Please sign in to post.

Which mountain attractions require reservations?

Posted by on

Hi everyone,

I’ll be traveling around Switzerland soon and I’m trying to understand which mountain attractions actually require advance reservations and tickets and how flexible they are if the weather turns bad.

I know that sometimes you need a ticket to ride the cable car or train, but that’s different from actually booking a seat reservation or a time slot in advance, right?

Here’s my list. I’d love your advice on whether any of these need a reservation, or if it's better to just show up:

Jungfraujoch
Schilthorn
Pilatus
Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
Gornergrat Top Station
Rothorn Summit
Grindelwald First
Schynige Platte

Also, any tips on how to deal with bad weather? Can you usually cancel or reschedule tickets, or is it safer to decide everything last minute?

Thanks a lot!

Posted by
3227 posts

It’s far safer to wait to see what the weather is like each morning before buying your mountain excursion tix. There are live camera views from the mountain summits you can view any time before deciding if it’s a go or no go.

Last thing you want is to be holding a $240 pre-purchased ticket for the Jungfraujoch only to wake up to pouring rain on the day of your journey. You can only get a refund up until the day before your ticket is valid.

Posted by
1759 posts

Kenko made an excellent point. Do not buy tickets in advance even if they are cheaper. Alpine weather is fickle and you cannot rely on the forecast more than 48-24 hours in advance.

Posted by
7 posts

Thanks, makes sense! People do recommend seat reservations beforehand though. From what I understand, these are separate from the actual tickets?

Posted by
3237 posts

You always need a ticket. Reservations are always in addition to a ticket.

Buying a ticket in advance gives you no privileges. People who bought their Schilthorn ticket last year queue up in the same queue at those who did it 10 minutes ago...

But some cable cars and mountain railway do now provide "reservations". These are not like reservations on mainline trains, as you do not get car and seat numbers. They just give you priority boarding for a particular departure.

You can usually get these the day before easily, when you know what the weather will be. So do not buy anything now.

Posted by
292 posts

which mountain attractions actually require advance reservations

You will see on the website for each mountain if reservations are required or not (usually not). It will be helpful to bookmark the websites at any rate so that you can check the webcams on the day of travel.

For example, you will see a banner on the Jungfraujoch page that says:

A seat reservation is mandatory for the journey to the Jungfraujoch
from 01.05.2025 - 31.08.2025

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/jungfraujoch-top-of-europe/

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.