Hello- There will be 5 of us (including 3 teens) traveling next June through France, Switzerland & Italy. This is my first time traveling through Switzerland & I’m very excited. We will be starting in Paris and we have 3 nights in Switzerland. I hoped to spend those 3 nights in one of the highly recommended towns of either Murren, lauterbrunnen, or Gimmelwald then take the Glacier Express / Bernina Express into Italy (Lake Como).
From the little bit of research I’ve done it doesn’t look easy or practical to do. It seems as though we need to pick one or the other (BO or Glacier Express) because we can’t do both in the 4days/3nights. Does anyone have any advice/ recommendations?
Is there a village/town with a similar feel (car-free is a plus) to the towns listed above that is near the Glacier Express route? Thank you.
Posted by
Atlanta
995 posts
Murren/Lauterbrunnen are on my wish list also. I haven't done exactly what you're attempting, but we did come from Munich to take the Bernina Express to Lake Como. The Bernina Express in October was a stunning trip, but my enthusiasm for train travel, even spectacularly scenic train travel, peaks at about four hours in a day. What worked for us was one day on a train getting from Munich to Chur (with a break for lunch), an overnight in Chur, then a morning trip on the BE with an overnight at the mountaintop Romantik Hotel Muottas Muragl, before continuing on the next day to Varenna on Lake Como. That journey took three full days. I'm sure many do it much faster, but this was a very enjoyable pace.
It's really hard to fit in some of these train trips when you're in a time crunch. I'm not offering you much of an answer here, but try plugging some possible destinations into Rome2Rio and you can at least get a realistic time frame for what you're hoping to do.
Posted by
Franklin, TN, USA
920 posts
Agree with the above comment. I think you need to make a choice……either make these 3 days about the special train trip OR the 3 days in the alps. We love staying in Lauterbrunnen…..we like being near the train to catch it whenever we want. Wengen is delightful and you could stay there all 3 days and take day hikes to enjoy the alps while you are there…..Murren is wonderful too and has great places to stay. We bought a Swiss Pass a year ago……stayed in Lauterbrunnen and hiked one day, train rode the next….for 7 days….one day we woke up to rain so since we could not hike we took the SP and rode the train to Montreux….spent the entire day on the train but in the rain it was the prefect thing to do……got the glass bubble first car and had a day full of gorgeous views……so worth it! I think it was the Golden Pass train…..