Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Swiss Travel Pass Guide


If you are travelling alone or even in 2 to Switzerland and want to fully rely on the public transportation, I would highly recommend to get the Swiss Travel Pass where this pass gives you unlimited travel on the public buses, trains, trams and even boats throughout the nation with hassle-free. Not just this pass applies on the public transportation, you can even get free admission to over 500 fascinating museums and also get up to 50% discount on most mountain excursions to Swiss Peak. This pass is specially designed for foreign visitors who are non-residents of Switzerland and Principality of Liechtenstein. 



Swiss Travel Pass Categories

Swiss Travel Pass is divided into 3 different categories based on:

a) Consecutive or Flexible 

b) First Class or Second Class

c) Validity Period of 3, 4, 6, 8 and 15 days

Swiss Travel Pass - Consecutive Days 

Validity/Class

First Class (CHF)

Second Class (CHF)

3 Days

369.00

232.00

4 Days

447.00

281.00

6 Days

570.00

359.00

8 Days

617.00

389.00

15 Days

675.00

429.00

Consecutive Pass is where you get unlimited travel within the set of selected days. For example; if you choose Consecutive 8 Days Swiss Travel Pass and you select the start date to travel on 1st January, then your pass is valid till 8th January midnight. 

Swiss Travel Pass Flexi 

Validity/Class

First Class (CHF)

Second Class (CHF)

3 Days

424.00

267.00

4 Days

514.00

323.00

6 Days

610.00

384.00

8 Days

649.00

409.00

15 Days

706.00

449.00

Swiss Travel Pass Flexi gives you unlimited travel within 1 month from the selected start date. For example; if you choose Flexi 8 Days Swiss Travel Pass and you select the start date to travel on 1st January, then you pass is valid till 30th January and you can travel unlimited 8 days within these 30 days.   

Boat is included in Swiss Travel Pass too and you can ride for free


Where To Buy Swiss Travel Pass

Generally, you can buy this pass at staffed Swiss rail stations but do take into account that there might be a queue, especially during the peak hour. So for more conveniently, you can directly purchase this Swiss Travel Pass through online which not only helping you in saving your precious time, but it also ensures a digital back-up in case your printed copy gets lost or damaged. You might also get lower price than the official prices you'd pay in Switzerland as there might be some offer and promotion that is available by the online retailer. In our case, we bought this pass from Klook, our favourite travel platform and instantly we got our Swiss Travel Pass via email right after we had made payment for it.  


During the purchase of this pass, all you need to do is to key in your name, gender, date of birth, passport number, nationality and your departure date. Make sure that all your details are same as accordingly to your passport cause the train inspector will randomly check both of your passport and Swiss Travel Pass together. Do take note of the departure date, it's actually the date that you want to start using this pass in Switzerland, not your flight departure date.  

How To Use Swiss Travel Pass

It's pretty simple - just hop on and off as you like as long as you have the Swiss Travel Pass with you. The only thing you need to take note is the cabin class; whether it's the First Class or Second Class. Second Class pass holder is not allowed to be in the First Class cabin, so make sure you don't get fine/penalty for this silly and clumsy mistakes.

This is First Class Cabin which only First Class passholders are allowed to sit here

You can differentiate this cabin class by the number indicated on the train; 1 for First Class and 2 for Second Class. And this applies on the boat as well, but not for the buses and trams where you can just sit at any seats you want. This is why both of us considered that the Second Class passes are way more enough for us than the First Class passes.  

Platform display board where you can refer to know where you should stand before boarding 

Talking about seat reservations, you don't have to reserve any seats and you are allowed to sit anywhere as you like on most of the trains as well for the boats. However, seat reservations are mandatory for premium scenic trains like Glacier Express and Bernina Express and this is where you need to pay additional fees for the seat reservation, eventhough these particular trains are covered under Swiss Travel Pass. 



Is Swiss Travel Pass Really Worth To Buy?

Obviously YES! Although Swiss Travel Pass might seems pricey, but I can definitely conclude that we have no regret of buying this pass cause it's indeed helping us save tons of money, especially when our itinerary is packed with lots of places to visit. 

Take a look of the breakdown I did of all the places we went throughout our 11 days trip around Switzerland and this fare is calculated per pax: 

From 

 To

 CHF

 Mode

 Zurich Flughafen

 Luzern

             30.00

Train

 Luzern 

 Engelberg

             18.40

Train

 Engelberg

 Luzern 

             18.40

 Train

 Luzern 

 Vitznau 

             28.00

Boat

 Vitznau 

 Rigi Kulm

             45.00

Boat

 Rigi Kulm

 Vitznau 

             45.00

Cable car

 Vitznau 

 Luzern 

             28.00

Cable car

 Luzern 

 Basel

             34.00

Train

 Basel

 Bern

             41.00

Train

 Bern

 Luzern 

             39.00

Train

 Luzern 

 Interlaken OST

             33.00

Train

 Interlaken OST

 Iseltwald Dorfplatz

               6.00

Bus

 Iseltwald (See)

 Interlaken OST

             16.60

Boat

 Wilderswil 

 Lauterbrunnen

               6.00

Train

 Lauterbrunnen

 Murren

             11.20

Cable car

 Murren

 Lauterbrunnen

             11.20

Cable car

 Lauterbrunnen

 Grindelwald via Zweilütschinen

               9.00

Train

 Grindelwald via Zweilütschinen

 Interlaken OST

             11.20

 Train

 Interlaken OST

 Sigriswil

               9.20

Bus

 Sigriswil

 Interlaken OST

               9.20

Bus

 Interlaken West

 Vevey

             61.00

Train

 Vevey

 Geneve

             28.00

Train

 Geneve

 Lausanne 

             22.80

Train

 Lausanne 

 Interlaken West 

             56.00

Train

 Interlaken West 

 Frutigen

             17.40

Train

 Frutigen

 Interlaken West 

             17.40

Train

 Interlaken West 

 Zermatt

             81.00

Train

 Zermatt

 St Moritz

           152.00

Glacier Express

 St Moritz

 Zurich HB

             76.00

Train

 Zurich HB

 Sargans

             33.00

Train

 Sargans

 Vaduz

               8.00

Bus

 Vaduz

 Sargans

               8.00

Bus

 Sargans

 Ziegelbrücke

             14.40

Train

 Ziegelbrücke

 Kilchberg ZH

             23.20

Train

 Kilchberg ZH

 Zurich HB

               6.80

 Train

 Zürich Hardbrücke

 Zurich Flughafen

               6.80

Train

 Mount Titlis

 

             48.00

50%

 CHF

        1,109.20


Can you imagine how much we saved by using Swiss Travel Pass - a total of CHF680.20 for 1 pax (approx to RM3,156) when we bought the Consecutive 15 Days Swiss Travel Pass for CHF429 per adult. That's absolutely one huge sum of money we managed to save from this pass. Swiss Travel Pass is really super worth to buy if you are always on the move from one spot to another, travelling on a long distances and taking premium panoramic trains like Glacier Express from Zermatt to St. Moritz. Another thing I like about this pass is the flexibility to board on any of the public transportation without the hassle to queue at the counter station or kiosk. Like I mentioned earlier, just hop on and off at any place and anytime as you like. Definitely one stress-free pass for those who want to fully rely on the public transportation around Switzerland. Oh yeah! You can even use Swiss Travel Pass to the neighbouring country of Liechtenstein, the sixth smallest country in the world.  


Last but not least, don't forget to download SBB Mobile Apps for you to check the timetable and fares for your desired route. 

To know more about the validity of Swiss Travel Pass, you can refer here

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