Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 152 Transcript

Swiss Travel Pass Promotion: Get FREE Travel Days On Your Trip to Switzerland

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you. I’m your host, Carolyn Schönenberger, the founder of holidaystoswitzerland.com.

And in each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You’ll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems. We’ll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss Vacation Planning easy. So, let’s dive in.

Hello. Welcome to this week’s episode of the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. Are you planning to visit Switzerland during autumn or winter? If you are, I’ve got some great news. A fantastic Swiss Travel Pass promotion has just been announced.

In this episode, I’ll give you all the details of the promotion, as well as plenty of reasons why visiting Switzerland during autumn or winter is a great idea. Plus, I have some updates to share about the other Swiss rail passes for tourists and what’s changing for 2026.

But let’s start with the Swiss Travel Pass free travel days promotion. You can unlock free travel days with this Swiss Travel Pass promotion. When you purchase a four-day Swiss Travel Pass, you’ll get one additional travel day for free. And if you purchase an eight-day Swiss Travel Pass, you’ll get two additional travel days for free.

Now, both these offers are only available for the first class Travel Pass and for consecutive days of travel. The passes can be used for travel between the first of October 2025, and the 31st of March 2026. Having said that, the 31st of March can be the first day that your pass starts. So if you’re traveling early April, as long as your travel pass starts prior to or on the 31st of March 2026, you can take advantage of this offer.

Now the promotion is running until the 30th of November 2025, so you’ll need to make sure you buy your travel pass before that date to take advantage of these free travel days. All the regular benefits of the Swiss Travel Pass apply, which, as well as all public transport in Switzerland, includes three free mountain excursions: that’s Mt. Stanserhorn, Mt. Rigi, and Stoos, all in the Lake Lucerne region, and 50% off most other mountain excursions in Switzerland.

The Swiss Museum Pass is also included, giving you free admission to over 500 different museums and castles across the country. And if you’re traveling with children under 16, you also qualify for the free Swiss Family card. All that’s included with the Swiss Travel Pass. So, just to remind you that this promotion is only valid with the four-day and eight-day first class consecutive day passes. It’s not valid for second class passes or for the Swiss Travel Pass Flex.

The promotion ends on the 30th of November this year. So, check out the link in the show notes to purchase your Swiss Travel Pass before that date and take advantage of free travel days.

Now you may be wondering if you’ll still get good value by traveling across Switzerland with a Swiss Travel Pass during autumn or winter. Perhaps you’ve heard that some things close down at that time of year, and you’re wondering if you’re still going to be able to take advantage of all the benefits of the Swiss Travel Pass. Well, I can tell you, yes, you can.

If you’re traveling during autumn, or fall to our North American listeners, there are plenty of highlights in Switzerland. Firstly, you’re going to see those beautiful autumn colors as the foliage on the trees turns from green to yellow and orange and red. It’s just gorgeous, so that is definitely a highlight. You may be in Switzerland to see one of the Alpine processions when the farmers bring their cattle and the goats down from the high alpine pastures and dress them up in beautiful floral decorations and put big bells on them. It’s a great spectacle as they come back down into the village in autumn.

Also, there’s a lot of wine festivals. It’s the perfect weather for hiking. It’s usually not too cold. The heat of the summer has gone, so it’s perfect weather for hiking. And of course, at the end of November, the Christmas markets start for the season.

Now, if you are there during October and November, you can take advantage of the free mountain excursions that the Swiss Travel Pass offers. You could visit Mt. Rigi and ride on Europe’s oldest cogwheel railway. You could head up to Stoos and ride on the world’s steepest funicular. Do keep in mind that it won’t be operating this year between mid-November and early December. Or, you could take advantage of riding on the double-decker open-air cable car up to Mt. Stanserhorn, which is absolutely fantastic. It’s open until November 23rd.

Cruises on most lakes are still operating. And of course, those premium panoramic trains included with the Swiss Travel Pass as well. There are plenty of museums and castles that you can visit right across the country too.

If you’re visiting during winter, some of the highlights include the Christmas markets, beautiful snowy landscapes, especially when you see them from one of those panoramic trains. Winter sports, and that includes hiking, so if you’re not into skiing or sledging, hiking is fantastic during winter. Or, what about soaking in one of those beautiful thermal spas and just soaking away all your worries? And of course, again, there are museums and castles, chocolate shops, cheese factories. There’s everything on offer for you.

Again, you could visit for free Mt. Rigi, Stoos, which opens again in early December. You could cruise on one of the beautiful lakes in Switzerland, except Lake Brienz, which has boat rides only until early December. And of course, those premium panoramic trains are mostly operating, the exceptions being the Glacier Express, which has a break from mid-October to early December, and the Gotthard Panorama Express, which ends its season in mid-October.

As I mentioned earlier, all public transport is included in the Swiss Travel Pass. So wherever you want to go right across the country, you can get there with just the one ticket. Show your Swiss Travel Pass to the ticket inspector on any of the trains across the country. Have it at hand when you’re riding on a bus, on a boat, on a tram in the city. That’s all you need. It’s super simple and very convenient.

Prices for the Swiss Travel Pass are increasing by 5% in 2026. So if your travel commences after the first of January, you will pay the higher price for your Swiss Travel Pass. But if your trip starts no later than March 31st, 2026, and you buy your pass before November 30th this year, you will still qualify for the free travel days offer. So keep that in mind.

There will be some changes to most other Swiss rail passes for 2026 too, including a price increase on the Swiss Half Fare Card. Now, I won’t go into details about each of the changes to the different passes right now, but you’ll find the details about all those changes in the show notes for this episode, along with a link to take advantage of the Swiss Travel Pass free days offer.

If you’d still like to know more about the different Swiss rail passes and the point-to-point tickets and which one you should buy, you might like to listen to episode 137, where I went into more detail about each of the different options available. And on the holidays to switzerland.com website, I’ve got articles about each of those rail passes and ticket types and each of the panoramic trains, so you might find reading those helpful as well.

And if you haven’t listened to Episode 148 yet, do go back and have a listen to it. I covered train etiquette in Switzerland and the do’s and don’ts for riding Swiss trains like a local. I’ve also got some other resources that you might find helpful if you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy a Swiss Travel Pass or one of the other rail passes. There’s a Free Rail Pass cheat sheet, which you can grab and have a quick look and see which options might be best for you.

And I also have a Swiss Rail Pass comparison calculator, an online tool. You just put in your itinerary from the drop-down menu and choose a couple of passes that you think might work for your trip, and it will compare the prices with the different passes and come up with an answer for you. So, the links for those articles and resources and previous podcast episodes will be in the show notes as well. And those show notes can be found at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode152.

Don’t forget to take advantage of free travel days with the Swiss Travel Pass promotion, if your travel in Switzerland is starting on or before the 31st of March 2026. Make sure you buy your pass before the 30th of November this year so you can enjoy more of Switzerland for longer.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I look forward to chatting with you next week with more Swiss travel tips and inspiration. And until then, Tschüss!

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.