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We are travelling from Salzburg, Austria by eurail to Switzerland ON AUGUST 25TH 2017. We would like to visit Lugano, Lucerne, Lungertown and then FLY out of ZURICH. We were interested in doing the Bernina Express ride. Please advise on the best way to achieve all this.
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Hi, Ratna. We have Eurail passes and will start using it in June 2017 from Vienna. I have been reading how to use them effectively. There is a RailJet departing from Salzburg HBF to Zurich station (HB) at 7:56 am. It is a straight trip (no train changes) for 5 hours and 24 minutes. From Zurich HB you can take another train to CHUR. The Bernina Express starts from CHUR to TIRANO (requires reservation when using Eurail Pass). The Bernina Express also has a Bernina Express Bus from Tirano to Lugano. Depending on your schedule, you can take the William Tell Express (now called Gotthard Panorama Express) to Lucerne. From Lucerne it is about 45 minutes to an hour to Zurich. All scenic rides require seat reservations (Bernina and Gotthard Panorama). You can book them 90 days before departure (I am still waiting until March to be able to do that though). I hope this helps.
Hi Ratna and Welcome to MySwissAlps!
You can take a train from Salzburg to Chur via Buchs SG. This would be the most direct route (about 5 hours total). Here is a link to the Swiss Trains timetable for trip planning.
From Chur you can then take the Bernina Express to Lugano. There are then direct trains (roughly 2 hours) to Luzern (local German spelling) and from there on to Zurich.
Here is a link to our Bernina Express page for further details on the route and costs.
Regards,
LucasHi Like2Travel and Welcome to MySwissAlps as well!
Thanks so much for your input on Ratna’s post!
Lucas
Hi, Lucas.
I read your response to Ratna. Thank you, it will help in my planning, too. This year will be our first rail trip in Europe. We are joining 2 land tours both passing through Switzerland, first one (April) starting in Zurich to Liechtenstein, Austria, (optional excursion by Bernina Express to St Moritz), Northern Italy, Zermatt, Montreux and ending in Lucerne (total of 14 days).
The second one (mid June) is starting in Trier, Germany, Baden Baden, Murren, Bern, Munich and on to Austria and ending in Vienna (total of 14 days). We bought the Eurail (8-day Flexi) passes last December without finalizing our itinerary yet to avail of the discounted price. We always try to fly to Zurich. We are planning to use the Eurail pass to go to Trier Germany to start our second tour and use the train from Vienna back to Zurich (RailJet).
Since we will see a lot of Switzerland by bus, we decided to use the rest of the Flexi Pass to see almost the same places but this time traveling by trains through villages and mountains. We are in our sixties and hiking should be light. We would love to see the beautiful places by train that Switzerland has to offer. It is endless! Instead of using the fist pass to Germany in early June, I decided to start using it in Vienna to Zurich (last week of June). From Lucerne, we will be able to use the Golden Pass line to Montreux, travel to Zermatt and take the Glacier Express to St Moritz. By doing so, any left over pass can be used in our late August trip when we come back for a third time as the passes will be good for two months starting from the first day of using it.
On the third trip, I am planning to incorporate the Chocolate train excursion. I hope this is a good plan. Any suggestion will help. God willing, if we can visit again in 2018, I will definitely get a Swiss Travel Pass/Flexi to be able to travel by local bus transportation and boat for free and be able to visit more local museums and do easy hiking at other places. I will definitely visit this site more often to get helpful ideas.
Thank you all.
Hi Like2travel,
Great that you’re planning up to three Europe/Switzerland trips! If you have any specific questions about your itineraries and rail pass choices, I would like to invite you to post them in a new thread as this one’s about ratna’s plans. We’ll be happy to help you out there :-)!
Thank you for all the options. We would be staying in Zurich for 5 days and make it our base as we have baggage that we need to park and want to travel light from there. So we were thinking of traveling to Lugano, Lucerne and Lungerntown as day trips from Zurich. For the bernina express, we can go to Chur from Zurich but I am not sure the fastest and best way to get back from Tirano to Zurich and how long it will take. Please advise.
Hi Ratna,
The timetable page Lucas referred to allows you to find all schedules, including from Tirano back to Zurich.
If Lugano is on your wish list I don’t think it makes sense to include the Bernina Express from Zurich. You can take the Bernina Express from Lugano as explained in earlier posts: first the bus to Tirano, then the train to Chur. From Chur, you can easily reach Zurich by switching to another train. Logistically this seems to be the best way to me, as you prevent backtracking.
Does this work for you?
Yes, that will work. Thanks. Should I make the booking and reservations for the bernina express and bus sometime in March/April?
Hi Ratna-
<<“We would like to visit Lugano, Lucerne, Lungertown “>>
I can’t figure out where Lungertown is. Neither can mapsearch.ch.
Do you another name or can you describe its location?
Slowpoke
You can book Bernina Express seats 3 months in advance.
Regarding the town name: do you mean Lungern? Mind using correct location names when filling out the timetable Lucas mentioned. If not it may not recognize it or send you elsewhere.
Could be Lungern OW.
<<“Could be Lungern OW.”>>
Could be. However, I think it is useful for Ratna to figure this one out and tell us. That way, we don’t waste our time on speculation, and have more available for helping.
Slowpoke
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