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France-Switzerland-Italy; Scenic trains

Posted by (Dallas, TX) on

My family and I would like to spend a couple of nights in Switzerland on our way from Paris to Italy in October. We are a family of 4, two boys ages 9 and 13. I know it would be easy to spend a month in Switzerland, but we just don't have the time (this trip). We will be coming from Paris and will have been in France for 10 days. Initially, we thought we'd just do a quick ride through on a high speed train, but now we are looking at a couple of nights in Switzerland and taking a scenic train like the Golden Pass. I've looked at train schedules until I'm cross-eyed. I've been using the timetable at Eurail.com, so if there is another one you prefer, please let me know! Right now I have a couple of questions.

Does the Golden Pass train go from Montreux to Luzern? Or just Luzern to Montreux? Do you actually have time to get off at any of the stops and look around and then catch a train an hour later? Is the whole trip worth it, or am I better off taking the shorter Bernina Express? I just don't quite know how it all works, yet.

If I've only got a couple of nights in Switzerland, what are the sights should we see? How can we get the biggest bang scenic-view wise if we are just traveling through? Depending on which way we go through Switzerland will help us decide where to start out in Italy.

Thanks for any advice!
Kim

Posted by
33818 posts

trains go back and forth along a track. If they go west bound into Montreux the also go east bound out of the same place, back to where they came from.

The Golden Pass is a marketing device to tie together 3 train companies along a relatively straight route which is quite scenic in parts. in addition to the fancy, but infrequent and expensive because so much is first class, trains with the fancy paint job for the tourists, there are many normal trains on the same route with the same views, many with panoramic windows, that go to the same places at the same speed, and carry normal folk about their day-to-day activities.

When I had an AirBnB room last year in Meiringen (famous for the Reichenbach Falls (Sherlock Holmes) and the invention of meringue) my host had a job in Luzern (Lucerne in English) and rode the normal trains over the incredibly beautiful Brunig Pass every day - her head down in a book.

If you ride the normal trains you miss the multilingual announcements and the hoopla, and can get off at Interlaken, or at the top of the pass or wherever and get back on. You can do some, all, or any part, and your ticket will reflect this.

Don't use RailEurope. Use the local national railway website, in this case http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

Posted by
21140 posts

Switzerland has a mandate for one train per hour in each direction from every station during normal hours. So on the day of your ticket, you can get off at a station and count on another train continuing on in one hour. As Nigel said, don't get hung up on "name" trains. I can think of several scenic routes.

  1. Paris-Lausanne-Montreux-Zweisimmen-Spiez-Brig (via Kandersteg)-Milan.
  2. Paris-Basel-Spiez--Brig (via Kandersteg)-Milan.
  3. Paris-Lausanne-Montreux-Zweisimmen-Spiez-Interlaken-Luzern-Arth Goldau-Milan.
  4. Paris-Zurich-Milan.

Click on the "Map of Validity" pdf on the right hand side of this page to download a complete Swiss rail map.
http://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/holidays--short-breaks-in-switzerland/swisstravelsystem/swiss-travel-pass.html

Posted by
4853 posts

Once again, for train-related questions I would always refer a poster to our good friend the man in seat 61.

Oh and get Rick's guidebooks for must-sees and suggsted itineraries. Definitely stop, do not just pass through Switzerland.

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