12-Day Swiss Alps Grand Rail Tour

Arrive early and acclimate!

For more peace of mind, add the Pre-Tour Airport Meet-and-Greet option when booking the 12-Day or 3-Day rail tour. Click here for more details....

Old Town, Lucerne

Day 2 is a delightful introduction to the Swiss transportation experience in Switzerland, a travel system of interlocking parts, all of which are perfectly synchronized.

We'll be enjoying spectacular alpine views from Lucerne’s two home peaks, Mt. Rigi and Mt. Pilatus. We'll travel on the Mt. Rigi Railway featuring the very first cogwheel train, in service since 1871. This is where the tourism business began in 1863 when Thomas Cook in brought the first packaged-tour group to the region.In the afternoon, we'll scale the sister peak by Pilatus Rail, still the steepest (48% grade) cogwheel train in the world.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Continental Park Hotel (or comparable lodging)
Transport: Mt. Rigi Railway, Pilatus Rail

Descending Mt. Pilatus on the world's steepest cogwheel railway

We depart on the Voralpen Express, traveling through the rolling landscapes of Eastern Switzerland to St Gallen where well visit the Abbey Library–one of the oldest libraries in the world. Built in the 9th Century A. D., the library maintains priceless manuscript collections from the Carolingian and Ottonian period. In the afternoon, we'll continue on to Chur, where we'll transfer to the legendary Glacier Express route bound for St. Moritz. Sites along the way include the spectacular Landwasser limestone railway viaduct, a World Heritage Site on the Albula Railway.

Once in St. Moritz, we will take the legendary Muottas Muragl Funicular where we have dinner on top of the mountain overlooking the Engadin valley, between the towns of Samedan, St. Moritz and Pontresina.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Hauser Hotel (or comparable lodging)
Transport: Volparen Express, Glacier Express

Glacier Express crossing the Landwasser Viaduct, Albula Railway

Our group boards the Bernina Express to travel across the highest railway in the Alps, a route the offer spectavular views of mountain peaks, glaciers and waterfalls. These are the Alps at their most impressive. In the afternoon, after we have visited the 9,700ft  Diavolezza summit and return to St. Moritz, there is an opportunity to do a 1 ½ hr leisurely walk through the forest on the public path from Pontresina to St. Moritz. The rest of the day there is time to stroll around St. Moritz and explore on your own.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Hauser Hotel (or comparable lodging)
Transport: Bernina Express

Corvatsch

Day 5 provides another opportunity to take the Glacier Express route, universally acclaimed as one of the world’s great railway journeys. You'll cross the Albula line and Landwasser Viaduct a second time, but from the South. The train continues along the Rhine Gorge (Switzerland’s ‘Grand Canyon’) and up to the Oberalp Pass (2033 meters/6000 feet). Enjoy a rarity, a hot meal at your seat, as the train climbs over 1000 meters from Disentis to Oberalp, before arriving at Andermatt in the early afternoon.

In the afternoon, the group will take a 2-hour ride in the Furka Cogwheel Steam Train, a historic rail transport fully restored to its original condition. The second highest rail crossing in Europe—after the Bernina—the Furka train offers unparalleled views of the Rhone and Mutt glaciers.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Crown Hotel (or comparable lodging)
Transport: Glacier Express, Furka Cogwheel Steam Train

Furka Steam Railway

In the morning, we'll ride up to the Gotthard Pass summit to get a sense of Switzerland’s defence system during World War II. A Swiss military historian will be on hand when we visit the formerly top-secret Elsasso Gothardo military bunker built to protect Switzerland’s southern flank from invading forces. If you tire of military relics, there are plenty of trails and beautiful mountain scenery to explore.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Chedi Hotel (or comparable lodging)

Swiss Artillery Fort Furggels near the village of St. Magrethenberg

Saying goodbye to Andermatt, we'll travel through the Furka Tunnel connecting the German-speaking region of Switzerland to the Swiss Canton of Valais where both Swiss German and French is spoken. The peculiarity of the Swiss German spoken in Valais is that is one of the most difficult to understand.

