A group of us decided to follow his suggestions for this rail adventure almost to the letter. However, I keep trying to find the directions of taking the Bernina Express from Lugano to Pontresina, as suggested. I would appreciate assistance, in terms of exact directions, how to do this. If it is in his book, I failed to find it.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
The Bernina Express does not run from Lugano to Pontresina. It runs Tirano - Pontresina (near St Moritz) - Chur (and vice-versa).
As well as the Bernina Express trains there are regular hourly trains on this route, but you would need to change trains in that case.
There is a connecting bus that runs once per day from Lugano to Tirano (and vice-versa) that allows you to do a circular trip Lugano - (bus) - Tirano - (Bernina Express) - Pontresina - (more Bernina Express) Chur
See this page from RhB ("Rhätische Bahn", the railway company that runs the train): https://www.rhb.ch/en/panoramic-trains/bernina-express
You can look up times for all trains and buses in Switzerland on the SBB (National Railways) website: https://www.sbb.ch/en/
Is this the info you wanted? What else do you want to know?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
If you have Rick's Switzerland book, see pages 282 and 293-4 that describe the bus stop location in Lugano (north/restaurant end of the train station) and page 334 for the start of more route details. Of course, if schedules online are different, then they're the plan to use.
Posted by
Paris
7301 posts
The bus from Locarno to St Moritz via Lugano is called the Palm Express. Reservations are highly advisable, maybe mandatory even.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Thank you!