Hi all , new to this forum , I've been tearing my hair out trying to make sense of where I get the scenic view train from Italy to Switzeland , where it eventually stops and where I get a flight from nearest to the train station, can any one help , would be most grateful , I really want to do this trip , but its putting me off with the confusion around it and all sites seem to have a different answer to where the train leaves and arrives 🤯
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
7081 posts
It depends on what you mean by "the scenic view train from Italy to Switzerland". There are a couple of rail lines from Italy to Switzerland.
Posted by
Green Bay
21250 posts
More details please. Where are you coming from in Italy.? Where do you want to go from the airport in Switzerland?
Zurich and Geneva are the only 2 airports in Switzerland with overseas flights, and of the two, Zurich has the most by far. Basel has European flights, but that airport is actually in France and far from any "scenic" railways. That's it for Swiss airports.
Posted by
Bavaria
2483 posts
If you want to follow the route of the two most famous tourist trains, Bernina Express and Glacier Express, with normal trains search on sbb.ch for a connection from Tirano (on the Italian border) to Zurich Airport via Oberwald (the via is important to force this route). You then go over the Bernina, Albula and Oberalp passes, skipping only the last stretch from Visp to Zermatt. But this tour takes about 12 hours (with 6-8 changes), which means you have to interrupt it somewhere, maybe in Oberwald or one of the villages further towards Brig. In any case, this tour is much more fun than the two tourist trains. Personally, I would leave the route already in Andermatt and go via Göschenen to Zurich, because the last part is much less attractive and the trip will be about 2-3 hours shorter. In this case you are looking for connections from Tirano to Zurich via Andermatt. A more beautiful but time-consuming variant would be to include the Furka and Grimsel passes by changing in Realp to the Post bus to Meiringen and from there continue by train to Zurich. This is via Gletsch.
Posted by
Freedonia
16456 posts
What do you mean by "where I get a flight from nearest to the train station." Nearest what?
Have you been looking at a specific train or you just want a "scenic view train from Italy to Switzerland?"
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11807 posts
The easiest scenic route, IMO, is the Bernina Express from Tirano to Chur. See https://tickets.rhb.ch/en/pages/bernina-express. It takes about 4 hours. From Chur it is about 1 1/4 hours to Zurich. Depending on your schedule and the time you take the train, you might want to overnight in Chur. Cute town.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
4657 posts
If you haven't heard about it yet, there is a great train resource seat61 dot com. This guy has extensive information about global trai ways and in particular, video and explanation of how to get from Milan, Italy to the Bernina Express scenic train which ends in Chur, Switzerland. The nearest international airport from there is Zurich. There are multiple trains a day from Chur to Zurich.
His site would also provide details on how the Glacier Express works.