The Swiss Travel Pass is a ticket: you pay once for unlimited travel on covered routes on your travel days; seat reservations, supplements and discounted mountain excursions cost extra. The Swiss Half Fare Card is a discount card: it costs CHF 150, lasts one month, and halves or reduces the price of tickets you then buy. To choose, compare the pass price with CHF 150 plus half the full price of each ticket you plan to buy (method below).
Both products are only for people whose permanent residence is outside Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. Prices changed on 1 January 2026: the Swiss Travel Pass (Flex) became on average five percent more expensive, and the Half Fare Card rose from CHF 120 to CHF 150, according to the Swiss Travel System AG price adjustment page.
What is each product?
| Swiss Travel Pass | Swiss Travel Pass Flex | Swiss Half Fare Card | Swiss Family Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Unlimited travel | Unlimited travel | Discount card (you buy each ticket) | Free card for your children |
| Days | 3, 4, 6, 8 or 15 consecutive days | 3, 4, 6, 8 or 15 days of your choice within one month | One month | Valid one month from the date of issue |
| Price | See table below | See table below | CHF 150, 1st and 2nd class (validity 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026) | Free |
| Who | Permanent residents outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein; Youth price for ages 16–24 | Same as pass | Permanent residents outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein; SBB's young-people tab says "aged 16 and over", its adult tab gives no age | Your own children aged 6 to under 16, permanently resident outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein |
The Swiss Family Card is a free add-on for children, and the Saver Day Pass is a separate one-day ticket; neither is a pass in its own right. Both are covered below.
2026 prices
All prices are in CHF. Validity shown on the pages: 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026.
Swiss Travel Pass (consecutive days; validity: 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026)
| Days | Adult (25+) 2nd class | Adult (25+) 1st class | Youth (16–24) 2nd class | Youth (16–24) 1st class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 254 | 405 | 179 | 285 |
| 4 | 309 | 492 | 218 | 346 |
| 6 | 399 | 634 | 282 | 447 |
| 8 | 439 | 697 | 311 | 492 |
| 15 | 499 | 787 | 356 | 557 |
Swiss Travel Pass Flex (days within one month; validity: 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026)
| Days within 1 month | Adult 2nd class | Adult 1st class | Youth 2nd class | Youth 1st class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 289 | 461 | 204 | 325 |
| 4 | 349 | 555 | 246 | 390 |
| 6 | 424 | 674 | 300 | 475 |
| 8 | 459 | 729 | 325 | 514 |
| 15 | 519 | 819 | 370 | 580 |
The Swiss Half Fare Card costs CHF 150 for one month in both classes (validity 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026). The discount works in 1st and 2nd class alike.
Youth means under 25 on the Swiss Travel System AG pages; SBB says at least 16 and under 25. The Youth price is 30% off the adult price. Children under 16 travelling alone get 50% off the adult price of the pass (Flex).
What does each product cover?
Swiss Travel Pass and Flex. Unlimited travel by train, bus and boat, and by panorama train without the seat reservation or supplement. Public transport in more than 90 towns and cities is included. You also get free entry to more than 500 museums. Rigi, Stanserhorn and Stoos mountain excursions are included. Other mountain excursions get up to 50% off, as do SBB RailAway offers. SBB's help page, for the Swiss Travel Pass, lists "a discount of up to 30% on leisure travel offers" instead.
With the Flex, the discounts and free museum entry apply on activated travel days only.
Half Fare Card. It halves or reduces ticket prices for train, bus and boat, panorama trains, mountain railways and gondola lifts, and public transport in over 90 towns and cities. It does not pay for anything by itself: you buy each ticket separately. On short routes the discount can be less than 50% because of the minimum fare. The same applies to discounted offers and combined offers that include a train journey and extra services.
Seat reservations. A seat reservation or supplement is required on certain trains, buses and boats, such as the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, Gotthard Panorama Express and Palm Express. The pages say reservations are not included in the pass price.
Luggage. Swiss Travel Pass holders get up to 50% off selected luggage services for travel between 1 October and 15 December 2026, according to SBB. The Swiss Travel System AG pass page gives the same dates and says "more than 50%" off same-day luggage services.
