Bernina express day trip from Milan

Other than the transportation to and from the starting and end point, basically they offer the same thing that panarama train ticket offers. Just out of curiosity, have you priced out a Bernina Express ticket purchased directly from SBB?

When we went to Italy, we flew into Zurich and took the train to Chur. The next morning we took the Bernina Express to Tirano and then another train to Varenna, Italy. It was quite easy though I did get some help and advice, mostly confirmation of my plans, from very knowledgeable forum members who I'm sure would do the same for you.

BTW, Viator and Tripadvisor do not provide tours. They are a 3rd party selling other people's tours.

None of these look like they are on the actual Bernina Express, but on regular RhB trains. They all seem to be selling the same tours offered by local Milan tour operators, Trip Advisor names the companies, so check directly with them. I also note that most say that if a minimum number is not registered, the trip will be cancelled. If you went on your own with public transportation, you would not have to worry about that, as well as saving a bit of money.

Jules- I have looked into pricing on my own without the tour. After reviewing. It does look fairly effortless. I only have 1 day. So starting and ending point need to be Milan within the same day. Part of my concern is if I take the train to Tirano from Milan then the bernino to st moritz I’d need to take a 4 hour bus ride on public bus vs a private coach back to Milan. Not sure for comfortable those buses are.

Sam- I’m unfamiliar with the difference between the express vs the actual bernina express is.

Sam is an expert on train travel. I did not catch that the tours aren't even on the actual panoramic trains. We did the panoramic train for our Bernina Express train ride, and I've also done other trains in Switzerland. Swiss trains are very nice. I'm glad we tried the panorama train, but honestly, in the future we'd just do the regular train that runs on the same route. The regular trains are typically less crowded and a fair amount cheaper.

Basically, it seemed the only difference between the trains was that the panoramic train had larger windows.

Well, to be honest, it is not entirely clear to me as they keep referring to the "little red train". Both the Bernina Express with the panoramic windows and the regular RhB trains are red. The train with the panoramic windows has a required seat reservation fee of 36 CHF on top of the regular ticket price. Additional to the windows, it has multilingual headsets giving description of the sights outside those windows plus food and drink service at your seat. I suspect that the tours priced in the $160 range would have the actual Bernina Express, and the ones in the $105 range are regular trains.

Some of the tours begin with a bus trip to Tirano, then train to St Moritz over the Bernina Pass, then a return bus to Milan over the Maloja Pass, others with a bus to St Moritz over the Maloja Pass, then train to Tirano over the Bernina Pass, then bus back to Milan.

I do get a kick out of the ad for one of the Viator Bernina Express offerings with a picture of the Gornegratbahn in Zermatt looking at the Matterhorn.

I'd be tempted to do the train starting at Lugano to Andermatt to Chur to Tirano

Thank you everyone for the replies