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Hi,
This website has been extremely helpful, thanks for making it so informative and having such open forums where in anything can be asked.
Iam planning a trip with my family (in total 3 adults) to swiss for 10 days in 1st week of august. We are also going to take swiss travel pass for 8 days as we would be going to mountains and will also be taking scenic rails.
So, my query now is that Iam confused whether we should be doing Titlis and Pilatus both( as we would be staying in Luzern for 3 days). I am keen to do golden trip in Pilatus, so whether including titlis in our stay in Luzern would be a good idea or no? Does it have the same scenery or is it even worth it when we are doing Pilatus?
Second question is whether we can include Bernina and Glacier express in one day? I have also found that Bernina starts from Chur and Glacier express’s last leg is in chur so would it be a good idea to do the following route in one day?(as we are staying in Zurich when we are doing Bernina express):
Zurich to Chur and Chur to Tirano – Bernina express
Tirano to chur and Chur to Zermatt – Glacier express
Do you think it’s worth doing both the scenic rails in one day or would it be a too long day ?
Thanks
Kruti
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Hello Kruti and Welcome to MySwissAlps,
Whether you do Pilatus and Titlis or just one is a purely personal preference.
You can’t do the Glacier Express or the Bernina Express from Luzern comfortably in one day. You certainly can’t do both.
Use the timetable on the SBB website (bit.ly/2HH1U7B) or the highly-recommended SBB Mobile app (bit.ly/2ICIUHi) to plan your travel and see how long such journeys actually take.
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metableHi Kruti,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation of the forum! We’re glad to be helpful to travellers.
The main difference of Mount Pilatus and Mount Titlis at this time of the year is that on Mount Titlis you will find snow and on Mount Pilatus you won’t! Also the modes of transportation are slightly different (more varied on Mount Pilatus), check the “Route” tab of below links for details:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/pi latus
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ti tlisFor input on the two scenic trains you mention please see:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/be rninaexpress
– http://www.myswissalps.com/gl acierexpressBest,
StephThanks Steph,
That was very helpful.
Regarding the scenic trains , I am sorry if I am confusing you but if I would want to take Glacier Express, can I take it from Luzern? I mean I can travel from Luzern to the nearest station where Glacier express stops and can board from there?
Hello Kruti,
The Glacier Express runs from Zermatt to St Moritz or the other way round,
The nearest place to Luzern you could join it would be Andermatt. From there I would say the only pratical day trip from Luzern (which I think you are aiming for) is to got to Chur and then back to Luzern. If you can stand a long day you could even go as far as St Moritz before returning,
The GEX requires fairly expensive seat reservations or you can follow the same route on regular trains and avoid the reservations.
A good way to the visualise the route is by using the Swiss Travel Pass Area of Validity map ( PDF downloadable from http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity).
Glacier Express:
As I have stated in response to previous forum threads it is not really logical or practical to travel on the Glacier Express (GEX) from a base further north (such as Interlaken or Luzern) ‘just to be on’ the Glacier Express.
The GEX runs roughly on an East – West axis in the southern part of Switzerland, so trying to access it from further north is falling into the trap of being lured by the hyperbolic marketing of the Glacier Express.
In practice the GEX is just an ‘exclusive’ set of trains on a normal railway route with plenty of other normal – non supplement , reservation-free trains on it.
If you are already holidaying in the Swiss Alps you won’t necessarily see anything more spectacular from the Glacier Express that you would not have already seen on other jaunts.
To understand the above, it is worth taking a moment to understand the Glacier Express and its history:
It was created (as one train each way daily) with the notion that well-healed travellers taking long holidays in Switzerland in the ‘Belle Epoque’ era (1930s) would stay in Zermatt and then also go and stay in the other fashionable resort of the time, St Moritz. The train was named (mainly) after the Rhone Glacier which has now melted so much that you don’t see it from the train and in any case the train runs under the Rhone Glacier in a base tunnel which replaced the Furka mountain section in 1982.
A summary of things to bear in mind about the Glacier Express:
1) Although the whole journey is in the mountains, a lot of it is in valleys – where you get some good views of bubbling rivers but not all the time – there are some mundane sections.
2) in truth there are only 4 really spectacular sections – in order West to East: the loops around Grengiols and Fiesch; Andermatt – Oberalppass – Disentis; Ruinaulta (Rheinschucht aka Rhein gorge); Albula north ramp loops and spirals Tiefencastel – Filisur – Preda
3) The trip is a long one – tourists can frequently be seen sleeping rather than watching the view and missing the spectacular bits anyway!
4) the same railway lines can be travelled using ordinary local trains which are no slower in practice due to the single track infrastructure
Hi Kruti,
The Glacier Express is quite far off from Lucerne. You can make a day trip from Lucerne though, enjoying part of the route. It’s explained at http://www.myswissalps.com/gl acierexpress under “Don’t have time to do the full route?” Likewise, some options for the Bernina Express are mentioned at http://www.myswissalps.com/be rninaexpress.
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