Our Swiss Resident, English Speaking Tour Guides
We offer visitors guided rail, multi-day & Swiss day tours led by locally-based native English-speaking guides. Their fluency allows them to share Switzerlands’ salient features and their individual Swiss stories. This list of Echo Trails’ guides shares an insight into each of their backgrounds.
The communication connection, coupled with the ability to “relate to visitors” makes the ECHO Trails experience unique and different to all other native Swiss-led tours.
ECHO Rails & Trails has guided hundreds of visitors and has received numerous recommendations including TripAdvisor’s “Hall of Fame” excellence based on a minimum of 5 continuous years. See Echo Trails’ reviews on Trip Advisor.
Andrea Caspani, Managing Director
With Andrea’s successful handling of all the Swiss operations during the past five years, his tourism and business acumen provide him the qualities to now be responsible for all the marketing, management & operations of all the ECHO Rails & Trails tour activities.
Andrea’s passion is to take people into the mountains and has been doing this his entire tourism career.
Lake Como born, with a Bachelor in Tourism degree from the University in Como and a Master in Management from the University of Lugano, Andrea is a Lucerne tourism executive with many years of travel industry experience.
During the Winter months, Andrea is a ski instructor with over 80 days on the slopes of Switzerland’s most famous resorts.
Monika Ryser, USA Guest Relations Director
Swiss born, local Silicon Valley based, Monika is very active in the Swiss community and enjoys presenting Switzerland’s highlights to people planning trips to Switzerland. Now a certified Switzerland Tourism, Switzerland Travel Expert, Monika assists the USA office with inquiry responses, ECHO Rails & Trails presentations and guides assistance on our tours.
René Welti, Founder & Guide
Swiss born in the city of Basel, René’s Swiss heritage tracks back to the 16th century. René’s family immigrated to North America as a youngster & grew up in the San Francisco, Silicon Valley Bay Area, graduating from San José State University while co-founding Student Services West focusing on youth travel to Europe.
René founded ECHO Rails & Trails by offering guided English speaking tours in the Lake Lucerne region when he lived in Lucerne. Since these beginnings he has personally scouted, guided every tour on this website and has guided over 900+ people on various Lake Lucerne day tours, multi-day Via Alpina hiking and 12-Day rail tours.
René’s Swiss tourism career highlights include working with Swiss based, Kuoni Travel and began a 12 year career with Trans World Airlines in Zurich. Also during the 1990’s René represented a number of Swiss tourism entities in the USA like the Graubünden Tourist Office – that included the resorts of St. Moritz, Pontresina, Klosters, Davos, the Ticino Tourist office that included the resorts of Lugano, Locarno, Ascona, the Zurich and Central Swiss tourist offices, Rhaetian Railways, Swiss Travel System etc. Being appointed as the Swiss Olympic Team Attaché for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics still is a high point. View all of Renes’ and Echo Trails travel certifications here…
René now lives in the San Francisco Bay area in Los Altos Hills, CA and works with Monika handling the incoming calls and requests. During some of the summer months he is in Switzerland guiding tours.
Suzanne Welti
Suzanne is a San Francisco native Californian with Swiss heritage and enjoys engaging with all our participants about their Swiss trip “wish lists”.
René & Suzanne’s Swiss Alp Rail tour experience began as the original Alpenwild’s Swiss Rail “guide-couple”.
Over an 8 year period, René’s jointly fine tuned the Alpenwild itinerary to what it is today.
René and Suzanne scouted the Guided Hike of the Jungfrau Region – on the Via Alpina #1 National Trail. Together they designed a way that offers two hiking options based on fitness and interest levels.
With René & Suzanne as guides, there is a guide per activity level as some may wish to take a faster and others a slower level.
Everyone is guaranteed their kind of day.
Thomas Aschwanden
Thomas Aschwanden, is our Swiss Public Transportation, “ÖV” expert. When he isn’t guiding along on one of our Via Alpina multi-day hikes, he’s directing the Canton of Uri’s, local bus,train and road schedules.
