1. Be sure to figure the full price of a plane ticket. Getting to/from airports, baggage fees, ticketing and check-in fees, etc.
2. Where (what websites) are you finding prices for the train ticket? Looks like there are specials as low as 90 euros, ticket and reservation.

Bern is a small airport, usually with higher airfares. By the time you transfer from there to the train station, it will eat up any savings vs. flying into GVA or ZRH (and possibly BSL) since you can begin train journeys at GVA and ZRH. Consider the costs—both time and money. Also, look at starting the train journey outside of Switzerland. Sometimes it is significantly cheaper (if that could work for your itinerary). Swiss trains are crazy expensive. There are some discount schemes, but even so, they’re probably some of the most expensive I’ve ever encountered in Europe.

Don’s right. Look into a Swiss rail pass, a Swiss card, perhaps a France/Switzerland pass and maybe even a eurail select pass to cover more of your trip. One of those options might save you some money. Since this is a relatively short journey, train is probably the best way, even if you can find a flight for roughly the same price.

Swiss trains, buses, boats, and some cable cars, are all interconnected, and some form of pass can save you money on all of them (even the private cablecars often offer a good discount for some passes). I’ve not found the full passes advantageous for my style of travel, but many people do recommend them; one trouble for me is that there are so many passes it can take days of research to find which best suits you, and I have better things to do with my days.

Having said that, they do offer something I think is called a transfer ticket. It gives you free rail service from your point of entrance to your destination, and back. Its designed for skiers why fly in, go to a ski area, ski, and fly out. I’ve never gotten one so I don’t know the cost, and I don’t know if it is good when you are departing from a different site.

I like the half fare card. A few years ago, it cost 90 CHF and was good for thirty days; with this, your fares are cut in half. So look up the fares on the trips you will be taking (don’t forget the cable cars) and see if a half fare card (whatever it costs now) would be worth it.

I think a high speed train from Paris to Geneva costs about 60 GBP (buying French train tickets as an American is complicated, as they keep routing you to their subsidiary in the US, which has much higher prices, You can avoid this by buying at the station. I don’t know if Canadians are similarly mistreated.) Some trains offer a substantial discount if you buy well before your trip, but I don’t know if this is one of them. See http://www.seat61.co… for a lot of good information.

I suggest Geneva rather than Bern because of better scenery. From Geneva, get a train to Lauterbrunnen, but ask to be routed through Montreaux, a far more scenic route than going through Bern. The only way to Lauterbrunnen, as far as I know, is by train or by driving, and driving is an expensive proposition, with gas, rental, and parking for a car you can rarely use.

The train to Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken was fairly cheap though, from what I recall. One could even walk or bike there though if they were feeling industrious/cheap