Scenic train route Lake Geneva-Lake Como

My family of five is arriving in Geneva (end of June) planning on staying a few days around Lake Geneva; Geneva, Lausanne or Montreux. We want to travel the Alps by train with scenic views from Lake Geneva to Lake Como. What I’m having a hard time deciding is do we travel the Golden Pass to either Zweisimmen or Luzernthen onto Lake Como via Milan or travel from Lake Geneva to Zurich (stay the night) then onto Lake Como. Any advice on the options would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to MySwissAlps.com, Partyof5!

How nice that you're planning a stay in the Lake Geneva area. These sections contain lots of tips about base towns and activities: www.myswissalps.com/lakegeneva, www.myswissalps.com/lakegenevawest.

There are quite some options to travel from the Lake Geneva area to Lake Como:

• some of the quickest options consist of direct trains from Geneva (www.myswissalps.com/geneva) to Zurich (www.myswissalps.com/zurich) and from Zurich to Como. This is certainly nice, but it's not necessarily the most scenic route;
• travel by Golden Pass (www.myswissalps.com/goldenpass) to Lucerne (www.myswissalps.com/lucerne). It's a very nice town to spend the night. Hop on board of the Gotthard Panorama Express or the Treno Gottardo (www.myswissalps.com/gotthardpanoramaexpress) from Lucerne to Lugano (www.myswissalps.com/lugano) and then travel onto Como;
• travel by Golden Pass as far as Spiez. Switch to the RegioExpress Lötschberger train (www.myswissalps.com/lotschberger) there and travel to Brig/Visp. You may even like a side trip to Zermatt (www.myswissalps.com/zermatt) from there. Travel to Como via Milano;
• travel to Visp/Brig via Montreux and Sion, passing Lake Geneva and the Rhone Valley. Again, you can make a side trip to Zermatt before continuing to Milano and Como.

Details for all connections can be found with the aid of the timetable (www.myswissalps.com/timetable) and by using the "Route" tabs of the train pages I linked to.

Do you plan on using a rail pass? In most cases this will help you save money: www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass. Depending on the route you pick and the pass you use, you'll need additional tickets from the Swiss-Italian border to Como: www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/italy.

I hope this gets you started. Let us know if you need further assistance :-)!

Thank you, I will look into these options.

Good morning Partyof5, I have ridden several of the Scenic trains in Switzerland including the Goldenpass line 3 times, one of the things I have learned is that you might be able to reserve the front seats that gives you an incredible view out the front windshield due to the engineer sits above.

I traveled on 4 major scenic routes this past winter (January 2020) hoping for some snow fall during my trip but seemed to miss it everywhere I went.

Here is a link to my video I created for the above trip mentioned, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA19imCwCTk

I also have several other videos from some of my other train rides and trips on my youtube channel.

I love the trains of Switzerland.

Enjoy your trip!!!

Steve

Hello Partyof5,

Lake Como is a big target. Which particular part of it are you planning to hit.

I ask because if you happened to be headed for say Varenna then a combination of the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express would not be out of the question.

It depends how many days you have up your sleeve from leaving Geneva to arriving at your Lake Como destination.

In my humble opinion the Bernina Express route is the best scenic train journey in Switzerland by a fair margin. The down-side is the bus from Tirano to Lugano is not so appealing if you happen to need to get to that end go Lake Como.

If time is short, an alternative not canvassed above is Montreux (stay there rather than Geneva) to Brig and then to Domodossola to catch the Centovalli Express to Locarno then onto Lugano and Como.

Happy travels.

Vicki

Thank You, Great advice, the front of the train would be great for views and better with reservations. Still planning and working on which route to take. We are staying in Bellagio on Lake Como. I'll check those videos out now.

We have decided to stay in Montreux for two nights then take two days to travel from Montreux to Lake Como (Bellaigo is where we are staying). Hoping to be able to get on and off the train to view town along the way. After three days in Como we will travel to Milan for the night then onto Rome the next day to end our trip.

I think Montreux (www.myswissalps.com/montreux) is a wonderful choice! And it's a good thing to take your time and travel to Lake Como in two days.

Yes, you can for sure hop on and off most trains (www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/howtotravel). The only thing to take into account are seat reservations. You don't need them for most trains, but for some international trains they are required. Reservations are valid for one specific train and departure time only, so you can't break your journey along the way in that case. Here's how it works: www.myswissalps.com/train/reservations.

I hope the suggestions provided above allow you to create a nice itinerary. Let us know if you have further questions!