Thomas is our point person when dealing with the scenic places of Bauen, Fluelen, Andermatt, Elsasso Gothardo military bunker, Furka Steam train and overall best resource when it’s time to ask “What do you think is the best thing to do”. Everyone who’s had Thomas on a tour is most fortunate.
Monika Fellmann
Monika brings a lifetime of Swiss guiding and hands-on Swiss alpine knowledge and we are especially pleased to welcome her to our team.
Originally from Andermatt, the base of the Gotthard pass, Monika has guided for the top Swiss Adventure, Baumeler & Imholz companies. Residing in nearby Sursee, Lucerne, Monika’s experience in guiding visitors to the Lake Lucerne mountains like the Rigi, Pilatus and the Grindelwald, Jungfrau region provides visitors lots of local insight. Also with her many years of “Managing Swiss Alpine Huts” hands-on experience being responsible for the food & well being of hikers who overnight in these remote Swiss Alpine Huts, you can ask Monika for her most interesting stories.
To stay current with all “What’s new”, Monika keeps her Swiss Hiking, Nordic Walking and Guiding Handicap certificates current by attending the yearly classes and passing the practical exams. Her excellent English comes from working in the UK,NZ & Canada so with Monika you can also practice your French, Spanish, Italian and Swiss German too.
Andreas Zwimpfer
Andreas hails from Central Switzerland’s Lake Sempac, “Sursee” area and brings many years of Baumeler, one of Switzerland’s finest outdoor companies, tour guiding experience with him.
After tour guiding in the 1980’s, , Andreas enjoyed a career in high-tech working with Silicon Valley companies while starting & selling many of his own.
For many years now, Andreas lives in Weggis, at the base of Lake Lucerne’s Mt. Rigi and enjoys sharing his local insights with visitors. When Andreas isn’t guiding ECHO Rails & Trails tours, you may see him on the Mt. Rigi cogwheel train as one of the train conductors.
Denise Girard Ammann
With over 15 years of Lucerne & Bernese Alps guiding experience, Denise enjoys living in the Lake Lucerne area while sharing Switzerland’s insights with English speaking visitors.
Even though Denise grew up in Newport Beach, CA, graduated from San Diego State, she’s fluent in German and also speaks French & Spanish. In her free time, Denise enjoys hiking and mountain biking
Dave Harpur
Originally from Cape Town, SA with a Phd in Microbiology, Dave has been living in Lucerne for the past 17 years and is an active ECHO Rails & Trails guide; guiding all the Lake Lucerne day tours and also the VIP 3-day Rail tours.
Dave and his wife are now full Swiss citizens after completing the tedious Swiss citizen application process and he also speaks German & the local Swiss-German dialect
Deb Lemon
Deb relocated to the Interlaken, Bernese Oberland area a number of years ago, coming from Colorado, with a 25+ year engineering and project management career.
When Deb isn’t guiding our 12-Day Rail tour, she enjoys sharing Switzerland’s highlights with visitors, is an avid hiker and passionate about getting into the Swiss Alps whenever she can.
Brigitte Giger
Brigitte, a Swiss native, is a passionate tour guide who enjoys sharing her knowledge of Swiss culture, nature and environmental issues.
Brigitte has a Masters in Geography & Environmental Science from the University of Zürich and worked for the Canton, (State) of Zürich’s, Department of Environmental Affairs.
Her favorite places to take people include her Lake of Zürich area, Eastern Switzerland, Mt. Rigi, Lake Lucerne surrounding areas and the Engadine area around St. Moritz.
Brigitte also guides our Rail tours and keenly answers questions about raising children in Switzerland and everyday Swiss life.
Eve Harpur
Eve takes great pleasure in sharing the Lucerne area with visitors and friends as she has explored the area widely on foot, by bike, boat and bus.
