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Hi, I’m a solo female traveler coming Switzerland for the first time. I will be staying at Charmonix for UTMB (trail race) before taking a train to Zermatt after the race. My goal will be soaking up the beautiful views, so I planned my trip around scenic trains and hiking trails. Would appreciate if anyone can help to review my itinerary and let me know if it’s realistic or I should make adjustments? Thanks in advance!
D1
- morning trains from Charmonix to Zermatt
- afternoon to Gorner Gorge
D2
- Hike from Zermatt to Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge and back
D3
- morning to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
- afternoon to Gronegrat
D4
- Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz, overnight at St Moritz
D5
- Bernina Express (train) from St Moritz to Tirano
- 1-2 hrs at Tirano
- Bernina Express (bus) from Tirano to Lugano
- overnight at Lugano
D6
- Gotthard Panorama Express from Lugano to Lucerne
- afternoon to Mt Pilatus
- overnight in Lucerne
D7
- morning to Gorge (not very sure about this yet)
- afternoon train from Lucerne to Zurich airport
- evening flight
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Hello Xrysx and welcome to MySwissAlps,
What time of year are you travelling?
D2 might be a challenge. The bridge is 6-7 hours from Zermatt – http://www.zermatt.ch/en/Medi a/Attractions/The-Charles-Kuonen-Suspension-Bridge.
D6 if you take the full Gotthard Panorama Express including boat trip you don’t arrive in Luzern until late afternoon.
Rest of the plan looks good.
What Gorge did you have in mind for D7? The Aar Orge? http://www.aareschlucht.ch/en /Welcome#.XEAu9i1L3OQ
Hello rockoyster,
thanks for replying! I’ll be there the 1st week of Sep 🙂
D2, would it work if I take a train from Zermatt to Randa then hike to/fro there?
D6, ah….so I guess I should reserve the whole day for Gotthard Panoroma Express.
D7 Aar Orge seems far to go/fro? Not sure if I can make it in time back at early afternoon to take train to airport? Or is there any alternative activity to do in the morning, or perhaps I can go Mt Pilatus in the morning instead?
D2 – I guess so. Certainly a more manageable hike.
D6 – You will arrive in Luzern just before 3:00pm. The last cable car down from Pilatus Kulm to Kriens is 5:30pm. Bit rushed in my view. Enjoy the city sights.
D7 – Use the SBB Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) to plan your travel. If you are not familiar with using the timetable it will pay to first read the instructions. You could enjoy the Golden Round trip to Pilatus. See http://www.myswissalps.com/pi latus.
The Kuonen Bridge is only 6-7 hours from Zermatt if you go on the Europaweg. You can use faster walking paths in the valley parallel to the railway, and do some of the distance by train if required/desired, eg Zermatt – Täsch by train and walk the rest, or take the train all the way to Randa and hike around Randa all day
One of the best-crafted itineraries I have seen on this site – well done!
I can’t see much wrong with it, except:
I would ignore the Gotthard Panorama Express (see below for comment) – it won’t add much to your trip as you will already have travelled on plenty of spectacular railway routes as you plan to do the Glacier and Bernina Expresses and go to Gornergrat (the latter my top choice of Swiss railways)
Instead I would suggest:
Lugano early am – direct Intercity train through the Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) – it is the world’s longest and deepest railway and travel tunnel – so a site in its own right – eg depart Lugano 07.30 – direct train to Luzern arr 09.41 – thus:
arrive Luzern early enough in the day to make the Pilatus trip worthwhile
Save your lake boat trip to your last day (more relaxing end to the trip) and take a morning boat towards Brunnen or Fluelen. Get the train from Fluelen or Brunnen direct to Zurich
example timings: Luzern dep 09.12 on paddle steamer service number 7, arrive Brunnen 11.09, or Fluelen 11.55
Depart Fluelen 12.30 on IR 2420 direct to Zurich HB arrive 13.50
Gotthard panorama
Personally I am sceptical of the attraction of the Gotthard Panorama Express. It is an attempt to keep some tourism going on the Gotthard ‘mountain route’ since the rest of the fast trains now go through the base tunnel. However, you see mainly valleys not high mountains. Also it is reservation obligatory and first class only.
Making it a special train arguably doesn’t have the same ‘romance’ as the old days when international long distance trains carried 1000s of passengers a day and those passenger trains interacted and weaved in between dozens of heavy freight trains lumbering back and forth across the Alps.
(It could also be argued that it is just a way of finding a use for very expensive panorama cars that Swiss Federal Railways bought but don’t have now have any other use for them…)!
