Getting to Zermatt & Swiss Train Tips

I have to say one of the best things existent in Switzerland are the trains. They are on time, clean, and abundant. Plus I love that you can buy all your tickets online and can receive in the form of e-tickets (for example the French SNCF system, they only offer e-tickets for selected lines; otherwise you must buy that at the counter or recieve them by post mail). The only thing is that they are quite expensive.

If you're staying in Switzerland for over 3 months or you're traveling extensively for about a month, I highly recommend you buy the  half card or demi-tarriff. You pay 180 CHF for one year or 120 CHF for one month all train lines are half off. For regional transportation (for example, in Geneva all TPG lines are 2 CHF instead of 3 CHF). Of course, it sounds a bit expensive but if you think about it, a round trip ticket from Geneva to Zurich costs 174 CHF on 2nd class. The half card will cost you 87 CHF, hence you save 87 CHF. Therefore, if you plan to make 3 round trips to Zurich, you already made up for the card itself.

Of course, there are other tips to obtain cheaper tickets. One is to use the supersaver option when you buy you tickets online. When you choose your time for your trains, scroll down and you will see the supersaver options below. The train lines become a bit more limited, but still train tickets are about 20-40% cheaper. And yes, your half card also applies here giving you a bigger discount! For example, my ticket from Geneva to Bern was 16.40CHF. With half card, it will normally cost me 25 CHF, and normal price would be 50CHF! So in the end, I got a 70% discount!

Another option is to buy a 1 day travel card which would be 146 CHF, 73 CHF if you have a half  card. This will allow you to travel anywhere for the whole day for 73 CHF so for example if you want to make a quick trip to Zurich to do some shopping and come back the same day, it's much more economical. And, if you plan to leave after 9am, it's even cheaper! 106 CHF and 58 CHF, so plan your trip accordingly ;)

Going back to my trip to Zermatt, as I've mentioned before supersaver tickets are indeed cheap but the train lines are a bit limited. Hence, our train to Zermatt awas at 6:07am! Waking up like zombies at 4am, we started our journey to the mountains.

We changed trains at Visp and onboard the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn which gave us a first glimpse of the beautiful mountain landscapes of Switzerland!

And we're here! Let the magic begin!