Everything You Need to Know About the Swiss Travel Pass
Exploring Switzerland has never been so easy with the Swiss Travel Pass, which is an all-in-one ticket to travel by road, trams, rail, and waterway throughout the country.
With Swiss Travel Pass, you will no longer have to do wearying tasks, like standing in line at ticket machines, no matter when and where you wish to travel.
Coming with many bonus perks, this single ticket will let you explore the delightful diversity of Switzerland with total freedom.
But to make sure you will make the most of this offering, it is important to know everything about it first.
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Everything You Need to Know About the Swiss Travel Pass
Bernina Express in Winter, Switzerland
Overview – Swiss Travel Pass
Previously called the Swiss Pass until 2014 and available for 1st or 2nd-class travelers, the Swiss Travel Pass offers free unlimited traveling for 3, 4, 8 or 15 consecutive days ( You may purchase the right travel pass depending on the duration of your Swiss Holiday), including free buses, trains, boats and city transport, as well as huge discounts for cable cars, cogwheel trains and funiculars.
It also offers free entrance to museums, and with the Swiss Family Card, children can travel along for free along with adults.
This all-in-one ticket would be perfect if you are planning a lot of traveling during your Switzerland vacation, where you can avoid booking point-to-point tickets, which can be more expensive.
Basically, it allows for ticketless traveling, so you do not need to buy tickets for each trip.
As it allows spontaneous trips at no extra cost, it would be the best option to take if your plans are not set in stone or you just want to be flexible. However, it is only good if you stay 15 days or less, and if it is longer than that, you should get the Swiss Travel Pass Flex.
Switzerland Top Attractions
Switzerland's famous Train with Jungfrau Mountain
Prices and Discounts (Swiss Travel Pass)
Take note that a Swiss Travel Pass is easily available with travel agents in India, can be printed at home, collected at the airport or shipped to your hotel or home, which means prices would vary depending on the reseller.
As for discounts, the Swiss Travel Pass Youth would allow 15% off the pass price for students and young people up to 25 years of age.
There is also the Swiss Family Card that allows children, stepchildren and foster children from 6 to 15 years of age to travel for free if accompanied by at least one parent who has a Swiss Travel Pass.
If not accompanied by a parent, children still get a 50% discount on the pass.
Moreover, children who are 5 and below do not need the pass, so they can travel along for free. As for groups or seniors, take note that the pass does not allow special fares for them.
Zurich Top Attractions
Famous Scenic Train - The Glacier Express in Switzerland
Where It Is Valid
When traveling with the Swiss Travel Pass, you should know its basic rules. Take note that buses and trains to villages are free, and transport into the mountains by funicular, cable car, cogwheel train, etc. is discounted.
Trams, buses and other city transport is free in 75 towns, and so as boats, except for special cruises.
A few rail and bus routes that cross the border also allow free traveling, such as EuroAirport in France to Basel, Martigny to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in France, Brig to Domodossola in Italy.
Of course, the Swiss Travel Pass is valid in Switzerland only, and it does not offer discounted tickets to Austria and Germany, which only applies to the Generalabonnement (GA) that is commonly used by Swiss citizens.
Lucerne Top Attractions
Top Attractions Covered with Swiss Travel Pass
The Swiss Travel Pass covers a lot of top attractions in Switzerland, such as the Jungfraujoch (Europe’s highest train station), where you can get a 25% discount on the train from Grindelwald or Wengen to Jungfraujoch and free for the train to Grindelwald or Wengen. For an excursion to Mount Titlis, there is a huge discount too.
It offers discounted and free train fares to Gornergrat, where you have a great view of the highest peaks of the Alps, including the Matterhorn.
It also offers free rates and discounts on any form of transport to ItSchilthorn (one of the best places to view the Jungfrau massif), Titlis (a mountain in Central Switzerland that you can reach by a revolving cable car), the Glacier Express (the world-famous glacier that covers 300 kilometers across the Swiss Alps) and Mittelallalin (where you will have a spectacular trip that leads to the largest ice grotto and a highest revolving restaurant in the world).
There are still more attractions that are covered by the Swiss Travel Pass, including Pilatus, Rhine Falls, Klein Matterhorn – Glacier Paradise, Stanserhorn, Rochers-de-Naye, Brienzer Rothorn and boat trips to some of the country’s most famous lakes, such as Lakes Geneva, Thun, Lucerne, and Zurich.
St. Moritz Train Station in Switzerland
Validation of Swiss Travel Pass
Make sure that your Swiss Travel Pass is valid before you start traveling. Validation or activation will depend on where you have purchased it.
You can validate the pass yourself if there is no area on it that requires a stamp from the Swiss Railways and if its start date is already printed on it. However, you will still need to fill out a few details, which usually include your name, passport number, and country of residence.
On the other hand, the pass needs to be validated by railway personnel if there is an area that requires a stamp from the Swiss Railways and if its start date is not filled out yet.
If this is the case, you can just go to a staffed Swiss station to take care of it or get it validated by personnel onboard international trains that are bound for Switzerland. Generally, nearly all passes printed at home do not need to be validated, as all information is already on them.
Interlaken Top Attractions
Travel Days
Once you have got your Swiss Travel Pass validated, you can then use it for the number of days indicated in the purchase.
Remember that the time of validation is not relevant. Moreover, take note that travel days are consecutive, so if you do not travel on a certain day, it would still count as a travel day.
For example, if you have purchased a 4-days consecutive Swiss travel pass it is important that after validation you use this pass for the 4 consecutive days.
Glacier Express in Engadin, Canton of Grisons, Switzerland
Final Thought
All in all, the Swiss Travel Pass is a premium travel pass for Switzerland and the best way to travel in Switzerland during your swiss holiday, which allows unlimited traveling throughout the country, where no tickets are required for buses, trains, and boats, and you can just board and enjoy the ride.
In a sense, it is most likely the best choice while booking a Switzerland holiday package for worry-free traveling in this beautiful country.
Matterhorn, Switzerland. Gornergratbahn is a 9 km long gauge mountain rack railway leading from Zermatt
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