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Which pass in Switzerland
Tue, 04/19/2005 - 11:21
Member
We are planning on spending about 13-17 days in Switzerland and Austira eventually making our way to Prague. We will have a 15 day eurail flexipass, however, this is only a portion of our trip (our whole trip is about 77days) we are also going in a thru Amsterdam, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Italy, and Greece. In Switzerland we are planning on getting there from Barcelona, than go into Lucerne or Geneva. Eventually making our way to Interlaken, spending a few days there, than making our way thru the mountains, hiking and camping and staying at different mountain hostels along the way until we make it to innsbruck. I was wondering if we should get a seperate pass (Swiss pass?) for this portion or possibly just by point to point tickets (for example interlaken to gimmewald, etc..) We are looking to take our time on our way to innsbruck stopping several times along the way. We are looking for the easiest most affordable way to do this. Please let me know of any suggestions. Thanks for the help
Point to point tickets are very expensive in Switzerland; I’d suggest using days on your train pass for these journeys wherever possible, and buying P2P tickets in countries like Italy instead, where trains are cheaper.
The calculation is as follows: take your railpass cost and divide it by 15. This is the "average" price of a railpass day. You should use a day on your pass if the P2P ticket is more expensive than this average. If the P2P ticket is cheaper, buy it instead and save your pass.
If you have a good idea of your itinerary visit railsaver.com and plug it in. Select the option that says to only use a railpass if it will save you money. You should be able to see which journeys are better to use a day on the pass, and which ones are better to buy P2P tickets.
As a generality: a rail pass is often a really good deal in Switzerland as train travel is expensive and a railpass offers significant "bonuses" such as free lake steamers and discounts on cog rails, scenic trains, rack railways, etc. A Swiss rail pass is "better" than a eurail pass that covers Switzerland as it’s honored on more of the specialty and scenic trains and has even better bonuses. This list of bonuses for a eurail pass valid in Switzerland is from railpass.com/new
Free:
I think I have a practical advice for your situation in Switzerland, which is basically (correct me if I’m wrong), "you are not sure exactly what trains you are going to take, on what dates, in what order, which makes it impossible at this point to know how much you’d spend without a pass, which in turn makes it hard to figure out what pass to get."
Get a Swiss Card (not a Swiss Pass) — you can read more about it on www.sbb.ch , but in a nutshell it gives you a free round-trip from any Swiss border town or the airport (or plainly Zurich, if you are taking a night train from Barcelona (nice ride!)) to any destination in Switzerland. And everything in between is 1/2 price, including mountain-top excursions in the Jungfrau region. If you add up point-to-point tickets for Zurich-Gimmelwald round-trip, the price will come down to almost what you pay for the Swiss Card (slightly less, but you get the point). So, there is practically no downside at all, and you get 1/2 price for all travel that you chose to do in Switzerland.
And since you are planning to be in Gimmelwald, check out my website: www.gimmelwald.com
Switzerland is beautiful!
AlexG-
Does the swiss card work with the eurail pass as well (for example if the swiss card gets 50% off and the eurail gets 20% does that mean we get 70%?) Also, I’m not understanding how it works if we plan on leaving from Barcelona. Does this mean we can take the Elipsos night train for free with this card. Without this card, does my eurail flexipass cover the elipsos night train from barca to switz? HELP!
Thanks
Passes and other offers do not work "in combination" so no 70% discounts.
If I understand your question, the "border in" feature of Swiss card should cover the Swiss portion of your journey from Barcelona.
Railpass will "cover" the basic fare for night train, but you will have to pay extra for reservation and/or supplement and the sleeping accomodations you choose. I am not familiar with "elipsos" trains but most of the premier trains in Spain require reservation and supplement that’s around 20 euros. CisAlpino trains in Switzerland, Germany and Italy require an 18 euro reservation that’s not covered by a railpass.
I agree with Alex that the Swiss card is probably a good deal for you — can’t tell the best deal without an exact itinerary.
My basic itenerary while in switzerland is this:
Arrive into Geneva from Barcelona.
Spend a night or 2 in Geneva (do some boat trips and hiking and what not)
Make our way to Interlaken the best way(not sure how, sopme sort of train) stopping along the way if anything catches our eye
Stay in Interlaken a few days making side trips out into the mountains for various extreme sports
Make our way to Gimmewald and stay a few nights
Make our way to Innsbruck stopping along the way in various mountain towns
Stay in Innsbruck a few nights than make our way to Prague
So will this warrant getting the Swiss card instead of using our eurail 15dayflexi? This is only about a 15 day portion of our 75day trip.
Also, will the swiss card cover all charges on the night train from Barca to Geneva, as well as sleeping arrangements. Please Help
Thanks
You can’t use a Swiss Card on Barca-Geneva ride (I know from experience). Your Eurail pass will give you a discount, but it doesn’t fully cover Elipsos trains.
You can’t combine Eurail pass and Swiss Card. As a rule of thumb, you can’t combine ANY two passes together in Europe.
Geneva is your entry point. Get your Swiss Card there. Your first free leg using a Swiss Card is wherever you go from Geneva in one day (Interlaken in your case) and then Gimmelwald to the border town (Buchs — the last Swiss town before entering Austria) on your way out of Switzerland to Innsbruck. Everything in between is 1/2 off, including mountain-tops (Schilthorn and Jungraujoch and many others that you probably wouldn’t have time fore, but just fyi), which are expensive, so if you plan to do some of these rides, Swiss Card will definitely save you money.