A Wonderful Train Journey around Switzerland

If you've seen pictures of Switzerland, you'd think that they touched up the images to make the country look pretty.  No.  It's like this all the time and almost everywhere you go.  I tell Swiss friends that it's as if they are always expecting guests to visit them.  Everything is always neat and tidy!

While planning for a trip to Europe with my girlfriend, I had 4-5 days to squeeze between a trip to London and Germany.  I decided that Switzerland would be a wonderful country to see more.  I've been to Lucerne a couple of time and driven through but not spending enough time to appreciate its beauty.  When I researched into what I can do, I found that taking a train tour through Switzerland is probably the best way to see the country.  If you read a lot of travel magazines and articles, you will find that whenever they mention the most beautiful train journeys in the world, Switzerland is always included.  Not only that, there is more than one beautiful train journey.  There are several.

The first place to start is Rail Europe's Grand Train Tour of Switzerland website:

Grand Train Tours of Switzerland

Here you can read about the many options.  3 days is the minimum, 15 days is the maximum.  I had only 4 days and that's what we picked.  We followed the recommended itinerary:

Day 1 - Lucerne - Interlaken - Montreux
Day 2 - Montreux to Zermatt
Day 3 - Zermatt to St. Moritz
Day 4 - St. Mortiz to Zurich

We actually started in Zurich, for a good reason.  Because we were traveling all over Europe, we had two large suitcases.  We wanted to leave our large suitcases at the train station and only carry with us backpacks with enough clothes and items we need for just four days.  In many big European train stations, they have lockers to store your luggage for perhaps up to 3 days.  Any longer, you have to store them at a luggage room called Left Luggage.  At the Zurich train station, the Left Luggage office is on the side of the building, behind the Tourist Information Office.  They are opened until 1945 hrs but check with them so that your luggage is not stucked there when it's time for you to leave.  Each of our luggage costs 10 euros per day to store so it costs us 80 euros to store two suitcases for four days.  It was well worth it because it will be so inconvenient to carry the suitcases up and down the trains, platforms, and walking to the hotels.

Left Luggage office at Zurich Central Station

I am not sure if Lucerne has a Left Luggage facility but another reason we want to come back to
Zurich is because we want to take the bus to Munich, our next destination.

The next important thing to do is to stop at the SBB (Swiss Train) Office to plan our itinerary.  Every train station has a SBB office and they are always very helpful.  We told the official behind the counter the following information:  what day we plan to travel, and from where to where.  Then we tell him/her roughly what time we plan to start.  The official will print out schedule slips (like the picture below) for all your trains and you are all set.  If you change your mind, you can stop at another train station and get a different schedule.  There is also a SBB Mobile app available but I find it easier talking to a live person and have a hardcopy printout of the schedule than having it on my phone.  If you plan to travel during the busy season you will have to make reservations for some of the popular trains.  You can do it online in advance or at the train office.  The reservation fee is an additional fee besides the ticket price.  Since we were traveling during the off-peak season, reservations were not necessary.  In fact, in some instances, the train was virtually empty.

Train schedule from St. Moritz to Zurich

Sometimes planning a train journey like this can be stressful.  There is help.  One of the best resources is Rail Europe.  They have an US-based office that you can reach by telephone, 1-800-622-8600 or on Facebook:  Rail Europe  They are incredibly helpful in answering any question about train travel in Europe.

We wanted to start the train tour in Lucerne so that evening we took a train from Zurich to Lucerne.  It was a short ride, about an hour, but the train was crowded.  Perhaps many Swiss live in Lucerne but work in Zurich.  We easily found Hotel Central Luzern, about 5 minutes from the train station.  It is a small clean hotel.  The receptionist greeted us warmly.

Hotel Central Luzern

Nice breakfast spread

Less than 5 minutes from the hotel is Lake Lucern.  We walked across the famous Chapel Bridge to Old Town until the rain forced us back to the hotel.

In the morning the rain stopped briefly to give us a chance to walk around the lake and the Old Town area.  We took many pictures of the lake and what's around the lake.  Lucerne deserves more than a couple of hours.  It is one of the most beautiful cities in Switzerland.

An evening view 

Another part of Old Town

Old Town and the Chapel Bridge

Chapel Bridge and other side of the lake

We took the 10am train from Lucerne to Montreux, with stops in Interlaken and Zweisimann to change trains.  Interlaken is famous for Jungfraujoch, one of the highest mountains in Switzerland.  However, our schedule was tight and we did not have time to ride the train up the mountain.  We walked towards the middle of town and saw beautiful buildings and touristy shops.

