What's the travel time from Interlaken to Zermatt?

hi everyone. I am planning to see the matterrhorn. based in interlaken for 7 days I will take train. I am struggling to find time required to travel from visp to zermatt and total time needed to get there from interlaken. please guide. thanks. I find the forum very useful, so thanks to the moderators and expert users for their guidance.

Hi Manipmaster-

Welcome to My Swiss Alps.

That can be a a very nice train ride.

You can study the route and timing options by using the timetable:

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

The timetable will be very helpful all the while you are in Switzerland, so study the instructions carefully.

There is a lot of information buried in it.

I have attached two screen grabs from the timetable for the journey from Interlaken Ost to Zermatt.

The fast route is what you get if you enter only the start and destination in the timetable. It takes between 2 and 2 1/2 hours. The timetable always picks the fastest route unless you tell it to go by a defined route, using the "via" box..

The second screen grab shows the route via Kandersteg. It uses the very scenic route over the older, higher route. It takes somewhat over an hour longer.

On each screen grab I have expanded one journey by clicking on the "+" to the left of the journey. That give details. In the foot notes you will see that you can get a map of the route, and other useful information, once you have opened up the details for a particular journey

You will see that on the scenic route, the special train is called "The Lötschberger."

www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/bls-regioexpress-loetschberger.html

I recommend that you take that route when you go to Zermatt, then possibly use the fast route on the return, but only if you are in a hurry then. The fast route enters a new, lower, tunnel under the mountains just after Spiez, and emerges at Visp.

The new tunnel is faster, but the scenery inside the tunnel is not very exciting, to say the least. Good place to take a quick nap. ;-)

Let us know if you have more questions.

By the way, when are you going? It matters for the weather in the high Alps.

Slowpoke

Thanks for the reply SlowPoke. We are there from 21st to 27th July with interlaken as the only base. Is it possible to do zermatt in a day? You are certainly an expert in using the time table as i could not get the same result as yourselves on time table. I think i must have missed some detail. Thanks

You can "do" Zermatt in a day. Note the times for the trip that I gave you.

However, you can also do Zermatt for several days, and if you choose to "do" it in a part of one day, you will be limiting your experiences. But, you cannot do all the good stuff in Switzerland in less than a few months, so choices are necessary. ;-)

July is good.. August can be more crowded ( more people on vacation.) The summer season - tourist facilitiesm, etc., reall gets into full swing only in late June.

How far can you get with the timetable? it will be very important for you if you do any traveling at all.

Slowpoke

Hi

I love reading your replies.

On Wed 7 Sep we will be travelling from Zurich to Zermatt with our Eurail pass. We were going to travel via Interlaken Ost But I think the Lotschberger sounds wonderful. We will probably leave Zurich at 10:32 then Bern at 11:39. From what I can see we do not have to reserve seats. is this right? Also, as the trains are InerCity, RegoExpress, InterRegio and Regio I think Eurail will cover the whole cost. Is this correct?

Hi Swissanne,

Indeed you do not need seat reservations: myswissalps.com/ train/reservations. The train types do not matter, only the routes covered by your pass matter: myswissalps.com/ eurailselectpass/ validity. The leg from Visp to Zermatt is not fully covered by your pass. You will get a 25% discount on the ticket.

Hi SwissAnne-

Wlcome to My Swiss Alps.

Glad we can help you

There are many ways to get from Zürich to Zermatt. I see that you are looking at the timetable. Did you know that a map of your route is available in the timetable? Click on the "+" sign t the left of an individual journey, then look in the footnotes.

To see different routes on a map of Switzerland, this map is useful:

map.search.ch/

The most obvious route is via Luzern, with the route via Bern a good option because those are mainline tracks....fewer stops along the way if you pick the faster trains. Those routes converge at Spiez.

The Lötschberger indeed starts from Bern. The part from Bern to Spiez is quite pleasant, but not as scenic as the routes in the mountains. It does not make all the local stops on that part of the route.

Whether you go through Luzern and Interken, thence to Spiez and onward, or, through Bern as you describe, thence to Spiez and onward, you still have a choice of the Lötschberger on the high route, or instead , the new basis tunnel (the faster route ) .

The high route goes through Kandersteg where it enters the old shorter tunnel (use it as a "via" when you look at routes) to Brig, thence a short ride to Visp and onward. The new. lower route goes underground into the new "basis tunnel" at Frutigen, just beyond Spiez, and emerges at Visp.

So, if you wish to take even more time, and see some more nice scenery, you can take the route that you first planned, via Luzern and Meiringen and Interlaken, thence to Spiez and onward. The route between Luzern and Interlaken goes over the Brunig Pass, and has several very nice pieces of scenery. it is a narrow gauge line, and takes several local stops (depending on which train you take) so it is slower to Spiez.

Fastest time Zürich to Spiez can be a about 1 hour and one half. Those are major routes for international trains south to Italy.

Via Luzern, about 3 hours and 20 minutes. The slow lwg on the Luzern-interlaken "Express" via Meiringen takes about an hour and one half just for that segment.

Nice to have choices.

Slowpoke

We just came back from Switzerland and took the "scenic" route from Interlaken Ost to Zermatt and the quick route back to Meiringen. My advice is take the fast route and use the hour you save in Zermatt. Maybe it was the weather but I didn't think that scenic and if you don't have much time use it at your destination!. The Gonergrat train/gondola as terrific so don't miss that in Zermatt. Have a great trip

Hi JeanneMB -

Thanks for the comment.

Zermatt is certainly a worthwhile tradeoff, depending on your interests.

Slowpoke