Mountain railways and cable cars
SBB says the passes give "50% discount on most mountain lifts and railways". The Swiss Travel System AG pages say "up to 50% on many". So there are exceptions, and you need to check the discount for each railway you want. The experience pages for the best-known ones say:
| Mountain | Swiss Travel Pass (Flex) | Swiss Half Fare Card | Notes from the pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigi, Stanserhorn, Stoos | Included | Not listed on these pages | Seat reservations are required or strongly recommended for the Stanserhorn Cableway |
| Gornergrat | 50% | 50% | Priority boarding available |
| Jungfraujoch | 25% | 50% | Seat reservation mandatory May to October, strongly recommended all year |
| Matterhorn Glacier Paradise | 50% | 50% | |
| Titlis | 50% | 50% | TITLIS Rotair closed for maintenance 17 Aug – 11 Dec 2026; access via TITLIS Connect |
| Pilatus | 50% | 50% | Online reservation strongly recommended for the cog railway, which runs May to November |
| Schilthorn | Covered to Mürren, then 50% from Mürren onwards | 50% |
Seat reservations are also listed as required or strongly recommended for the Brienz Rothorn Railway, the Gornergrat Railway, the Jungfrau Railway and the Pilatus Railway.
The Jungfrau Travel Pass is a regional alternative for the Jungfrau region (validity 14.12.2025 – 12.12.2026). The page lists CHF 210 for 3 days and CHF 330 for 8 days, adult 2nd class, excluding seat reservations.
Children and families
- Under 6: travel free, no card needed.
- Aged 6 to under 16, with a parent: the Swiss Family Card is free for your own children when you add them while buying a Swiss Travel Pass, Flex or Half Fare Card. Each child then travels free when accompanied by a parent holding a Swiss Travel Pass / Flex, or a Swiss Half Fare Card plus a ticket. You cannot buy the card alone or later (SBB).
- Under 16, travelling without a parent: 50% off the adult Swiss Travel Pass (Flex) price. On the Half Fare Card side, children aged 6 to 15 not accompanied by a parent pay half price or the minimum fare for their tickets.
- Aged 16 to under 25: 30% off the adult pass price (Youth). SBB also says young people in this age group can use the Half Fare Card instead.
The Family Card also gives free travel on mountain experiences, provided the accompanying parents hold the required tickets, and up to 50% off SBB RailAway offers.
How to decide
The pages cannot know your itinerary, so this guide gives no estimate. Use the method yourself.
- List every leg you plan. Write each train, bus, boat and mountain railway, with the day it happens.
- Find the full price of each ticket. Take train fares from the SBB timetable and mountain railway fares from the railway's own price list.
- Cost the Half Fare Card. Add CHF 150 to half of the total of those full prices.
- Cost the pass. Take the price from the tables above. On a pass, the legs themselves cost nothing extra, but seat reservations and supplements still apply, and mountain railways outside the included ones are discounted, not free.
- Compare the two numbers. Before you do, check three things:
- Do the legs fall on consecutive days, or on separate days spread over a month? Separate days point to the Flex.
- Which mountain railways do you want, and what discount does each get (table above)?
- How many children travel, and what are their ages?
SBB's pages for the Swiss Travel Pass and the Half Fare Card do not say what holding both gives, so this guide treats them as alternatives.
Which should you choose?
Work through these in order and stop at the first one that fits.
- Almost every day is a travel day, and several days are back to back: the Swiss Travel Pass. Unlimited travel is its whole point, and the price covers 3, 4, 6, 8 or 15 consecutive days.
- Your travel days are separated by days in one place: the Swiss Travel Pass Flex. You choose 3, 4, 6, 8 or 15 days within one month and activate each one (see below).
- Only a few journeys, or one or two big excursions: the Half Fare Card at CHF 150. SBB describes it as a good choice for occasional excursions and journeys. Run the comparison above to confirm.
- Jungfraujoch is your main expense: the Half Fare Card gives 50% there; the pass gives 25%. Weigh that against everything else you plan.
- You are staying in the Jungfrau region only: compare the regional Jungfrau Travel Pass with the options above.
- Aged 16 to under 25: use the Youth prices in the tables, or compare the Half Fare Card.
