Switzerland Travel Forum

How do I get to Paris from Zurich? Should I buy the Euro rail ticket? I'll buy a Swiss Pass to travel within Switzerland. The website www.swisstravelsystem.com does show travel from Zurich to Paris. Is there any way to travel to Paris on a Swiss Pass?

hi

the best way is to take the direct TGV from Zürich to Paris-Gare-de-l'est (Paris east station). There are 3 trains a day, travel time is about 4.5 hours. if you are only planning to travel within switzerland and that one international travel it's not worth it to buy any other pass then the swiss pass. check www.rail.ch for timetables (its the homepage of the swiss federal railways). you can buy the ticket online ont that website to. you will need to collect the ticket at a station in switzerland. the TGV can be booked 3 months in advance, and if you are early (and lucky) enough you can travel zürich-paris for only chf 40.--! btw. using the swiss pass you can select the "GA" reduction when booking the ticket.
have fun!
mabu

You can indeed travel to Paris on the TGV, as the other poster already indicated. However since you already have a Swiss Pass the best thing to do would be to just book a ticket for Basel - Paris via the www.tgv.com website. If you do this sufficiently in advance you will be able to get this ticket quite cheaply.
All Zürich - Paris TGV trains stop in Basel, but there are a few trains to Paris that originate in Basel. If you have a ticket for a TGV to Paris that originates in Zürich you can board that train there, as the part to Basel is covered by your Swiss Pass.

@KVB believe it or not, the ticket with swiss pass is cheaper if bought straight from zürich to paris and not from basel! tgv trains have got market fares, some reduced prices only aply on the whole route, included the reduction "pass 3" wich is valid with a swiss pass.
in general market fare tickets always have to be bought for the whole journey and can't be split up en route to get a cheaper fare! if done so anyway it is possible that a fine has to be payed on board! so in this case that means: if you travel only from zürich to basel and get off the train the swiss pass is valid, if you get on the train in zürich and travel to paris you musst have a ticket originating in zürich! i know train tarifs are sometimes very complicated... i deal with them every day :-)
using the tgv.com website is only good if you have got the possibility to collect the tickets in france before travel, if not use www.rail.ch so you can pick up the tickets in switzerland the prices are the same anyway as rail.ch has a direct link to the french reservation and ticketing system.