[Anonymous]

13 November 2017 at 22:17:50 #813668

Hi everybody, first post in the forum!

My wife and I plan and spending our 1st anniversary visiting Zurich for a day or two followed by some time spent in St. Moritz for some snow activities.

Question:

Part of the trip is seeing the countryside but we are limited by our time. What is the most scenic option by rail from Zurich to St. Moritz, and if there are drawbacks to it what are they?

Thanks!

Michael Megally

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[User]

Reply 1 of 5 • 14 November 2017 at 0:31:55 #871924

Hi Michael, and welcome to MySwissAlps!

>> My wife and I plan and spending our 1st anniversary visiting Zurich for a day or two followed by some time spent in St. Moritz for some snow activities.

If you don’t have a specific reason for staying in Zürich, I would suggest heading straight for St Moritz and spending most of your time there. However, if you happen to be travelling between early April and late June, or between mid-October and mid-December, mountain transport in the St Moritz area will be closed for maintenance, for periods varying from 4 to 6 weeks, and I would not recommend spending that time in St Moritz.

>> Part of the trip is seeing the countryside but we are limited by our time. What is the most scenic option by rail from Zurich to St. Moritz, and if there are drawbacks to it what are they?

The most scenic option would be to follow a small part of the Gotthard Panorama route, followed by a substantial part of the Glacier Express route, i.e. Zürich > Erstfeld > Göschenen > Andermatt > Disentis/Mustér > Reichenau-Tamins > St Moritz. This would take 6 hours 49 minutes.

Two shorter, less scenic routes are (in the order in which I personally prefer for scenery):

Zürich > Landquart > St Moritz (about 3 hours)

For a description of this trip (in the reverse direction, with photos) see my post of Feb 28, 2017 – 4:36 AM on the following page:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/chur-to-st-moritz-via-davos

Zürich > Chur > St Moritz (3 hours 21 minutes)

The stretch from Chur to St Moritz is very scenic.

If you could provide the exact dates of your trip, and what you mean by “snow activities”, we could better tailor our suggestions and advice 🙂

Alpenrose

[User]

Reply 2 of 5 • 14 November 2017 at 23:23:42 #871925

We just booked ourselves five nights in St. Moritz at Badrutt's Palace.

The exact dates in St. Moritz are 1/14-1/19. We plan to stay a few days after in Zurich to explore before heading back to New York. Open to other options as well.

We plan to spend 2-3 days snowboarding/skiing with the rest of the time relaxing/exploring.

Thanks for all your help so far!

[User]

Reply 3 of 5 • 16 November 2017 at 0:58:54 #871926

>> We just booked ourselves five nights in St. Moritz at Badrutt’s Palace.

Wow! One of the most luxurious and expensive hotels in St Moritz! After your trip, I would love to hear about your experience of staying there.

Any time you need to get to or from the railway station for a train or bus, the escalator for Parkhaus Serletta parking garage – which is the longest escalator in Switzerland, and is adjacent to the hotel – will take you down to the station level. Turn left at the bottom of the escalator and walk out of the car park, then you are virtually at the railway station.

>> The exact dates in St. Moritz are 1/14-1/19. We plan to stay a few days after in Zurich to explore before heading back to New York. Open to other options as well. We plan to spend 2-3 days snowboarding/skiing with the rest of the time relaxing/exploring.

If you have not already found this website, you might find it useful:

Ski slopes report

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/winter/en/services/p isten/

The link to the map of Engadine St Moritz on that page is broken, but this link should work:

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/files/berge/Skigebie t_Uebersichtskarte.pdf

While you are in St Moritz, you might like to take a train trip along the Bernina Express route to Tirano, in a panoramic carriage attached to the regional train. In the Swiss Timetable, services with panoramic carriages are denoted by the letters “PR” – examples are the departures from St Moritz at 8:48 and 10:48. Reservations for the panoramic carriages are compulsory and cost CHF 5.

Swiss Timetable

http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

You can make reservations (and buy tickets if necessary) here:

http://www.rhb.ch/en/tickets-travelcards/bernina-express-booking/bernina-express

These links might also be useful:

Winter hiking

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/winter/en/activities /mountain-adventure/winter-hiking/

Tobogganing

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/winter/en/activities /mountain-adventure/tobogganing/

Mountain transport timetables

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/winter/en/activities /sports/skiing-snowboarding/operating -dates-mountain-railways-winter/

Local transport

http://www.engadin.stmoritz.c h/winter/en/services/o effentlicherverkehr/

Alpenrose

[rockoyster]

Reply 4 of 5 • 16 November 2017 at 2:34:05 #871927

LOL. Why take the Parkhaus escalator when you can use the hotels Roller! http://www.badruttspalace.com /en/badrutts-moments/a-royal-arrival

[User]

Reply 5 of 5 • 16 November 2017 at 6:33:37 #871928

Yep, the Roller would definitely be the way to arrive 😀

Alpenrose