Trip report Tirano to St. Moritz to Zurich

Just got back and I wanted to thank you for all your help, it really made the whole difference. It was like having a relative in Switzerland helping to plan the trip.We ended up taking an early morning train out from Tirano. They almost didn't let us on since they said they were all full but then we found two empty seats so they let us on. Since we took the early train out we were able to hike to Morteratsch, which was very nice. The walk was easy just it was hot and took exactly what you said about 75 minutes each way, though going back we ran to make the train (which ended up being late after we ran, so not like Switzerland punctuality!) so it took less time. When we picked up the train again from Morteratsch, they had an open car in the back of the train which we went on and that was really beautiful. I don't think our first train had the open car so not sure when they have the open car and when they don't. But then after a few stops they unhooked the train, luckily someone asked what was going on, otherwise they didn't even tell us we need to go in the regular car, they might have just left us there! Once we got to St. Moritz we went to Muottas Muragl which was stunning and had time to do a small hike.

The next day we got up bright and early and took the first cable car up to Corvatsch. We went on to the snow but not able to do much more hiking up there. We were basically the only ones up there so it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves. When we were ready to go down a lot more people started coming up. It is true what you said that they were doing construction by Murtel but there were nice hikes to do from there.

The transportation system worked great and we got on and off the buses to check out some of the places along the way. From St. Moritz we went to Zurich. We originally were going to go to Lucerne on Sunday but decided instead just to say in Zurich where we went to the Landesmuseum(nice but hot and no a/c), rented a boat on the lake (it was really hot so I think the whole Zurich was just hanging out by the lake) and then went bike riding around the lake once it cooled down. The biking was fun, just would have been better if there would have been less people cuz hard to maneuver around everyone.

Thanks again for all you help, everything ran so smoothly. Being that we were in Switzerland for only a couple of days it was important to have everything more or less scheduled which you really helped us do.

Hi sweety1,

Thanks for letting us know how things went! Glad to read you enjoyed yourselves in Switzerland. I'm surprised you had trouble getting on the train in Tirano. What time was it? It was a local train right, not a Bernina Express?

Only a few trains have open air carriages, and they're scheduled to only be included in the train between Tirano and Pontresina. The rest of the train continues on to St. Moritz. The schedule can be found here.

Did you indeed book the Crystal Hotel in St. Moritz? How did you like it?

Thanks again!

We were on the 9 am local train from Tirano. We only got there a few minutes before the train was leaving but there were other families that had more people and they were not letting them on because of lack of space.

We did stay at the Crystal Hotel. The manager and the person working at the front desk (I believe her name is Monica) were extremely nice and helpful. The location was great(but ino real good views from the windows cuz it is in the center of town). They pick you up and drop you off at the train station, the funicular to Piz Nair is right across the street, so you can just walk there and to any other place we went to the buses were right across the street. It is not a major hotel but it is clean, sweet and quaint. It was also a nice touch that they included the drinks in the room for free.

Also, I did want to mention at the end of the day though they were predicting thunder storms till a few days before we left, we ended up having beautiful weather. They had predicted rain in Zurich also but instead it was really hot (I might have preferred some rain to cool some things off but it was still nice). So bottom line is not that though you can't do much about the weather, you shouldn't panic until you are there and hope for the best.

Thanks again for all your help.

Wow, that was a pretty busy train. It's quite exceptional that they don't let people on. Thunderstorms usually only occur at the end of the afternoon or in the evening, or sometimes not at all, like you experienced. I'm glad you had a good time!