I am planning to buy a Swiss Rail Pass from Rail Europe and also I want to reserve a spot on a couple of trains... Glacier Express and Bernina Express. The agent at Rail Europe told me to order both at once so as to get free shipping. Someone here posted a site
(https://shop.glacierexpress.ch/gex_en/bergbahn/ticket) where you can reserve Glacier Express seats. I looked at that site and it costs 33 swiss francs. At Rail Europe it's $55. I can see paying more for Rail Europe but that's a lot more! Does anyone know if the other site is going to charge me for shipping or do they send me something I can print? Wondering what I would be paying an extra 20 bucks for buying it from Rail Europe. Also, Rail Europe does not seem to give you the option to add the meal. Has anyone here had the meal? Worth it?
Posted by
Medford, OR, USA
5837 posts
You may be better served going to the transportation providers and not through the broker given the power of the Internet.
For generic Swiss train planning:
http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en
We only did the Bernina Express from Klosters via Davos to Tirano (Italy) and returning to Klosters the same day. We bought our tickets including panorama car seat reservations from the Klosters train station. The Bernina Express had a food/drink car service (drinks and snacks) but we had a nice lunch in Tirano.
https://www.rhb.ch/en/panoramic-trains/bernina-express
Rhaetian Railway (RhB) operates the Bernian Express.
We didn't do the Glacier Express but here's the RhB webpage:
https://www.rhb.ch/en/panoramic-trains/glacier-express
This feast for the eyes is followed by a feast for the palate:
starter, main course and dessert are freshly prepared in the on-board
kitchen and served directly at your seat. Order your lunch now online.
Posted by
169 posts
We are doing the Bernina Express - starting our day in Milan to get the train in Tirano in mid June. We considered Rail Europe, but they charge a lot more.
We ended up booking it ourselves - you can select your own seats and print out your tickets. Everyone here was helpful in providing advice, etc. This website is also helpful: https://www.seat61.com/BerninaExpress.htm
If you check all my queries, you can see all the questions we had.