The Bernina option

But let’s say you are in St. Moritz. As one Cheapo, commenting on our post last week, nicely put it “the Bernina route is more amazing and a lot cheaper.”

Tirano (via the Bernina Pass) makes a superb day out from St. Moritz. Trains run hourly and a return ticket from St. Moritz to Tirano costs 58 Swiss Francs ($68). If you have a Eurail or InterRail Pass valid in Switzerland, you’ll ride for free. By contrast, a return run to Zermatt on the Glacier Express is 338 Swiss Francs ($398) and neither InterRail nor Eurail will get you a free ride.

If you do ride the Bernina route and it’s a fine day, opt for the 10:45 a.m. departure from St. Moritz which until August 31 carries open-top carriages. Allow a couple of hours for lunch in Tirano, where the Ristorante Sale e Pepe (right by the station) is a great choice, and take the 3:40 p.m. train back to St. Moritz.

Zürich to Lake Geneva

But let’s assume you are a real rail-hound, keen on long journeys and want to see a lot of Switzerland through the train window. If you are in any of the main cities, and are pressed for time, you could do better than the Glacier Express.

Our favorite Swiss rail route is the seven-hour journey from Zürich via Lucerne, Interlaken and Gstaad to Lausanne on Lake Geneva. The journey is often dubbed the GoldenPass route. It requires changes of train along the way (as the track gauge switches from standard to narrow and back again).

For a map and a table showing the main stages of the journey from Zürich to Lausanne, just follow this link. Distance-wise, this route is much the same length as the Glacier Express, though the overall journey time is about an hour shorter.

The one-way fare from Zürich to Lausanne by this route is 89 Swiss Francs ($104). The Swiss Pass, InterRail and Eurail Pass are all valid for the entire route. And there are no nasty supplements. Major agents such as Rail Europe UK or their US representative can give helpful advice on ticket deals and packages or simply buy your ticket on the Swiss Railways Web site and hop on the next train.

Route highlights

The first part of the ride south from Zürich is tame, but south from Lucerne the hills close in and the train climbs steeply to a summit station at Brünig-Hasliberg, which happens to have in the station building what must surely rate as one of Europe finest bric-a-brac shops. With trains running every hour, it is easy to break your journey.

From Brünig, it’s downhill all the way to Meiringen, a town that claims to be the birthplace of meringue (the confection rather than the Caribbean musical genre of the same name). Then west to Interlaken and Spiez — with fine views over the Thunersee — before climbing the Simmen Valley.

Hills roll into more hills and the train traverses several ridges, passing the resort town of Gstaad, before a spectacular descent down to Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. The final part of the journey to Lausanne traverses the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, a wonderful sweep of ancient villages and vineyards that is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Options

From Lausanne, you can continue to Geneva, with five fast trains each hour taking about 40 minutes. Or you can return north on the main line with trains that run every 30 minutes to Berne (1 hr 10 mins travel time) and Zürich (2 hrs 10 mins travel time).

If you want to spread the journey over several days, obvious places for overnight stops are Lucerne, Interlaken, Gstaad and Montreux.

The post Switzerland by Train: Alternatives to the Glacier Express appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Riding the Glacier Express in Switzerland

Yes, the 180-mile journey from St. Moritz to Zermatt is a very fine trip, though hardly the express run implied by the name. The Glacier Express journey takes a shade under eight hours, and the route’s summer season is now in full swing. Departures from St Moritz are twice daily through September 25, with the schedule dropping back to one departure daily until late October, when the glitzy trains with their panorama coaches are shunted off into the sidings for a fall break.

A panoramic view aboard the Glacier Express. Photo: Mark & Gideon

The route: Tunnels, bridges and gorges galore

Travelers have a tendency to flock to well-known sights, and the Glacier Express, which has been particularly heavily promoted in the North American and Japanese markets, now features on the “must do” list of many non-Europeans visiting Switzerland.

Don’t misunderstand us. It is a super journey, but we are far from sure that it is the best on offer in Switzerland. The views while the train is in 191 tunnels are not great. And it would be difficult to contrive a route of similar length elsewhere in Switzerland that is so utterly devoid of lakes. The Glacier Express is very much a route in the mountains, much of it through deep gorges or barren high terrain.

Some who know the route well comment that the two stretches of industrial valley scenery (around Reichenau and later at Visp) come as a rather welcome relief from dark, forbidding crags and brooding snowfields.

Go local

Our issue with the Glacier Express is that it is promoted outside Europe as an up-market “exclusive” tourist experience with a price tag to match. That drives away the locals. And there are plentiful local trains that serve exactly the same route which have sensible prices (no hefty tourist supplements, no need to reserve seats in advance) and are often very much less busy than the Glacier Express.

Seven daily departures from St. Moritz on those regular local trains provide connections through to Zermatt in just over eight hours — so just 20 minutes slower than on the so-called “express.” The only downside with the local services is that you do need to change trains along the way, but the connections work perfectly in a way that only the Swiss can manage.

And the big advantage of the local trains is that on some of them you can open the windows (great for photography, and also a chance to enjoy the fresh mountain air).

The fares

It is not that locals despise the idea of traveling with tourists. But the prices drive them away. The one-hour stretch of the Glacier Express from Disentis to Andermatt is in our view one of the finest parts of the entire route. The trains chugs up over the wild Oberalp Pass. On the local trains that ply this route, generally once each hour, the one-way fare is 19 Swiss Francs (about $23). But use the Glacier Express — which isn’t any faster on this stretch—for the same journey, and the fare hikes up to 52 Swiss Francs ($62).

The regular second-class fare to ride the full Glacier Express route from St. Moritz to Zermatt this summer is 169 Swiss Francs ($202). This includes the compulsory seat reservation fee.

Travellers with a Swiss Pass may ride the Glacier Express by just paying a 33 Swiss Franc reservation fee. Holders of InterRail and Eurail Passes receive a discount, with fares for travel this summer as follows (always including the seat reservations): Eurail passes 94.50 Swiss Francs ($113), Adult InterRail passes 115 Swiss Francs ($137.50), Youth InterRail passes 74 Swiss Francs ($88.50).

Is it worth the ride?

In our view, it’s a fun day out and certainly a journey through magnificent scenery. If you are tempted, ride the local trains on the same route which have far more character. But eight hours is a long time, and the unremitting diet of gorges and glaciers can pall. There are, we think, other rail journeys in Switzerland which are cheaper, shorter, and—by virtue of being more varied—much more appealing.

Next week we shall review one of our personal favourites.

Have you boarded the Glacier Express?

Share your Glacier Express experience with us in the comments section. How much did you pay for your ticket? Was it worth it?

The post Switzerland by Train: Is the Glacier Express worth the ticket price? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.