[Removed user]

4 July 2018 at 15:48:28 #817068

Hi,

We have booked our accommodation at Zweisimmen and are looking to travel via the scenic trains to Zermatt (then to matterhorn) and also to jungfraujoch and grindelwald. We have already bought our Swiss travel passes however I am aware that some trains may require reservations. Which trains will require reservations considering i’m travelling from the 17th to 24th July and there are 9 of us in total? Also will there be a cost to the reservations considering we have a swiss travel pass?

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[Removed user]

5 July 2018 at 0:57:59 #890187

None of the trains on the lines you cite actually require seat reservations.

As you are in Zweisimmen, if you travel on the Montreux line you can choose an early regional train and be on it before other people turn up on the connecting train so you should be fine without reservations.

For Zermatt just take a regional train Zweisimmen – Spiez, then Spiez – Brig via the Lötschberg mountain route, then Brig – Zermatt. Come back the quick way via the base tunnel (Zermatt Visp – Spiez) when you are tired at the end of the day.

[Removed user]

5 July 2018 at 5:51:44 #890188

Hi dsp and welcome to MySwissAlps!

Have a read through our reservation page to get an idea of when to reserve – mostly you don’t. https://www.myswissalp s.com/train/reservatio ns

If you take the panoramic train from Zweisimmen to Montreux (and not a regional like 1960man suggested) then I might reserve there: https://www.myswissalp s.com/goldenpass/packa ges

Regional trains on that route are perfectly fine as well though.

[Removed user]

5 July 2018 at 13:10:21 #890189

Hi, I thought I’d give you my thoughts on this. We just returned to the states yesterday after a wonderful 16 day trip to Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. I bought Swiss half fare cards and our first-class train tickets all in advance and reserved our seats as far in advance as I was allowed to. It was important to our family, 4 teens and 2 parents, to sit together and we knew we wanted seats with the table between them where possible. I was able to reserve those seats. The problem was when we hopped on the train in Lucerne for our trip to Milan there were people asleep in 2 of our seats. The train was pulling out so we took care of our bags and took other seats. We asked a local who spoke English what we should do and we were told, “ you have a seat though.” We didn’t feel like waking these people so we just stayed in the open seats that didn’t have the table. Of course, at the next stop 2 American women got on the train and we were in their seats! We explained what happened and offered to wake the people in our seats. They took 2 other open seats and seemed a bit disgruntled but told us not to bother. Another trip from Salzburg to Zurich started the same way but this time it was business class and we immediately woke the person sleeping in our seat and asked them to move.

We had a WONDERFUL trip and Lucerne was a favorite for all of us. The Swiss people were some of the kindest and most laid back people we met on our entire trip. I share this story because my family concluded that we Americans are sometimes more concerned and focused on these details and we just needed to go with the flow a little more:) So, to make a long story too long, you might want to get your seat reservations but be prepared to either move some people or be flexible in where you ultimately end up!

have a wonderful time!

melissa

[Removed user]

5 July 2018 at 15:17:31 #890190

Hi Melissa and thanks for the post!

Definitely don’t be worried about waking people if they are in your reserved seats. It isn’t an uncommon occurrence to need to do that sometimes.

It isn’t too common on Swiss trains to reserve so they may not have noticed your reservation on the seat but any Swiss, or European, for that matter knows all about seat reservations. 🙂

[Removed user]

13 July 2018 at 15:13:43 #890191

Thanks for your responses,

I want to catch the train from zermatt to Brig via the glacier express route. I have swiss travel pass so is it worth making a reservation? It would be a weekday next week and most likely will be departing after 6pm.

[Removed user]

13 July 2018 at 19:09:31 #890192

Hi dsp,

If you aren’t traveling on the actual Glacier Express panoramic train and just a regional train to Brig then no reservations are required nor needed.