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Basel to Pontresina June 10 2025

Posted by (Scottsdale, AZ) on

Would love input: 5 adults disembarking from the Viking River Cruise in Basel on June 10 and have hotel reservations in Pontresina June 10-12.

Then June 12-24 Lake Como; then final three nights Milan June 14-17. Assuming rail between all spots BUT I'm hearing that we really don't need to grab seats on the Bernina Express - and we would consider first class on all rail portions, otherwise.

Let me know ideas and input and MANY thanks! We welcome first class travel for all rail segments and I'm beginning to book now!

Posted by
21892 posts

You do not need to take the Bernina Express to get to Pontresina from Chur. It will cost an extra 36 CHF per person for the seat reservations. Regular trains travel the same tracks with the same scenery more frequently. Its up to you.

Suggest you buy Saver Day Passes when they become available 6 months before your travel date. Cost will be 52 CHF per person 2nd class, or 88 CHF per person 1st class. That would cover all trains from Basel to Pontresina. If you do want the Bernina Express train, the seat reservation fee is extra. Right now, a 1st class ticket from Basel to Pontresina is 172 CHF.

Bernina Express info: https://tickets.rhb.ch/en/pages/bernina-express
Saver Day Pass info: https://www.sbb.ch/en/tickets-offers/tickets/day-passes/saver-day-pass.html

Posted by
18 posts

Sam - I found rail Basel SBB to Samedan - and the Pontresina hotel simply suggested to grab a taxi from Samedan and use rail Basel to Chur - change trains once in Chur - then Chur to Samedan.

My question: the Chur connection shows 6 min.....we'd need to move from Platform 10 to Platform 9. In your expert opinion - is this enough time to make a change?? I'm assuming YES as the rail company would not have offered this schedule?! Thoughts?

Many thanks for your help!!

Posted by
21892 posts

Platform 9 and Platform 10 share the same platform. You literally walk 20 ft across the platform to your connection.

The arriving train is a standard gauge train that terminates in Chur. Your connecting train is a meter gauge train that originates in Chur. It is a designed connection, and in SBB's experience, 6 minutes is more than enough time to make the connection.

Posted by
2832 posts

The SBB train planner never suggests impossible transfer times. Transfers may appear short to you, but what they really are is efficient. A good railway knows that their passengers don't like it when their time gets wasted, SBB has transfer times down to 2 minutes in some cases. They work. In fact, when you encounter transfer times of more than 15 minutes, that is when you complain :-)

If you bought a saver day pass as suggested however this is mostly moot, as you can take any train on the route, and al routes have trains at least every hour.

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