1960 Man : Swiss railway expert and author, travelling Swiss rails for 58 years.
We were 3 weeks in Switzerland in September. Spectacular trip. I need to finish my trip report!
We took the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz, the Bernina Express from Samadan to Tirano and then a Trenitalia train to Lugano. We missed the bus in Tirano. My fault. Then took the Gotthard Express to Fluelen getting the steamer to Lucerne. I was disappointed in the GEX. It is no doubt beautiful scenery but after 12 days in the Berner Oberland no longer special. The BEX is spectacular, no question. And I loved Lugano. My husband and I both really liked the Gotthard Express. It was the most comfortable train and I like the “guide” who pointed what you were seeing and explained the history of building the tracks. Fascinating. It is an all day event, especially if you take the boat.
@rockoyster, Thank you! The last cable car timing to Pilatus is very helpful. I’ll bear that in mind. By the way, might you think it’ll be worth it if I get both a 8-day Swiss Travel Pass and Zermatt Peak Pass?
@1960man, I read alot of people recommended by Randa and it would be probably 5 hrs to/fro the bridge. I can’t find much info for Tasch though, how many hours would it to/fro Tasch and the bridge?
If i were to plan take a boat to Brunnen or Fluelen on my last day, then perhaps for Pilatus I should do silver round trip to Pilatus?
@kperigo oh… perhaps I should skip Gotthard Express then. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Wow, 3 weeks, sounds like a dream vacation. How was the weather for you in September?
Hi Xrysx
The Swiss Travel Pass gets you 50% off the cableways in Zermatt. You would need to travel a lot to make buying an additional pass worth it: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity.
Yes, Pilatus can done visited without doing a boat trip. Please see Rockoyster’s link for all the details.
Our weather was spectacular. We hiked every day in shirtsleeves. I thought at higher elevation would need warm clothes so only had two t-shirts. Wore one of them every day. Sometimes in the early morning needed a fleece but it was put in day pack pretty quickly as we hiked.
Our only rainy days were the last two of the trip. We were in Lucerne so just stayed in town and wandered there.
I think was our all time favorite trip.
Hi Xry5x,
D2 – I looked into hiking to the Kuonen bridge, and as I understood, it was a 2+ hour hike from the train station in Randa just to get to the bridge itself. I decided not to do that and ultimately ended up doing what you’re planning, the Glacier Paradise and then the Gornergrat. ( In the summer months, one can transfer to the Gornergrat without having to go back into town, but not when I went in Sept. I had to go all the way back into the station across from the main station.) I personally enjoyed the Gornergrat more than the Glacier Paradise. Just my opinion. Lot of construction and the like going on, trying to finish a new cable car by this ski season from what I was told. The ride up to the Glacier was absolutely beautiful and a few places to stop off and hike around as well. I didn’t do any hiking because I wanted to get to the Gornergrat. The Gornergrat was one of the highlights of my trip to Switz. I was able to stay up there and walk around a bit and saw the beautiful sunset while there. Stunning to see with all the other peaks around. Just beautiful, you will love that. I started out on my trek later in the day, a little after 12 noon, so if you do start out early, you can have some time to do more hiking around on the way up or back from the Glacier.
I traveled in the opposite direction on the Glacier Exp/Bernina Exp/Gotthard Exp., also working my itinerary around those scenic trains, and the Golden Pass line as well. (I wrote a long trip report about my travels “Grand Train Tour of Switzerland” that may interest you if you want to spend some time reading it.)
D5 -Bernina Exp. Train portion is beautiful. The bus part for the first hour or two may be a bit boring until you come to Lake Como, then it becomes absolutely beautiful all the way into Lugano. If you spend the time in Tirano, you will probably arrive late into Lugano. Try to get an early start if possible.
Monte Salvatore is a spectacular place to get some beautiful scenery in while there. Just beautiful.
D6 – The Gotthard Express train portion to Fluelen is about two and a half hours, and the boat to Lucerne is 3 hrs. I was able to get 2nd class ticket on that (train and boat). If you take the tunnel route and it is quicker (but not as scenic, is all) try not to miss the boat from Fluelen to Lucerne. That is beautiful scenery that just doesn’t stop. Even after in Lucerne. If you are able to start out early enough, you may have time to go to Mt. Pilatus. (If it is a Friday, you can go to the Stanserhorn, one peak over, which has late ascent/descents for the sunsets). Or maybe you can do Pilatus the next day before heading out. Hope you have a great trip.
Danielsan
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