A “Rail Tour” of Switzerland is a spectacular experience
The many aspects of the tour also include travel on lakes and trails.
Here are some of my Swiss Alps Rail tour highlights and thoughts.
We’re all sitting outside on this veranda on a sunny day, joking & laughing with the Matterhorn and surrounding 13,000 ft mountain peaks starring at us
In the above picture, I’m the one on the right wearing the blue vest and the red hat – the Echo Trails tour guide.
We may be hiking by a mountain stream, standing on a Swiss Alps summit, riding in a paddle boat, or boarding a train or gondola for a trip up a mountain side
Or we may sit in a small cafe, tour a cheese factory, visit a museum, ride for free on a bus in any town or shop for gifts of chocolate to bring home and much more
The food in each of Switzerland’s, four regions, the Italian, French, Romansch and Swiss-German, is fresh and delicious
Switzerland is dream Getaway
A world in which you and your loved ones will feel safe and have your own “Sound-of-Music” experience. It’s guaranteed you will come home with a sense of renewal and have a treasure of lifelong memories; just like me.
https://echo-trails.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/echo-logo-red.png00Barry Goldsteinhttps://echo-trails.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/echo-logo-red.pngBarry Goldstein2020-08-25 18:20:522021-08-25 19:07:32Switzerland by Rails, Trails & Lakes – The Trip That Recharges ; by Linda from Berkley, CA
Whether you are looking out of your rail tour in Switzerland train window, standing on a Swiss Alps summit, or sitting on an outside Swiss restaurant table, your eyes, ears and nose are in constant overdrive.
Alpine Views Switzerland’s awesome scenery every step and minute of your rail tour, day-trip or multi-day hiking trip offers something magical.
Wherever you are, every corner of Switzerland offers a picture postcard kind of view.
Switzerland’s awesome cultural diversity is a function of this small country having four different national languages: French, Italian, Romanisch and German. Plus Switzerland’s small size, within three to four hours you can be in neighboring Germany, France, Italy or Austria, where you experience the regional cultural differences.
What’s also interesting with Switzerland’s 729 year history, Switzerland and the United States have long been recognized as sister republics, Sharing common democratic values, free-market principles, and even similar constitutions.
With Switzerland’s non-stop ever changing awesome scenery, you sense this all in a “peace of mind” safety. The global 2020 Environmental Performance Index report conducted by Yale University and Columbia University for the World Economic Forum ranks Switzerland # 1 out of 180 countries.
Switzerland gets the 2020 crown for the cleanest country in the world.
In addition to Switzerland’s long history of “neutrality” it also has one of the lowest crime rates among all the developed countries.
You experience this safety with all the cleanliness you see in the streets, restaurants and most evident in the bathrooms. Even the bathrooms in remote Swiss Alp huts are always kept immaculately clean.
I recall as a Bern public outdoor & indoor pool recreation area, “Badmeister” my responsibilities as a lifeguard included cleaning the changing room areas. You cleaned the changing room areas with a regimented 4 page instructional protocol of specific colored sprays and cleaning rags to use. Each shower, mirror and other areas had specific things to do and use.
The friendliness of the people and especially the local guides can make a good trip a one of your- lifetime-trips. We took our extended family members on a weeklong Swiss Alp Jungfrau region trip; it’s something they all still vividly remember and often talk about.
Our local great English speaking Swiss guide had all our transportation handled so efficiently we didn’t have to worry about what tickets to show or where to stand on the train platforms. We just followed him and it made everything so effortless. Americans are not used to making multiple train platform changes. I recall we made over five effortless 7 to 10 minute train changes in one day and all we had to do was follow our guide.
Each platform has numeric markings and our guides knew where we all had to stand to board the right section where we all sat. And yes the trains depart on time. So when the actual train was 12 to 14 cars long, we stood in the right spot to just board the car in front of us and avoided the last minute panic to fuss to find our designated car.
In addition our local guide gave us great insight into the cultural and historical uniqueness of where we were in so it helped us to understand the place we were experiencing.
We had 5 & 7 year old grand kids, in addition to teenagers and their parents who relished with laughter and fun while walking around with the surrounding Swiss Alps peak mountains as the backdrop. The simple act of all of us eating outdoors on this panoramic veranda with each of us ordering off the menu provided a meal with so much fun and happiness.
Food in Switzerland
Mostly the food is fairly normal by western standards. There are endless little variations on cured meats, breads, and cheese all over the country. There are something along the lines of 450 different cheeses, and various dishes made using them. Emmentaler, Gruyere and Appenzeller are the big 3 cheese types that you will find in every shop in Switzerland. Unsurprisingly the chocolate options are also pretty extensive.
Switzerland is definitely a dream getaway place where you and your loved ones will feel and be safe, get to live that “Sound-of-Music” experience and come home with a sense of renewal and lifelong memories.
We recently stayed at the Evergreen Lodge in Yosemite.
Click here for more information on the Evergreen Lodge
I mentioned to Lance, our experienced, local, guide, that we have a newSemi-Guided Swiss Jungfrau region multi-day hike.
He responded: “ I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Semi-Guided hike before”.
