ECHO Rails Swiss Resident English-Speaking Guides
They are the backbone of our trips: ECHO Rails Guides are the best in business when it comes to knowledge, experience and friendliness. Their fluency allows them to share Switzerlands’ salient features and their individual Swiss stories. This list of Echo Rails guides shares an insight into each of their backgrounds. Their communication and storytelling skills, ability to make connections, and “relate to visitors” make the ECHO Rails guides truly unique. They are here to make your experience the best possible, whether it means telling you the history of Wilhelm Tell, lending you a jacket or helping you find the nearest Swiss watch shop. ECHO Rails guides helped hundreds of visitors and has received numerous recommendations from many happy customers. We will be happy to make your next trip to Switzerland truly unforgettable. Andrea Caspani
Meet ECHO Rails Guides
Andrea Caspani
Lucerne
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 tour activities.
Andrea’s passion is to take people into the mountains, and he has been doing this throughout his entire tourism career.
Born around Lake Como, Andrea earned a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism from the University of Como and a Master’s 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 100 days on the slopes of Switzerland’s most famous resorts.
Monika Fellmann
Lucerne
Petr Pospisil
Zermatt
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) as their Queen.
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
Denise Girard
Lucerne
Andreas Zwimpfer
Lucerne
Andreas hails from Central Switzerland’s Lake Sempach, “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.
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.
Eve Harpur
Lucerne
Deb Lemon
Interlaken
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 is passionate about getting into the Swiss Alps whenever she can.
Ezra Pirk is a local guide from Lucerne and has been doing tours for almost 10 years now. He has been working for Echo Tours for the last two years.
Besides moving all over Switzerland, he has traveled a lot in the USA as a part of his family is originally from there.
Ezra is experienced with all kinds of tours, from small 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 kinds of other locations, including many more activities.
Besides guiding tours, Ezra works as an artist and actor and also produces films.
Ezra Pirk
Lucerne
Dave Harpur
Lucerne
Originally from Cape Town, SA, where he completed 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.
John guides for ECHO Rails 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.
John Webster
Lucerne
Leo Wetterli
Zurich
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.
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.
Thomas Aschwanden
Canton Uri
Madeleine Forrer
Lucerne
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.
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.
David Lingard
Bern
Brigitte Giger
Zurich
Born and raised in the heart of Switzerland, Brigitte 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.
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.
Romina & Patricia
Lugano
John Webster
St. Moritz
For the past 25+ years, John’s lived in St. Moritz, even though he’s originally Australian.
During the summer, he’s the area’s no. 1 English-speaking hiking guide and coordinates many of St. Moritz’s events for the English-speaking media and participants.
During the winter he works as a ski instructor.