Originally from South Africa, now a Swiss citizen, Eve graduated with a degree in History and a post-grad qualification in Librarianship from the University of Cape Town. After many years working in the Reference section at the university library, she re-trained and worked as a registered tour guide in Cape Town before moving to Switzerland.
Today Eve is very active in the Anglo-Swiss Club of Lucerne and naturally has a passion for Swiss history and has amassed an amazing store of knowledge about the country.
John Fraser
John guides for ECHO Trails on a part-time basis. He was formerly in the United States Air Force before coming to Switzerland in February 2013 to join his (now) wife who is Swiss.
John currently works as a software development manager for Schindler, the well-known elevator company. He is an avid skier and hiker and spends much of his free time in the mountains. He is also a frequent traveler and amateur photographer, traveling the globe in search of new experiences.
David Lingard
The Swiss Alps & Canton of Bern has been David’s home for many years now. Originally from Scotland, he uses his Scottish National Outdoor Training leader certification, to guide English speaking visitors through the Jungfrau region trails.
He enjoys showing and explaining Grindelwald’s glacier history to visitors. It’s also very interesting to hear the history of the Eiger while hiking the Eiger trail.
Petr Pospisil
Petr has been living in Zermatt for the past 6 years.
He looks forward to showing you the breathtaking views, sharing the soothing tranquility and enjoying the magnificent perspectives of the majestic mountains so proudly surrounding Zermatt with Matterhorn as their King and the Monta Rosa (highest in Switzerland) their Queen.
John Webster
For the past 25+ years, John’s lived in St. Moritz, even though he’s originally Australian.
During the summer he’s the areas Nbr. 1 English speaking & hiking guide and coordinates many of St. Moritz’s events for the English speaking media and participants.
During the Winter he’s a ski instructor.
Hans Schlunegger
Born and raised in Grindelwald, Hans has climbed all the major peaks of the Bernese Alps.
When you meet and hike with Hans, you know you are with Mr. Grindelwald as he will focus on your interest and match the best hike for you for the day.
His ability to counsel comes from a 10 year career of coaching the Swiss National Women’s & Men’s Ski teams. Hans himself competed in the Swiss National Ski team and placed in the top 15 World’s best skiers.
Hiking with Hans is worth the trip to the Jungfrau Region as you will be hearing, seeing and capturing the local insight of this part of Switzerland through Mr. Grindelwald himself.
Madeleine Forrer
Born and raised in the heart of Switzerland, Madeleine takes great pleasure in telling you everything you want to know about her home country.
With a university degree in Computer Science and English Language & Literature, she has travelled the world and is fully immersed in foreign cultures. Madeleine is an adult education teacher and president of Lucerne’s Anglo-Swiss Club. She continues to indulge her passion for the English language.
Madeleine looks forward to taking you to some of the most beautiful places in Central Switzerland and sharing her love of nature with you.
Leo Vetterli
Born in the Zurich area, he is now living in Rapperswil at the southern end of the lake Zurich.
Leo began his English speaking guiding duties while employed with Trans World Airlines in Zurich. His career brought him to the Middle East where he worked for a number of projects and back to Switzerland where he managed a number of companies.
Now with his sons, he hikes the surrounding scenic Swiss Alps and enjoys sharing his Switzerland with others.
Romina and Patricia
Both Romina & Patricia are from Lugano and coordinate Lugano’s local tours.
They enjoy sharing their wonderful local Swiss-Italian culture & cuisine to English speaking visitors and will make you feel right at home.
Ezra Pirk
Ezra Pirk is a local guide from Lucerne and has been doing tours since almost 10 years now.
For the last two years, he has been working for Echo tours.
Beside moving all over Switzerland, he has traveled a lot in the USA. Family and some of roots are from there.
Ezra is very well experienced with all kinds of tours from small groups to big groups. He has done a lot of different tours over the years including city tours, mountain tours, bicycle tours and tours to all kind of other locations and including many more activities.
Besides guiding tours, Ezra works as an artist, an actor, and also produces films.
