Need train travel advice

Greetings - what a great web site! I will be in Switzerland at the beginning of September - specifically arriving on September 5th, going to stay overnight in France and then was planning to travel by train leaving Geneva on Monday morning until Thursday/possibly Friday afternoon of that same week. My question is this - what would be your advice if I wanted to see Interlakan, Armatt (hopefully I am spelling this correctly) and perhaps either Lausanne or Zurich, the latter of which is clearly much farther north east. Advice please? What would you suggest as a train itinerary for these four, possibly five days to take in those cities (Zurich is not a must, but would be nice to see one of the bigger cities outside of Geneva). I am a bit confused as to what is realistic and what is not manageable....any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Hello Krysia, and welcome! Lots of combinations for a 4 or 5 day train tour are possible. I'm not sure what you mean by Armatt. I guess it's Zermatt, which is a popular tourist resort, but it could be Andermatt as well. One option, including Geneva, Lausanne, Zermatt, Interlaken and Zurich could be as follows:

• day 1: arrival in Geneva, trip to Lausanne, stay in Lausanne;
• day 2: trip from Lausanne to Zermatt, stay in Zermatt;
• day 3: trip from Zermatt to Interlaken using the scenic Lötschberg RegioExpress which stops at Goppenstein and Kandersteg (not the tunnel between Visp and Frutigen);
• (day 4: if you manage to extend your stay to five days, you could use this day for a stay in Interlaken and another scenic trip, for example to the Jungfraujoch or Schilthorn. If you don't have time, you could skip this day and immediately travel on to Zurich);
• day 5: trip from Interlaken to Zurich via the Brünig Pass and Lucerne.

Most of these train trips require a couple of hours and aren't too long, which means that you'll have quite some time left to explore the towns after your arrival. You could stroll along the town centres, make a boat trip (from Lausanne, for example) or get up in the mountains, which is especially great with Zermatt and Interlaken as a base. Zermatt is home to many mountain lifts such as Gornergrat, Klein Matterhorn and Sunnegga, and Interlaken gives access to the stunning Jungfrau region. If you have time, definitely try to make a day trip in this area.

As I said, there are many more combinations, in which you could use - for example - the Golden Pass route between Montreux and Interlaken or (part of) the famous Glacier Express between Zermatt and St. Moritz. You trips can be planned with the online timetable, which shows how long a trip will take and what's realistic.

For extensive train travel, a Swiss rail pass may come in handy. The Swiss Half Fare Card could be an economical solution in your case. For long train journeys, a Swiss (Saver) Pass may fit your needs.

I hope this gets you started - and that it doesn't confuse you even more :-).

Thank you so much - yes a total typo on my part, I meant Zermatt! I understand that the scenery is absolutely gorgeous in this area so a definite must on our trip - thanks so much again for the suggstions!

Hi Krysia, I'm glad to hear that the suggested scheme helped you out a bit. Good luck on your further preparations!