15484 posts
Hi liisabaus,
Welcome to MySwissAlps!
1. Yes, you can travel from Lausanne to Montreux, take the Golden Pass line to Montbovon, switch for Gruyères for the cheese factory and continue to Broc-Fabrique for the chocolate factory. Finally you can return to Montbovon and continue on the Golden Pass line to Interlaken Ost, or take the quicker route via Bulle and Bern. I wouldn’t bother with reservations and rather be flexible on such a long full day.
2. If you’ve also planned the Bernina Express at the other side of the country you will do a fair amount of traveling. Regular tickets are likely the most expensive option. I’d recommend to do the math and compare the Swiss Half Fare Card and 4-day Swiss Travel Pass (July 2 – 5). Additionally you need tickets from Paris to Lausanne and Tirano to Milan.
3. I’m not sure what you meant by the cheaper price. With a Swiss Travel Pass this train would be free, apart from the seat reservations. If you choose to travel on regular trains on the same route you won’t need seat reservations either.
The above links should help you to figure it all out. If not, just let us know.
72625 posts
Thank you Arno
I appreciate your response. I just have a couple of further questions:
1. a) Given that we are travelling in an apparently busy time of the year, we were told that we would need to book. It would be great if you don’t think we need to as we would prefer to have more flexibility on our trip from Lausanne to Interlaken ost with stops on the way to Cheese and Chocolate heaven 🙂 It would be much easier if we can just purchase a ticket at each station rather than pre-booking and reserving seats. Do you think we can risk it?
1 b). Can we see the cheese and chocolate stops without going on the chocolate train? it looks like we can just take the Golden Pass line there too? or then whether we do book the chocolate train and then rather than travelling back to Montreux we would just purchase a ticket from Broc-Fabrique to Montbovon and then get back on to the Golden Pass line to Interlaken from Montbovon. Would this be possible?
2.) We were looking at a swiss half fare card a the travel pass as the possible best option. We’ve booked our travel from Paris to Lausanne already, however we were told that we couldn’t book the regional train from Tirano to Milan, it was just a case of turn up and purchase a ticket at the station.
3.a) If we decide to not purchase a Bernina Express ticket, someone mentioned that there are carts at the back of the Bernina express train that are not as scenic with big windows etc, however still give you great views at a more affordable price. Is this really a possibility?
3 b) If it is a possibility, would we need to reserve these via sbb rail site or can we just get a ticket at the station without reservation? we are just worried due to it being the beginning of July and possibly being busy.
4) finally, I saw on the Swiss rail website that we can transfer our luggage from Lausanne to Interlaken on the day we are travelling the golden pass, just wanted to check if that is the case as it would make it so much easier than carrying our luggage everywhere on the day.
Thank you so much, sorry for the long questions….