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Hi,
I have a Eurail Pass and I would like to travel May 09 from Lugano to Lucerne.
I got this error response. Your selected date of travel is not within the advanced booking period.
Do you know when I can make a reservation for this train?
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Hello Kconrad63,
Welcome to MySwissAlps!
You can book your ticket from 3 months to 1 hour before departure. That is why you keep getting the error response. Perhaps try again in March 2020 to book your ticket from Lugano to Lucerne.
In the meanwhile, I will attach some interesting links about Lugano and Lucerne so you can start planning what to do in those two places.
Lugano:
Lucerne:
Best regards,
Suzanne
Hello Kconrad and Welcome to MySwissAlps,
Reservations can typically be made 90 days from travel date. See http://www.myswissalps.com/go tthardpanoramaexpress/ packages.
Thank you! I could not find that info on the Gotthard but thought it would be the same advance booking time frame as the Glacier Express.
I am not sure how to plan out my itinerary. I would appreciate any help or feedback. I have spent hours on this and I am still unsure of what to do because of the Eurail pass. It kind of leaves everything up in the air if I want to take advantage of the free panoramic train travel.
I am flying into Zurich May 02 at 1030am and departing from Zurich May 11 at 1:40pm. I have a total of 9 nights.
As I mentioned I do have a 1st class Global Eurail ticket that was given to me as a gift. I have researched and see that the pass does give me free travel on the panoramic trains. However, some of them I cannot book until 3 months in advance like the Glacier Express, and now the Gottard. To try and take advantage of the free travel, I do have seat reservations on the Bernina Express May 05 St. Moritz to Tirano, and May 06, bus from Tirano to Lugano. I believe the direct trip does not start until May 09, and I don’t think that would give me enough time to get back to Zurich May11…if I did the trip in reverse.
I was thinking of a night in St. Moritz, time in Lucerne, and possible Interlaken or Zermatt. I don’t think I have enough time to do it all if I keep my current Lugano trip. I was going to spend 3 nights in Lugano.
I am open to any help or suggestions. I could even forgo my seats reservations, on the Bernina if it does not make sense to do the trip the way I have it planned. I have read that this is a beautiful train trip and I could confirm these seats in advance. So that is why I made that reservation.
Do you think it would be best to maybe travel in France or another country part of the time. So that I can use my Eurail pass without any additional fee. I am starting to think this might not be the best pass for travel wholly in Switzerland.
I am not opposed to traveling outside of Switzerland for a few nights and even flying back to Switzerland.
I have not been to France, Austria, or Italy.
Thank you so very much for listening 🙂
I
Try not to focus too hard on the so called ‘scenic’ / panoramic trains. Nearly all railways in Switzerland are scenic in some way – if you don’t see high mountains you will see other icons of Switzerland such as lakes, rolling pastures, farmsteads, cows etc. – so you will rarely be disappointed with any Swiss train trip
Also, try not to focus on ‘advanced booking’. All except a few trains are ‘walk on’ trains on a comprehensive network – where trains on all main lines run at least once per hour throughout the day
If you have a Eurail Pass, you can travel on any and all of the railway lines of the main Swiss national network, this includes any train on the old Gotthard mountain route.
Regarding the Gotthard Panorama Express, I’m not convinced by it, as follws:
Gotthard Panorama Express – a personal view
This is ‘take it or leave it’ advice:
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.
Also, the train gets rather lonely – part of the ‘romance’ of the Gotthard route previously was that your train competed for space on the line with huge long international long-distance trains carrying 000s of passengers a day between northern and southern Europe, and those passenger trains interacted and weaved in between dozens of heavy freight trains lumbering back and forth across the Alps.
The curiosity was seeing another train high above you one minute then a few minutes later passing by your train on the same level, then perhaps seeing it again below you a few minutes after that. It is this that no longer happens as there are so few trains left on the line.
(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…)!
More economical might be for you to take any boat Luzern – Fluelen. Then take the train Fluelen – Erstfeld. Change at Erstfeld into the regional train that takes the same old mountain route but at no extra cost, and runs direct through to Como (and Milano)
thank you for your response.
any ideas on what would be a good itinerary
i have 9 nights total. I am flying into Zurich May 02 at 1030am and departing from Zurich May 11 at 1:40pm.
This is what I tentatively have planned
May05 Bernina St.Moritz to Tirano. 1511 1732 2hrs 20min
May 05 Tirano / 1 nite
May 06 Bernina bus. Tirano to Lugano 1420 1730 3 hrs
May 6/ 3 nights Lugano
What would you suggest?
Thank you
What do you mean by “I believe the direct trip does not start until May 09“?
A possible itinerary to make the most of your Eurail Pass might be Zurich– Zermatt– Chur – Lugano to Zurich.
As 1960man implies, if you miss out on a seat on the panoramic trains (although that is unlikely in early May) it isn’t the end of the world. Regular trains cover the same routes and don’t require seat reservations. The scenery is just the same.
The boat ride part of the Gotthard Panorama Express is the best bit.
Hi Kconrad63! Most retailers indeed allow booking up to 3 months in advance. Some of them, such as HappyRail, allow for earlier booking though, so you could give them a try: https://www.happyrail. com/en/pass/europe/swi tzerland/passholder-fares-gotthard-panorama-express.
thank you for the information. based on the responses I am rethinking the trip and the panoramic scenic trains.
any ideas on what would be a good itinerary. i have 9 nights total. I am flying into Zurich May 02 at 1030am and departing from Zurich May 11 at 1:40pm.
I would like to go to Lugano and Lucerne. I would like to spend 3 nights in Lugano, and possibly 2 nights in Lucerne. Would it be best to do Lucerne at the end ,and take the train back to the Zurich airport?
What other stops would you recommend and for how many night?
Thank you
That sounds a bit restricted to me.
In particular, you would be (arguably) ‘wasting’ valuable time by staying at Tirano , and the Ticino area is nice, but somewhat detached from the rest of Switzerland, so you might want to come back north after a short stay in the Ticino area.
A Eurail pass would give you the chance to see most of Switzerland in 9 days, given that you can get from one end of Switzerland to the other in a few hours. I suggest you look at Anthony Lambert’s book and a general guidebook to Switzerland for ideas.
http://www.bradtguides.com/sh op/switzerland-without-a-car-3304.html
Whatever takes your fancy should be easily accessible from a central accomodation point such as Bern or Olten.
Hi Kconrad63,
Maybe you can find some inspiration for your trip in the rail holidays offered below as well as in the sample itineraries in the second link:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ra ilholidays
– http://www.myswissalps.com/pl antrip/doityourself/sa mpleitinerariesHappy planning and get back to us anytime for further input.
Best,
Steph
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