3 days in mid-January Swiss travel advice
A traveler is planning a trip to Switzerland with their 15-year-old sibling from January 10th to the 13th. They want to spend time in Zermatt, possibly experience some mountain railways, and seek advice on the best travel pass for their itinerary.
- Consider staying 2 nights in Zermatt for ample mountain scenery and activities.
- The Swiss Travel Pass is recommended for convenience, with a Children's co-travelcard for your sister to save on travel costs.
- Make sure to check rail travel time to avoid rushing your plans, allowing time for changes due to weather.
- Zermatt is best approached with a flexible itinerary, possibly including a day trip to Bern or Montreux.
AI-generated summary-
Hi all!
I am hoping to travel to Switzerland second week of January with my 15 year old sibling for 3nights arriving into Geneva airport around 10am from the UK.
Now we have a very ambitious (I think) itinerary in mind… we would like to visit: Zermatt (1night/day) possibly experience some of the glacier express route.. from here not sure maybe Grindelwald/Interlaken/Bern ?
We want to experience a mixture of cable/train/ journey, scenery & mountain/snow. Any advice on what travel pass would be best for me and my 15 year old sis and which route to take from Geneva (arriving 10th & flying back from Geneva on 13th jan)
thanks in advance!
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I would forget about the Glacier Express if I were you, it’s a specific train aimed (mainly) at non European tourists and would not really be worth the hassle of reservations and supplementary fares for the sort of trip you are planning
Just a visit to Zermatt will get you all the mountain scenery and mountain railways you will need. Sticking to the one place (with easy connections from Geneva) might be more relaxing than trying to cram everything else in.
Attached are some pictures of Zermatt (It’s my favourite resort in Switzerland – I’ve visited for skiing regularly over the years from Geneva, where I have relatives). You can see my left arm in the picture ‘scenic 3’!
Hi Reezy121 and welcome to MySwissAlps!
To help you plan your trips out, use the Swiss railways timetable here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
It will show you how long it will take to get between towns and any mountains you are looking at.
If you are mostly looking for mountains and snow while here (and your departure flight on the 13th isn’t in the morning) I’d stay 1 or 2 nights in Zermatt and then 1 or 2 nights in perhaps Grindelwald (http://www.myswissalps.com/gr indelwald). Grindelwald to Geneva airport is about 3.5 hours. If you decide you’d like to visit Bern it takes about 2 hours direct to Geneva airport.
As for rail passes, it will really depend on your day to day itinerary. For convenience and ease of use you can’t beat the Swiss Travel Pass for yourself. The Swiss Half Fare Card may also work out well. For your sister you can buy the Children’s co-travelcard to cover her travel with you. http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/discounts
Once you’ve set your travel itinerary each day you can compare the ticket costs to rail pass costs here: http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass
Zermatt does look stunning and I did consider spending the full trip there however I was hoping to squeeze something else.. ah thank you for the pics and appreciate the advice given!!
Thank you I think Zermatt & grindelwad/Bern might be a good shout! Are they quite similar in terms of scenery. I don’t mind doing snow/mountain region then the second part exploring another area. Any recommendations of where else to visit which is no more than 3-3.5 hours away from Geneva airport? It’s my first time there and feels like I need atleast 2 weeks to fully appreciate this place, so much to see!
As for travel … day passes are cheap but don’t cover cable /mountain journeys am I right? So for a journey from Geneva airport to Zermatt, then experience the mountain rail journey and lift would be worth Swiss travel card do you think? sorry for all the questions lol
Hi Reezy,
Only one night in Zermatt would leave you with an afternoon and a morning at best. That’s quite limited, but it all depends on priorities of course. Another option to consider is Montreux with a visit to Rochers-de-Naye. That’s between Geneva and Zermatt so at least you wouldn’t be taking detours and maximize sightseeing time 🙂 Two nights Zermatt and one in Montreux could work. Choices, choices…
If you want to ‘squeeze something else in’ you need to give me more info on you flight times – so far you have said that you are arriving GVA 10th and leaving 13th. It depends greatly what time on each of those dates that you are due to land and take off again.
It will take you roughly half a day to get from the plane at GVA to Zermatt, and vice versa, so that’s one ‘day’ gone already – hence my suggestion to stick to one place.
Assuming you have time on the 13th to get back to GVA, that leaves 11th and 12th as full days. You can ‘do’ Zermatt stuff in 1 day, but if the weather is poor that day is lost and you need the 2nd day as a back up.
One option is to stay in Zermatt for 3 nights. The two full days could be Zermatt and a day trip to Bern. I’ve done that in the past when I knew the mountain weather was due to be poor – so I had a day off ski-ing and went to Bern, where the wether was better as it was away from the cloudy mountains.
We will be arriving in Geneva at 10am then will take the next train into zermatt. I have decided to stay the Thursday and Friday in zermatt, then Saturday morning ennroute back to Geneva do a trip to montreux/Vevy however if bern is nicer then I guess we can go there ? I don’t mind as long as we can make our way back to Geneva by the evening .. Sunday our flight back is at 11am.
Also one thing I can’t get my head around is the which travel pass is best , I am getting super saver tickets for the train journey to zermatt for a good price but my worry is incase we don’t travel for that particular time or there is a change of plan.. also in zermatt we want to the train trip and the cable which adds upto to quite abit. I have my 15 year old sister travelling as well so thinking of best travel pass combo .. £179 seems a lot for a Swiss pass so more inclined towards the half fare.. any input on this matter appreciated thank you! 😃
Hi Reezy,
You can catch a train to Geneva from any Swiss town you like. Just use the timetable from my previous post to plan the trip and see how long it would take. Bern (http://www.myswissalps.com/be rn) and Montreux (http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux) are both very nice towns to explore.
Even though the Swiss Half Fare Card is a cheaper purchase price, it may (or may not) be cheaper overall versus the Swiss Travel Pass.
It is best to decide on all trips you will probably make and compare costs and discounts to find the most economical passes for you and your sister. You can find our detailed instructions on how to do that on my last post to you as well.
Ok thanks I will have a look and again thank you everyone I have a much clearer plan of action in mind !!
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