Countries

Swiss Rail Pass

A detailed look through on the most important decision of Switzerland – Swiss Rail/Travel Pass – To Buy or not to buy

Switzerland’s transport system is the most efficient one, but at the same time very costly and reason for the same is that you get the state of the art travel across most difficult of terrains (read hills) with utmost comfort and punctuality (you can actually match your watch with train timings). Hence, it is an important decision on whether to buy the Swiss Travel Pass, rent a car or buy individual tickets. While this is dependent on how extensively you are travelling, which places, etc. Individual tickets would be really really expensive, and to give you an heads up, if I would have gone for this option, I would have spent approx. 60k, which is much more than the amount I spent on buying Swiss Travel Pass. Renting a car is a good option as its slightly less expensive than Swiss Pass, it gives you flexibility, but with this comes right hand drive, parking related hassles, local rules and still need to buy tickets for village towns and mountain excursions as most of them are not accessible by car. But if someone has an experience of driving in Europe, this would be a very good option. Renting a car for 8 days would cost approx. 25-30k.

The option that we chose was Swiss Travel Pass and 1 reason was, the excursions and villages we were planning to travel were all included with the Pass. For once, it pinched to spend 56k (28k/person) for transport. But by the end of the trip we were glad that we bought the Swiss Travel Pass. There are various denomination in which Swiss Travel Pass can be purchased. The same can be done online or at any SBB office. For online you’ll receive your Pass via e-mail, shipped to your home or hotel, or collected at the airport. The children upto 5 years can travel for free. There are group discounts as well for bulk bookings and as well there is an option of Swiss Family Card.

Types of Swiss Rail Pass

There are 4 types of Swiss Rail Pass, which are as follows:

1. Swiss Travel Pass
2. Swiss Travel Pass Youth
3. Swiss Travel Pass Flex
4. Swiss Travel Pass Flex Youth

Price and denominations of the same is as follows:

• Swiss Travel Pass : Normal Pass for various denominations of consecutive days

• Swiss Travel Pass Youth :  This can be purchased by travellers aged under 26. It entitles the holder to the same advantages as the Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Travel Pass Flex, but costs 15% less.

• Swiss Travel Pass Flex : The Swiss Travel Pass Flex is the perfect ticket for quick deciders. It Combines scope and services of the Swiss Travel Pass with the advantage of increased flexibility.

Valid: on 3, 4, 8, or 15 freely selectable days within one month

• Swiss Travel Pass FlexYouth

Seat Reservations with Swiss Rail Pass

For the most part, you can hop on nearly all Swiss trains with just your rail pass in hand. Designated scenic routes (those with names, such as the Glacier Express), and some international trains (such as to/from France and Italy or night trains through Germany) do require paid seat reservations.

Benefits of Swiss Rail Pass

• A lot of comfort, flexibility and efficient travelling.
• Travelling in all the public transport (trains, busses, cogwheel, funicular, cable cars, boat ride) across the country is included. And where its not 100% included, you get substantial discounts there.
• It even covers lot of good excursions, such as Schilthorn, Rigi Kulm, Stanserhor. For all other excursions except Jungfrau you get 50% discount and on Jungfrau you get 25% discount.
• Entry to over 500 museums, including Einstein Museum in Bern.  
• Golden Pass Line is entirely covered.
• Along with the pass you should download “SBB App” to keep track of the train timings and also google maps to know the bus/tram number & timings.

Refer links : https://www.sbb.ch/en/timetable.html ;  www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass ; https://www.rentalcars.com/