🚠 Summer guest cards in the Alps 2026: lifts, swimming and transport included

A family cable car ride in the Alps often costs more than €100. Add a lido, a boat trip and a museum, and the day costs more than the room. Yet hundreds of hosts give their guests a card that covers all of it. Sometimes free, sometimes for a few euros. The catch is that every valley has its own card with its own rules.

So we listed 97 summer cards from across the Alps. Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, northern Italy, Slovenia, the French Alps and Liechtenstein. Prices are for the 2026 season and were checked on the official websites in October 2026.

Three kinds of card

Included with your stay. Your host hands you the card on arrival. You pay nothing for it. The most generous ones include unlimited lifts, for example Ötztal, Saalbach or Kleinwalsertal. The catch: they only work at participating hosts. Look for the card's logo when you book.

Small fee. You pay a few euros per night or per day. Typical examples are Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis (€7.50 a night) or the Multi Pass in the Portes du Soleil (€4 a day).

Paid pass. You buy it yourself, even without staying in the region. Examples are the Kärnten Card, Dolomiti Supersummer or the Swiss Travel Pass. It pays off when you travel a lot and over a wide area.

Map and filters

Choose what matters to you. The map and the list update at once. Tap a point on the map to see the card's details, with links to the official site and the brochure.

How to choose

Work out the price per day. A paid card for €140 for 6 days costs €23 a day. One cable car ride is often €30–50. If you ride a lift at least every other day, the card pays off.

Watch for "once" and "daily". Some cards give you a lift ride only once per stay. Others once a day. The best are unlimited. The "Lifts" filter tells them apart.

Children. Cards included with your stay are given to children too. With paid passes, small children usually ride free, often up to 6 or 8 years. Set your child's age to see where you pay nothing.

Minimum nights. Bregenzerwald wants 3 nights, Engadin 2, Bled 3. For a long weekend you may not get the card at all.

When validity starts. Ötztal is only valid from the second day. In Zell am See in summer from 3 pm on arrival day. Saastal and Tannheimer Tal count either the arrival day or the departure day, not both.

Where cards save the most

Austria has the densest network of cards included with your stay. Tyrol and Salzburg lead. Carinthia relies on the paid Kärnten Card and free transport with the guest card.

Switzerland is expensive, but the cards make up for it. Saastal, Engadin and Arosa give free lifts from the first night. Families benefit because children under 16 travel free with the Swiss Family Card.

Italy works differently. The Südtirol Guest Pass covers almost all public transport. For lifts in the Dolomites you buy the Supersummer or a local card such as the Gardena Card. It is the only one that also works on the Seceda.

France relies on paid passes. The MONT BLANC Multipass opens the Aiguille du Midi and the Skyway. In Val d'Isère the pedestrian lifts are free, even without a card.

Slovenia and Liechtenstein have cards mainly for transport and admissions. Lifts play only a small part.

Check the conditions before you book. Cards change every season. We could not verify the entries marked with a warning from an official source.

Where we found nothing

For the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and the southern French Alps we found no regional summer card with lifts. There you pay for lifts one by one or with a lift pass.