Perhaps you can help us. My husband and I will be arriving in Basel May 8 and flying home from Zurich on Sat. May 15 or Sun. May 16. I have not booked our return flight tickets.
We would like to spend time in Luzern, Mürren, and take the Golden Pass or the Glacier Express. Actually we’d like to do both train trips. Do you think it’s doable for two senior citizens? We would appreciate your suggestions.,
Thank you.
Kathy
Of course it is possible.
Start by going from Basel to Luzern on May 8. Stay 3 nights.
May 11 take train to Muerren. The f1rst part to Interlaken Ost is the eastern section of the Golden Pass line, Then to Lauterbrunnen and then to Muerren. Stay 3 nights.
May 14 take train to Brig and then change to Glacier Express to either Chur, or continue to St Moritz. The continuation to St Moritz is worthwhile as it is the Albula rail line that includes the Landwasser Viaduct as well as the spiral climb to the tunnel to St Moritz. Stay 1 night at one or the other.
May 15 take train back to Zurich and spend the night. Best way is to back track to Chur, doing the Albula line, so you will have done it in each direction. At Chur there are frequent direct trains to Zurich Hbf. Stay 1 night in Zurich.
May 16 take short train to Zurich airport and fly home.
Oh, if you're staying in the St. Moritz/Pontresina area, do you have time for the Bernina Express? It takes a little under two hours each way, using the regional [not panoramic ] train cars, and the views are fantastic! To avoid covid complications with crossing to border to Italy, we got off at the last Swiss stop, Campocologno, and the return train picked us up 17 minutes laster. The views are so magnificent that riding the route twice was a double treat.
Safe travels!
If you were going to tack on the Bernina Express to this trip, it would make more sense to fly home from Milan Malpensa.
May 15, Bernina Express to Tirano, Italy, then change to regional train across the piazza from the Swiss train station at Trenord station. That will take you to Milano Centrale in about 2 1/2 hours and there are trains at 8 past the hour, every hour except 2:08 pm. Spend the night in Milan or connect to the Malpensa Express train to Malpensa and spend the night in one of the airport hotels.
May 16 fly home.
Pat's complications with Italy arose from the fact that she connected in the U.K. on the way to Switzerland, and would thus require her to quarantine for 5 days upon entry into Italy. I would expect those restrictions to lifted by May next year.
Sam, and the irony was that when our BA flight from Chicago was canceled, we ended up on a Swiss Air flight to Zurich the next day, so no Heathrow. But by then Italy had covid testing requirements, and our Lake Como hotel had been canceled. AND- we surprisingly received a BA complimentary upgrade to First Class for the way home. Funny how Karma works...
Are you interested in going to the Lake Geneva area? I.e., Montreux, Lausanne, etc?
If not, the Golden Pass railway is not worth the detour, in my opinion. The direct railway between Luzern and Interlaken (for Mürren) is already very scenic!
Glacier Express and Bernina Express are far superior to me!
Thank you for all your tips and suggestions. I now have a better understanding on how to link the scenic trains rides.
Has anyone visited Lauterbrunnen or Mürren in the Springtime? The last time I was in the Bernese Oberland was 25 years ago in late summer. It was incredibly beautiful. What kind of weather conditions can I expect in early May?
Thank you again for your replies and insight.
Probably too early for hiking in the high areas as they are still likely to be snow covered. Water falls should be spectacular.
Yes, you can ride both of these scenic train rides as senior citizens. My husband and I are both senior citizens and we just recently did both of these train rides as well as the Bernina Express. One way you could do both train rides is to take the train from Basel to Lausanne and ride the Golden Pass to Interlaken and continue on to Murren. Once you leave Murren you could start on the Glacier Express at Visp and ride it all the way to St Moritz as this would also provide you an opportunity to ride part of the same line as the Bernina Express. If you do not want to travel all the way to St Moritz you could end this ride at an earlier city and then go to Luzern. That is just one plan, there are various ways depending on what cities you wish to visit and the number of days in each city.
We just returned from Switzerland and connected three of the scenic train rides into our trip. Arriving in Zurich we took the train to Chur and rode the Bernina express almost into Italy. We then took a regular train back to Chur and spent the night. We had ridden the Bernina express on our last trip five years ago and like it so much we decided to do it again. Really enjoyed it and did not regret repeating it at all.
The next day we went from Chur to Zermatt on the Glacier Express. We had never been on the Glacier Express or to Zermatt and really enjoyed both the train ride and visiting Zermatt and the Matterhorn. After a few days in Zermatt we went to Murren for several days. Then we rode the Golden Pass from Interlaken to Lausanne, again a train ride and town we had never visited. From Lausanne we went to Luzern, spent a few days and flew home from Zurich.
We found we really liked the Glacier Express and Bernina Express. The Golden Pass provided different scenery to a region of Switzerland we had not visited before but was not as scenic or interesting as the Bernina or Glacier train rides. But we were glad to have visited additional areas of Switzerland different from our previous trip.
