Sightseeing in switzerland.

greetings olga. next june, my wife, friend and i hope to travel to s/land arriving in geneva at 2pm, train to montreaux, sleep there, [z's]. day 2, golden pass to ost,train up jungfraujoch,z's. d3,cablecar up schilthorn,walk a little in murren,z's. d4 train to alpnachstad, train up pilatus, train to luzern, z's. d5train to zermatt, train to gornergrat and back to zermatt, z's. d6, glacier express to st. moritz, z's. d7, train to zurich, fly home to ireland, sob sob. 8 day swiss pass ?, cud you give me your opinion olga, and do you see room for improvement ? we are flexible.

Hello bobsleigh, and welcome to the forum! An 8 day Swiss Saver Pass is the best option for your travel plans. Not only does it allow you to travel comfortably (as you can simply board the trains without having to purchase regular train tickets), according to my calculations it's the cheapest option as well. Only some of the trips require the purchase of an additional discounted ticket: the Gornergrat, the Jungrfraujoch and the seat reservations that have to be made for the Glacier Express and Golden Pass trips.

As for your travel schedule: it's quite full, but if you don't mind travelling a lot it can be done. One of the days is a bit too full in my opinion though. On the 2nd day, you'd like to travel from Montreux to Interlaken Ost with the Golden Pass Panoramic, and then get up to the Jungfraujoch as well. The train trip from Montreux to Interlaken can take as much about 3 to 4 hours. The train trip up to the Jungfraujoch adds another 2 to 2,5 hours. So even if you depart early, you'll arrive at the Jungfraujoch during the afternoon. If you really want to take your time up there, it would be better to plan the Jungfraujoch trip on a separate day, maybe combined with a visit to Schilthorn if weather is very nice that day. If not, it might generate some breaks in your travel scheme if you choose either Jungfraujoch or Schilthorn and spend the rest of your day simply enjoying the views and strolling around.

Does this answer some questions? Kind regards,

conas atá tú [gaelic for 'how are you'] Annika, thankyou for your very helpfull reply. We will fine-tune our itinerary accordingly. Hope June is a sunny month in S/land. Would you mind listing your top 4 sceinic mountain railways other than Glacier E and Goldenpass.

kind regards, bobsleigh

You're welcome bobsleigh. Further scenic trains rides which can be recommended are:

- the Bernina Express between St. Moritz/Pontresina and Tirano, crossing the beautiful Bernina Pass with its large lake;
- the Albula line between Chur and St. Moritz. It's actually part of the Glacier Express, but I'd still want to mention it. Supposed you don't get to do the entire Glacier Express route, this part is very much worth your time;
- the train ride between Lucerne and Interlaken, crossing the Brünig Pass and several lakes;
- some shorter cog wheel scenic rides, which can be highly recommended, are the Brienz Rothorn Bahn at Brienz, the Schynige Platte Bahn leaving from Wilderswil and the trains running from Grindelwald/Lauterbrunnen up to Kleine Scheidegg. All are situated in the Bernese Oberland.

Good luck on composing your travel scheme!

Hello there :-)
A friend and I are making our 1st visit to Switzerland (free-and-easy) and we will arrive Dec 29 afternoon and leave Zurich on Jan 13. We haven't bought any Swiss Pass yet and we don't know if we should or just buy point-to-point train tickets for the following places :
After arriving at Zurich Airport, we plan to leave for Bern (sort of use Bern as a base) for 2 days where we will travel to Basel for the day and on the 2nd day, we will explore Bern.

Then we will go to Geneva for 3 days and go to Montreaux and Vaud (visit the Chateau of Chillon). On the way back from Vaud, we will go to Lausanne before returning to Geneva.

After Geneva, we will go to Interlaken (Geneva-Bern-Interlaken train?) for 3 days and visit Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen and Murren (all 3 places in one day and then return to Interlaken...is this do-able in one day?). While still in Interlaken, we are also going to Thun for half a day and then later cruise back to Interlaken. We are considering taking the train up the Jungfrau Joch. Can we do these 2 in one day?

After 3 days in Interlaken, we will go to Luzern for 2 days or so and visit Engelberg and Mt Titlis (for the day? Do-able?)

After Luzern, we plan to go Zermatt by going first to Visp (taking train from Luzern-Bern-Visp) and then take the train Visp-Zermatt. We will stay in Zermatt for 2 nights. In Zermatt, we will explore the town, take the local train to Gornergrat and maybe go up the Matterhorn. Going to Gornergrat and Matterhorn - can these 2 be done in a day travelling on trains?

The 2nd day in Zermatt, we plan to take the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Chur and from Chur, we will end up in Zurich in one day (eventually to return home to Singapore). We have about 2 days in Zurich. On our first day in Zurich, we are thinking of going to the Rheinfalls (take the train to Schaufhausen?).

I considered getting the Swiss Pass (15 days) for the 2 of us...would that be the right Pass to get for such a trip?

Thank you for any advice you can give me :-)!!!