View of train going up to the Jungfrau

Beautiful river running through Interlaken

At Zweisimmen we changed to a GoldenPass panoramic train.  With this train you can see not just through the windows but above you as well.  Again the view is astounding.  As the train slowly winds its way down to Montreaux you see the town besides Lake Geneva.

View of Montreux, beside Lake Geneva

Montreux is a lakeside tourist town.  When we got off the train, we walked a flight of stairs down to the main road, turn left and walk about 10 minutes towards the J5 Hotel.  We heard that there is a Christmas market going on.  In late November and December, it is the Christmas market tradition in Europe.  You find stands selling everything from hot mulled wine to chestnuts to handicrafts.  We spent a couple of hours walking along the market and enjoyed watching the crowd.

Beautiful Lake Geneva

Christmas Market in Montreux

When we tell some Swiss the places that we'll be going on this train tour, their eyes went wide.  These are some of the most beautiful places in Switzerland.  Zermatt, our next stop, is only about 3 hours from Montreux.  We want to get to Zermatt early so that we can enjoy the town because we won't have time on the third day.  We took the 9am train and arrived in Zermatt a little after noon.  The nice thing about traveling in Switzerland is almost every popular town has a Tourist Information Office by the train station.  We stopped there to ask for directions to the Le Petit CHARME-INN.  It is about a 10-minute walk and on a small side street.  It's a small hotel and the room is clean and well-furnished.

The most famous landmark in Zermatt is the Matterhorn.  We were given different options to get up there and decided to take the Gornergrat Bahn.  The train stops at different stops on the way to the top of the mountain.  At the top you see beautiful views of the surrounding area, including the Matterhorn.  You also see skiers as Zermatt is a popular ski town.  We find Swiss restaurants to be very expensive so we decided to buy sandwiches at the Coop grocery store.  You see a Coop store almost next to every train station that we stopped at.  It is very convenient and much cheaper than eating at a restaurant.

The World-renowned Matterhorn

Church along Main Street

Panoramic View at the top 

A generous breakfast at the hotel

Looking at Main Street of Zermatt.  Coop store is on the left

Gornergrat Train station, next to the Zermatt train station

The Zermatt to St. Moritz is an 8-hour trip that is often called one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world.  It's popularly known as the Glacier Express.  Unfortunately, it was on its annual maintenance when we were there.  So, we had to take local trains to go from the two towns and making four train changes.  Nevertheless it was a beautiful journey as we traversed the Alps and passing unbelievably beautiful villages one after another.  Something that I never thought would happen in Switzerland, did happen.  Our train broke down with mechanical problems halfway through the journey, near Disentis.  We had to wait another 30 minutes for the next rain to come and pick us up.  By the time we boarded our last train in Chur, it was dark and we couldn't see the scenery.  We arrived in St. Moritz at about 8pm.   I asked for directions to the hotel at the train office but the official was nice enough to call the hotel for us to come pick us up.  It'd have been a 30-minute uphill walk to the Steffani Hotel, right in the middle of town.

St. Moritz lives and breathes money.  You can tell by the shops that it is a money town.  We opted to stay in a room with shared bathroom at the Steffani Hotel because it saves us about $100.  However, we have the same very generous and beautiful breakfast buffet.  Most of the restaurants were closed by the time we ventured out at about 9pm.  We found Bobby's Pub in a shopping center and had an average meal of pasta and salad for $35.

The Matterhorn Express

Center of St. Moritz

Beautiful Lake St. Moritz

In the morning we walked around St. Moritz, especially around the very photogenic lake area.  We spent about 2-3 hours in this dream-like town.  At 11am it was time for us to return to Zurich, a 3-hour train ride away.  First, we had to take the train to Chur, then switch to a relatively fast train to Zurich.  The trip from St. Moritz to Chur is one of the most beautiful as we descend through the Abula Pass; going through villages like Samedan and Bever, then on to Bergun and Bravuogn.  The train also passes the iconic Landwasser Viaduct and continue to spiral slowly down the mountains.  We eventually arrived in Zurich at about 2pm, where we spent a couple of hours walking around old town Zurich and doing some shopping at a Coop store.

The Landwasser Viaduct.
Credit:  By Champer - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4865428

One of the beautiful villages on this part of the journey

We decided to take the bus from Zurich to Munich instead of the train.  Not only is it much cheaper, about $24 each, it runs more regularly.  For $2 extra we have reserved seats on the Flixbus.  After picking up our luggage at the Left Luggage office, we walked about 200m, along Track 18, to the bus station.  Finding the right bus at the bus station was a challenge.  There were many buses going to different destinations but there were no designated bus stops or signs.  A not so nice ending to a beautiful journey.

Limit River, between Old Town Zurich and Zurich Train Station

Old Town Zurich, with Christmas Market