We are traveling from Varenna to Switzerland for 4 days before heading to Paris. how can we make the most of these days? we would like to take the panoramic trains too, if possible.
We are thinking of Varenna to St Moritz, to Lucerne( Glacier Express and Mt. Titlis) to Interlaken.
Please share your ideas. Will be very helpful. Thanks
Sunita
We are doing this in September.
We are on the 8:20 train from Varenna into Milan with a direct train up to Luzern. Then we train to Interlaken Ost and Murren for 4 days before taking the train into Montreux via Zweisimmen - the scenic Golden Pass route. We end in Lausanne for the night and train into Paris the next morning on the TGV.
We were in Varenna in May and were heading to Zurich. I had read about the Bernini Express train through the Alps to St. Moritz on www.seat61.com. We opted to take a bus from Bellagio to the train station in Como where we got a direct train to Zurich. We did take a train to Lucerne and fell in love with It! Do take a cruise on Lake Lucerne! There are a number of scenic trains that cross Switzerland and hook up with some beautiful places. The Man in Seat 61 on the website mentioned has great ideas and gorgeous pictures as well!
We are thinking of Varenna to St Moritz, to Lucerne( Glacier Express and Mt. Titlis) to Interlaken.
Geography problem here. Varenna - Tirano - St Moritz is OK, over the Bernina Pass - very scenic.
The route from St. Moritz to Luzern is: St. Moritz - Reichenau - Chur - Zug - Luzern. That is NOT the Glacier Express route, it is a route (after Chur) around the Alps. The Glacier Express route runs west: Chur - Reichenau - Disentis/Mustér - Brig - Visp - Zermatt.
If you want to take the Glacier Express route you would be best doing Interlaken first: St. Moritz - Chur - Reichenau - Disentis/Mustér - Brig - Spiez - Interlaken. Then visit Luzern second. Train from Luzern to Paris in about 4½ hours.
You can see all this on the Swiss rail map here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/infrastruktur/trafimage/karten/karte-sts-pass-gueltigkeit.pdf
Also - standard warning. Do not stay in Interlaken, but in one of the locations past Interlaken in the Jungfrau area: Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Wengen or Grindelwald. Local tourist site (info and hotels) here: https://jungfrauregion.swiss/en/summer/
