As we move into the cold of January, it’s less than five months until we go to Switzerland.  It seems like we were just talking about going and we’re already moving into train ticket buying time.

Switzerland has an awesome rail system.  You can practically travel  anywhere in the country via rail.  For a vacationing foreigner, they make it very easy to get around by selling a Swiss Rail Pass.  I’ll try to attach some information on the passes for anyone interested.  

Basically, once you have the pass, you can just go to the train station and hop on a train.  There are a few really scenic areas that have special trains with panoramic viewing carriages. For those, you need to make a reservation ahead of time. Your pass also covers transportation on boats, trams and buses, plus it provides free admission to 100’s of museums throughout the country.

We have chosen to get a 15 day flex pass. That will allow us to travel any fifteen days during a 30 day period. Based on our plans, it fits us perfectly. If we decide that we want to travel an extra day or go someplace we haven’t planned for, we can always buy a single ticket for that day. Comparing prices to buying our tickets as we need them, there is a tremendous savings by buying the pass.

Our next task will be to make the reservations for the panoramic trains, but that won’t be until 90 days before the trip. In the meantime, I might try my hand at yodeling! You just never know when it could come in handy in the mountains.