MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 9 day itinerary – can we fit Bernina Express in?
-
We are planning to visit Switzerland, arriving Geneva on 18 May, departing same on 27 May. After browsing through this site, we have a pretty good idea of what we would like to do and see. But are not sure if we can fit a ride on Bernina Express in, without spending a lot of time on trains. Tentative itinerary:
18 May – flight arrives Geneva Airport around 8:00am,, travel to Wengen (would we have time to visit old town in Bern on the way?)
19 May – Wengen, Mürren, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald area (stay Wengen)
20 May – same area (weather dependent activities, stay Wengen)
21 May – ? travel towards Chur, stay Chur?
22 May – Bernina Express, Chur to Tirano, BEX bus to Lugano? We are interested in the lakes area and possibly Italy
23 May – ??
24 May – Zermatt and area, stay Zermatt
25 May – Zermatt and area, stay Zermatt
26 May – back to Montreux, Chillon Castle, stay Lausanne or Geneva?
27 May – flight departs Geneva 9:50am
We are from a rural area in Wisconsin, USA, and mostly interested in nature, local culture and relaxation. We are hoping for a few pointers on how we could make the BEX work. But open to other options and suggestions.
Thanks for all the great info on this site!
-
Hi RandJ, and welcome to MySwissAlps,
I think your itinerary looks pretty good. The Bernina Express (including the bus) will take around 7 hours. If you find that that’s too long you could consider a stop in St. Moritz for example or a smaller village like Samedan or Pontresina. And maybe skip your stay in Chur. You can use the Swiss timetable to find out how much time you’ll spend on the train.
If you decide to break up that trip, I would suggest you take the normal regional train that follows exactly the same route but gives you more flexibility in terms of where to get off the train. When you use the timetable, please be advised that the Bernina Express is denoted BEX. For this train you need reservations which you will have to pay twice if you break up the trip.
On May 26th. I would stay in Montreux. From there you have easy access to the airport in Geneva as well.
Thank you Chantal! I believe we are good with the ride from Chur to Tirano. If we didn’t take the bus to Lugano, any suggestions for alternate routing?
And if we do the bus, would you have any suggestions for routing from Lugano to Zermatt? It seems to be a fairly long route and thinking it would be good to break up.
so much to see….so little time!
Alternative routing from Tirano to Lugano or somewhere else entirely?
Other than the Post Bus you’ll need to go down into Italy, almost to Milan before heading back up to Lugano. Timing is pretty similar in the end. Use the Timetable to see all the options.From Lugano to Zermatt I would travel via locarno to Domodossola and on to Visp or Brig and have a stop there before continuing on to Zermatt.
- The thread ‘9 day itinerary – can we fit Bernina Express in?’ is closed to new replies.
