Munich to Switzerland for Bernina Express route
Linda from Ohio is planning a two-week trip to Switzerland, spending one week in the Lauterbrunnen/Wengen area and another in Lugano/Tirano/Chur, where she'll ride the Bernina Express. She’s looking for advice on whether to take one of two train routes that connect Munich to her destinations, and if there’s a better option.
- Use the SBB Mobile app to check train schedules, find fares, and buy tickets easily.
- The Bernina Express journey is accessible regardless of your chosen route, as both options have good connections.
- Make sure to review travel passes for cost-effectiveness, especially the Swiss Travel Pass, which can save you money if you plan several trips.
AI-generated summary-
Coming from Munich to Switzerland by train. We will spend 1 week in the Lauterbrunnen/Wengen area and also another week in the Lugano/Tirano/Chur area while riding the Bernina Express. Would train connections be better to (1.) come from Munich to Chur and ride Bernina north to south; stay in Tirano; take Bernina Express bus to Lugano and stay a night; take train to Zurich and then on to Lauterbrunnen OR (2.) take train directly to Zurich from Munich; proceed to Lauterbrunnen/Wengen for 1 week; get train to Zurich or Lugano ?; get Bernina Express bus at Lugano to Tirano and Bernina train in Tirano to Chur. General question is, are the trains, connections etc. easier access, more times , more direct with itinerary 1 or 2 above? OR do you recommend a different way?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Linda from Ohio-USA
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Hello Linda and Welcome to MySwissAlps,
When are you travelling? Where are you departing Switzerland?
See http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/germany.
I would get a Eurocity train from Munich to Zurich but change at St Margrethen for Chur. Overnight there and take the Bernina Express the next day.
You may be interested in these trip reports – Bernina Express ( bit.ly/2GEUfob) and Lugano (bit.ly/2lMd2Cr) and Gotthard Panorama Express (bit.ly/2lOio0g).
I strongly recommend using the SBB Mobile app (bit.ly/2ICIUHi) for checking train, bus, boat and cable way timetables, finding fares* and buying tickets on-line if required. In the unlikely event you don’t have a device capable of running the app then you can use the timetable on the SBB website (bit.ly/2HH1U7B). If you are not familiar with using the SBB timetable it is worth first reading the instructions at http://www.myswissalps.com/timetable.
* The SBB website shows half-fare prices by default, the mobile app allows you to nominate whether to show full or half-fares (by editing the passenger details in settings) and is also smart enough to offer you the Saver Day Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass) if that offers the best fare. The app can also display a platform map (at least at the larger stations) to help you make connections. You can also easily filter modes of transport (eg bus or ship).
The app (or website) will always show the fastest, most direct routes unless you tell it you want to go a longer way round by including other stations to go VIA. For example, if you wanted to follow the Golden Pass route you would need to search the SBB app looking for Luzern to Montreux via Interlaken and Zweisimmen.
Based on your personal itinerary you should read “How to choose the best travel pass” (http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass), download the handy spreadsheet calculator and do the math. The spreadsheet also includes links to the “Where it’s valid” page for all available passes. Be sure to check those pages for each pass you are considering. Study the map AND read all the text on those pages to fully understand what is covered by the respective pass.
Oh my…Thank you so much for such a helpful, detailed reply. To answer your questions we’ll be traveling from the US from August 22 thru October 1. Planned to go to Munich first and travel by rental car for 2 1/2 weeks including Rothenburg, Fussen, Garmictch, Salzburg and down to Bolzano. Then back to Munich to get a train to Switzerland for 2 1/2 weeks and use train exclusively (plus Benina bus?) in Switzerland to include Bernina Express, Lugano, Lucerne and Lauterbrunnen and Wengen for 1 week hiking.We are using so many websites to try to make this work. SBB and myswissalps are both very helpful ….we need to really dig in to both. It’s a little hard to be sure we’re picking the right route(s) however, we had picked the exact route you recommend to Chur so you reconfirming it gives us a good level of confidence. It’s a little scary never having been to either Germany or Switzerland before. We travel by train in Italy and do just fine at it. Thanks again for you complete and prompt reply!
Your itinerary will pretty much work either way round. Remember that Switzerland is a small country (and there are often several ways to get between two places). Worth remembering that, at a push one can travel the length and breadth of Switzerland in one day.
Switzerland’s passenger railway network is in complete contrast to that in the US and Canada. You only have to compare my journeys in Switzerland and USA in 2019. In Switzerland in December I covered much of the middle of Switzerland in one day, and then covered plenty of the west of Switzerland the next day (whilst visiting family). On every route I travelled there were trains every 30 minutes throughout the day.
Compare that to August when I did the train from New York to just south of Toronto. There is just one train each day, and in 11 hours travel I didn’t even leave the US State of New York
Made me laugh!!! It would be nice to have a more extensive train network in our country. We traveled on the Rocky Mountaineer through BC and Alberta Canada. Beautiful country, lots of great hiking and easy to do. Of course that was a sightseeing train ride but still…..in the US hard to put it together. Thanks again for your reassurance and confidence building remarks.
If you can handle trains in Italy the Swiss trains will be an absolute breeze. And they are on time (99.99%). 😎
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