- Travelling with children aged 6 to under 16: whichever product you pick, add them at purchase to get the free Swiss Family Card.
How to buy, show and activate
You can buy up to 11 months before the first day of validity, online at SBB.ch or at a staffed public transport point of sale.
- Buy online. To show the pass in the SBB Mobile app, create a SwissPass login first. On swisspass.ch, choose "Register" and then "No SwissPass". The term "SwissPass" is unrelated to "Swiss Travel Pass". Sign in when you buy.
- Open the app. Download SBB Mobile (iOS and Android) and sign in with the same login. The pass or Half Fare Card appears under the tickets tab, which SBB's buy page calls "Tickets & Travelcards" and its help page "Tickets & SwissPass".
- Know the exceptions. A Flex pass cannot be shown in the app. A pass bought without a login or from another vendor cannot be shown in the app either. A guest purchase of a Half Fare Card arrives as a QR code by e-mail; you can still buy and show half-price tickets in the app. SBB's help page tells guest buyers to print their tickets.
- Add the Half Fare Card to your travelcards. In the app, choose "Enter travelcard", select "Half Fare Travelcard (1/2)" and save. SBB's help page describes another route: Settings, My Travelcards, "Store travelcard manually", then "Half-Fare travelcard (1/2)". Timetable results then show half-price tickets, and you can buy them in the app.
- Activate Flex days. Activate each travel day before the first journey of that day at activateyourpass.com. On a paper pass, enter the date instead. Do not change dates already entered; Switzerland Tourism's terms call that fraudulent abuse.
- Carry your passport or an official ID card. The pass, Half Fare Card and Family Card are only valid with it. Show the original: copies and phone photos are not valid.
A pass is valid from midnight on the first day until 5:00 on the day after the last day (Switzerland Tourism). Tickets are personal and not transferable. Passes printed on security paper are not refunded or replaced if lost or stolen.
Refunds
Switzerland Tourism's terms say:
- Tickets are only refundable if returned to the issuing office before the first day of validity.
- A partial refund for a Swiss Travel Pass or Flex is possible only after illness or accident, when you present it at the place where the journey stops and bring confirmation from a railway office.
- A Half Fare Card gets no partial refund.
Each seller can set its own cancellation terms for orders placed with it, so read them where you buy.
Half Fare Card for visitors vs the SBB Half Fare Travelcard
These are two different products. SBB's resident page lists the Half Fare Travelcard separately.
| Swiss Half Fare Card | SBB Half Fare Travelcard | |
|---|---|---|
| For | Visitors with permanent residence outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein | Residents |
| Price | CHF 150 | Adults: CHF 190 first year (CHF 170 loyalty price); ages 16 to under 25: CHF 120 (CHF 100 loyalty price) |
| Validity | One month | One year |
| Renewal | Not mentioned on the visitor pages | Indefinite contract, renews automatically after a year |
| Where to buy | The "guests from abroad" pages on SBB.ch | The resident pages on SBB.ch |
As a visitor, buy the Swiss Half Fare Card from the guests-from-abroad pages.
Day Pass and Saver Day Pass. These are separate tickets, not Swiss Travel Pass products. The Saver Day Pass is bought in advance (at least one day and up to six months before) and is subject to quota. It is valid in the GA Travelcard area until 5:00 the next day. It costs from CHF 29 (2nd class) or CHF 49 (1st class) with a Half Fare Travelcard, and from CHF 52 (2nd) or CHF 88 (1st) without one. The Day Pass for the Half Fare Travelcard costs CHF 78 (2nd) or CHF 128 (1st); from 13 December 2026 it costs CHF 81 and CHF 134. That page says it requires a Half Fare Travelcard, and it is valid in the GA Travelcard area on the selected date until 5:00 the next day. SBB's Swiss Half Fare Card page says holders buy (Saver) Day Passes at half price or a reduced price, but the Day Pass pages give no separate figure for Swiss Half Fare Card holders, so use the price SBB.ch shows at purchase. Swiss Travel System AG's tickets page lists a "Day Pass for the Swiss Half Fare Card/Half Fare travelcard" without a price.
Need flights or a hotel quote?
This guide covers the rail side only. If you also need flights or a hotel for the trip, contact us with your travel dates for a quote.
