Switzerland. 3 adults arrive at Basel on a Thursday afternoon in May 2014 (from Paris) & head for Interlaken. We may do some scenic trips or mountain trains or cable cars, then on Tuesday drive to Chur for the 8:37 Bernina Express (we have reservations but no actual tickets yet). Is there any straightforward formula to work out the best pass? They have half fare card, various flexi-passes, one that only works after 9:00 on certain days, it all seems so confusing. And now I've just realised there's also the interrail one country pass, such as 4,5,or 6 days in a month. Did anyone get one pass and wish they had got a different one? Anyone glad they bought the one they did? And I have questions such as: Is it worth using a day of my pass to go from Basel to Interlaken? How much would that cost if we just bought ordinary tickets? I dare say some of you have had to consider this. Please share your experiences, thank you.
PS It looks like we're going to have to hire a car for at least part of the time in order to reach Chur for the 8:37 train, as we will be staying in a campsite near Interlaken and there are no connections early enough for us. I just hope the roads are safe to drive and not too icy that morning.
nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
what normal prices are-sky high for anyone out of CH- can daft easy be found on the sbb/cff website. Those are of course in CHF and IR (Interrail) / SP (Swiss Pass) mostly quoted in EUR.
There IS a substantial difference as to where SP or IR is valid for-out of the national lines of SBB. Is this the FULL route you want to taker or more side trips planned? As these make the big difference. Hence IR is a fair lot cheaper as SP. People who are more after saving or getting lower expense do it reverse: they see where their pass is valid and use those lines-Swiss has enough of nice scenery to have both passes pay off. However, there are in the low season often discounts/promotions for SP, also for couples=cheaper as 2x1.
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
Additional links:
- Swiss Rail Pass available here: [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/switzerland[/ux]
- Interrail pass available here: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
- crossing the Alps for free with Interrail (blog post with a lot of photos): [u]https://rail.cc/blog/zurich-milano-albula-bernina/[/u]
Peter :)
RicardoVerdi
Traveller
1 comments
We ended up getting a good deal on a car (booked about 3 moths in advance) which we picked up in Basel, near the railway station, and returned to Chur after a four-hour drive from our campsite in Interlaken. Where is the station? Very poor road signs in Chur. Well we found it eventually, dropped off my mother-in-law with all the baggage. My wife & I then returned the car & had to walk/run from the car-hire in Chur to the station. We got there about 15 minutes before the Bernina Express left at 08:30. Phew. But it was worth it. I'm so glad I chose that route to get to Venice.
So the only rail trips we did were:
1. circular Lauterbrunnen to Murren, (mixed rail/ cable car/ bus) then also from Murren up to top of Schilthorn by cable car. Fantastic if you get clear blue skies as we did.
2. up from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg then down one stop to below the snow then we walked back down to Grindelwald- beautiful alpine walk in warm sunshine just next to the north face of the Eiger.
3. around Interlaken itself, which was included in the Interlaken pass given free at our accommodation.
4. the Bernina Express
As there were 3 of us I'm pretty sure the car hire was a big saving as well as allowing us to be more flexible. The day we went up to Kleine Scheidegg, lots were going to the top of Jungfraujoch. We met someone later at our campsite, who told us that unfortunately it was cloudy at the top that day so they couldn't see much. We reckon we made the right decision.