We are trying to decide which, and are leaning regional. Travel is for two adults on April 23rd. Will will be staying in Chur the night of April 22nd. Questions:
Which would be less crowded?
Can we hope off in some place like Portresina for a bit and board the next regional train?
Do we buy one ticket through, or from city to city and do we do so ahead of time or the same day?
Benefits and/or drawbacks of each?
Thank you!!!!
The Bernina Express skips some stops.
If you take the regional trains you will need to change trains, it is not one through train.
The Bernina Express has big panoramic windows.
That is the only differences.
Which would be less crowded?
Not much difference.
Do we buy one ticket through, or from city to city and do we do so ahead of time or the same day?
If it is the same day you can buy one ticket, as long as it is a NOT a discounted ticket. Discounted tickets are train specific.
And these places are not cities, they are small towns and villages. For example Pontresina has a population of just over 2000, no city!
We did the Bernina Express route from Davos-Klosters during Winter a couple of years ago. We had seats on the panorama cars for the Bernina Express portion of our trip. The panorama cars required seat reservations with specific seat assignment. The train had drinks and snacks available on-board. We stopped at end of the line in Tirano, Italy for lunch before return to Klosters. Where are you going after Tirano?
Ha! Thanks for the correction and info, Chris. I just used the word city as a “place”. For example, when I fill in “city of birth”, I put Fallbrook, which is known as a village 😊
Edgar - from Tirano we go to Varenna for a few nights. Then on to the rest of our trip in Italy
The Bernina Express panorama cars do not have overhead storage racks. The Bernina Express has 1st and 2nd class cars. We did the 2nd class and the luggage storage area was small, Seat61 has some images of what the cars look like: https://www.seat61.com/BerninaExpress.htm
We have decided to take the regional train so we can get if and explore if we feel led. I know we will need point to point and flexible tickets. How to I figure out what that might cost us to add to our budget??
Remember that the Bernina Express trains themselves also have common (no reservation required) rail cars attached to it. You just use them as any other regional train.
