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Switzerland - Travel advice?

  • 29-09-2022 12:52pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 264 ✭✭


    Hi All,


    Myself and the wife have booked 5 days in Switzerland over the coming Christmas, and we are looking for any advice regarding travel.

    We are going to be based in Geneva, taking day trips to see the rest of the country. We have been looking at getting a Switzerland pass, but from looking around online, this doesn't cover us for most of the Gondolas around the seperate regions?


    For that reason, we decided to look at possibly getting regional travel passes, or possibly even getting the "half fare" travel pass.


    We don't have any places set in stone yet, but we would like to spend a day in Geneva, a day Jungfraujoch and a day in Zurich. We would also like to visit places such as Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Lucerne, Bern and possibly see the Matterhorn.


    We are very happy to get up early to see the sights, and are looking for the best deal regarding travel passes etc.


    Any advice is more than welcome.



Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,962 ✭✭✭Conall Cernach


    I go to Switzerland (Zermatt) every summer for my holidays. I'd say get the Half Fare Card, it's around 120 Francs. You will make your money back on it. I've always found it hard enough to find on the SBB website so you might have to search for it. The trains are great and Second class isn't much of a step down from First except for some crowding around peak times.

    If you are going to Zermatt, where the Matterhorn is, from Geneva is you will be on a train for a good 4 hours with a change at Visp onto a mountain railway. You will pass through Montreux and Vevey which are both worth a visit. Interlaken isn't far off the main Zurich - Brig line which will also take you to Visp. You could, I suppose, go from Geneva to Zermatt and back through Interlaken to Zurich but you'd need an overnight somewhere.

    If you do find yourself in Zermatt I'd recommend heading to Grizzly's Bistro which is about 2 minutes from the station. A burger and chip will set you back 30 odd francs though! The Brown Cow in the Hotel Post in the middle of the main street will cost you about 18 francs for the same.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 264 ✭✭cr-07


    Great stuff, thank you for that, great info!


    So do you think it'd be better value to get the Half Fare card and pay for everything individually VS getting the all Swiss travel pass / getting regional passes? Or would there be much of a muchness in savings? We will be traveling out of Geneva for 3-4 days.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,962 ✭✭✭Conall Cernach


    I haven't really looked at the regional passes but the Swisspass is very expensive but it runs for a year. I always get this card, it runs for a month:

    It is only 120chf but gives half price on trains and cable cars (if you're going into the mountains you will want to go up a cable car). It will pay for itself after a couple of journeys.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 848 ✭✭✭omicron


    If you know what days you'll be taking long journeys on you can buy a one day travel card that covers all trains and post uses and some gondolas for CHF 52, valid for the full day. Need to buy it a good bit in advance though to get that price. It can work out much better value than a half pass for a short few days travelling.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,054 ✭✭✭DoctorEdgeWild


    Would you consider driving or hiring a car? I have done Switzerland quite a bit with a hire car and found it fantastic! Great freedom to change your mind if you see something interesting like a nice town (this happened a LOT, it's a truly beautiful place). I am a fan of driving holidays in general so your point of view may be different but driving around Switzerland was a real highlight of the many European drives I've done.

    It's small too, Lausanne to Davos (West to East) was around 4 hours so easy to do there and back and still have loads of time to enjoy stuff! Roads are high quality, driving standard is good, generally a perfect place to enjoy the open road.

    Whatever way you choose, you will have a brilliant time!! Enjoy.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 563 ✭✭✭tmh106


    Hi.

    "We don't have any places set in stone yet, but we would like to spend a day in Geneva, a day Jungfraujoch and a day in Zurich. We would also like to visit places such as Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Lucerne, Bern and possibly see the Matterhorn."

    Your itinerary looks like an awful lot of Switzerland in just five days. I know everyone is probably different in how they pace their holidays but FWIW my advice would be to reduce the number of places you plan to visit so that you have enough time to really enjoy the places you do visit.



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