I responded by saying “you are right; we are the only company offering this kind of tour.”
By providing meet-greet and transfer at the Zürich airport, providing a local English speaking guide on your first day of hiking, you have all the information & resources you need to experience your Swiss Alps hike of a lifetime.
Echo Trails provides all the logistics, eliminate all the hassles and reduces costs.
All other Swiss Alps hiking companies offer either self-guided or fully guided hiking trips.
ECHO Rails & Trails is the only company offering visitors this all inclusive program at under $400.- per person per day.
Listen to what others have said about their ECHO Rails & Trails – Jungfrau Region hiking experience.
Check this out for yourselves and book your Swiss Alps lifetime experience today!
ECHO Rails & Trails – Semi Guided Jungfrau Region – Via Alpina # 1 hikeClick here for more information
We always like to hear from you so let me know what you think.
https://echo-trails.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/echo-logo-red.png00Barry Goldsteinhttps://echo-trails.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/echo-logo-red.pngBarry Goldstein2019-10-21 10:27:492021-07-07 21:09:44Suzanne and Rene in Los Altos Hills Magazine
“Thank you René and Suzanne for the most wonderful vacation/experience we had over the past 10 days.
You took us to the most beautiful places and showed us the best of Alps. I can’t stop thinking about some of the peaks we explored and how we challenged ourselves to higher elevations. I now have to contend with our photos of a great trip. I think the trip was very well organized, the accommodations were great and the food was excellent.
Your care and generosity was exemplary. I shall live with the memories of this great trip for life”
“We can definitely recommend the ECHO Rails & Trails Swiss Alps program.”
The things we liked best dealt with the small group and flexibility. Based on the daily schedule and weather, due to our small group the guides are able to come up with alternate things to do and see so we maximized our time to see the most important things on the trip. The hotels, meals, especially the ability to choose å la carte at some of the dinners all very excellent.
Our wish was to experience trains and we definitely did. We enjoyed the timeliness, cleanliness and of course the wonderful Swiss scenery all the time. With this trip we finally experienced the Alpine part of Switzerland and were very surprised and impressed to learn of the different Swiss dialects and diverse landscape.
René as guide was very good as he explained many of the cultural differences of the Swiss places we visited. Also he shared how the Swiss government is set up and runs, all very interesting for us. All in all our experiences with this Swiss Alps Rail program we rate as excellent value for our money and can recommend wholeheartedly.
The first time I experienced the Glacier Express was in the 1990’s when I traveled with tour operator Presidents from the United States Tour Operator Association, on an Out- of- Country Switzerland meeting as the USA Graubünden Tourist Office representative. It was Winter with the surroundings covered in white snow and everyone experiencing a “magical” kind of trip then.
In 2012 when I started freelancing Swiss Rail trips, I would do 4 to 9 Glacier Express trips a summer. This past year, I completed my 50th Glacier Express trip that coincidentally occured on my birthday. To top my day I lunched with the newly appointed President of the Glacier Express LLC, Annemarie Meyer, a tourism colleague, to hear first-hand upcoming Glacier Express new features.
It’s taken me a few years to actually understand & appreciate the engineering wonders the Glacier Express offers passengers. Here are some the Glacier Express highlights worth mentioning.
The Glacier Express began it’s journey as a 1930 train “brand” that connects St. Moritz in the canton of Graubünden, to Zermatt in the canton of Valais and vice versa traveling through the most scenic parts of Switzerland. The name honored the Rhone Glacier as it gave passengers the ability to see the Rhone Glacier as it traveled over the Furka pass.
The Glacier Express traverses the 181 mi / 291-kilometre-long journey through the center of the Swiss Alps, over 291 bridges, through 91 tunnels. The panorama windows that run from your elbow to the top of the roof, make for excellent viewing of the moving countryside.
Because the entire line is meter gauge (narrow gauge railway) this engineering allows the train to make the various grades; the lowest in Chur at 1,919 ft / 585m, to the highest Oberalp Pass , 6,670 ft. 2.033m.
To make the Glacier Express express more efficient and memorable, our trip starts in St. Moritz and departs in Andermatt around 2:00p.m. This allows people to experience the main highlights such as the Landwasser Viaduct,Albula tunnel,the ascent from Chur at 1,919 ft to the Oberalp pass summit 6,670 ft. while lunch is served.
By overnighting in Andermatt, people get to experience the Gotthard pass region, a 1940’s Swiss military bunker, ride a 2-hour Furka Steam Train and see the Rhone Glacier the next day. We end up in Zermatt but travel via Lugano and then the Centovalli railway train later to finally make our way to Zermatt.
Guided Hikes of Swiss Alps – First to Bussalp and North Face/Via Alpina to Rotstockhütte
During our visit to the Swiss Alps this past July, I was able to perform two guided hikes with ECHO Trails led by Rene Welti.
The first of the two was from First to Bussalp via Bachalpsee where we were able to hike to up to a wonderful view of the valley and a small Alpine Hut.
Our second hike was the North Face /Via Alphina to Rotstockhütte where we stopped for some home made pies before walking back to Mürren.