The Furka Base Tunnel is a Swiss railway base tunnel on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn's Furka–Oberalp line, an east-west railway connecting the cantons of Valais and Uri.

We'll arrive in picturesque Zermatt early enough for a relaxed amble around town, with views of the Matterhorn around every corner. Even after a little shopping, there’s plenty of time left to enjoy wellness services at our hotel.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Resort La Ginabelle (or comparable lodging)

Approaching the Matterhorn

Experience breathtaking views of Mt. Matterhorn and the Alps in an excursion that combines a cogwheel train ride with an easy-to-moderate day hike

You'll ride Europe’s second highest railway and the highest open-air railway on the continent—the Gornergrat cogwheel train climbing up to the 10,134 feet (3089 meters) offering incredible views of the Matterhorn along the way.

The group walks up to the 360-degree platform area providing a panoramic view of 29 alpine peaks higher than 13,123 feet (4000 meters)–including the world-famous Matterhorn.

Our 1-2 hour guided hike travels along sign-posted trails of an alpine nature reserve feature awe-inspiring views of the Matterhorn mirrored in pristine alpine lakes.

Along the way, you'll learn about the origins of Zermatt and the people of the canton of Valais (French) or Wallis (German).

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Resort La Ginabelle (or comparable lodging)

The Gornergrat Cogwheel Rail Train

Travel through the French speaking Canton of Valais – known as the fruit basket of Switzerland offering delightful views of terraced vineyards and fruit trees. We arrive in Montreux and change trains to the Goldenpass Line. We travel in either either a Classic train car or the Panorama Car with big panorama windows.

What's new on the Goldenpass Line it now runs on a variable gauge bogie allowing the train to switch from a metric track (1) to standard track (1m435). This 100% Swiss technological means we no longer have to change trains in Zweisimmen as we stay on the same train from Montreux to Interlaken that saves time and increases our comfort level since we don’t have to change trains anymore.

In Interlaken we stop for an immersive Chocolate Workshop. You will learn all about the origin of chocolate making as well as how to identify and understand the different tastes of chocolate.

The professional Chocolatiers will show you how to create your own masterpiece chocolate bar all the while enjoying a pleasurable and fun experience.

We continue on the GoldenPass Line through the Préalps of the canton of Fribourg and through the beautiful Simmental Valley known for the sturdy brown and white cows and the world famous resort town of Gstaad, home to many Hollywood stars.

View Alpine valleys and rolling hills, green pastures and grazing cows, wooden chalets and picturesque villages as we journey to the Jungfrau region – one of Switzerland’s oldest and most popular resorts in the UNESCO World Heritage Jungfrau region.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel Alpina, Grindelwald (or comparable lodging)

Goldenpass Rail Line

Day 10 is a memorable one, starting with a train ride to the top of the Jungfraujoch, a complex built between the Mönch and Jungfrau mountains—the perfect venue for viewing Europe’s largest Aletsch glacier. Mountains, snow, and ice as far as one can see. Sit in a deck chair, go tubing or simply walk on the glacier and become one with nature. The afternoon finds the group on a train to Lauterbrunnen where we transfer to a postal bus on its way to Trümmelbach Falls, a series of ten glacier-fed waterfalls within the mountain, made accessible by a tunnel-funicular—a complex of lifts, galleries, tunnels, paths and platforms constructed in 1913. The falls carry melt water from the glaciers—up to 20,000 liters of water per second, rushing over 20,000 tons of boulders. The mountain shudders and thunders unceasingly—a stage for nature's majesty.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel Alpina, Grindelwald (or comparable lodging)

Observatory and restaurant at Jungraujoch

In the morning we board the local public Grindelwald Bus for a scenic ride over the Grosse Scheidegg pass where we see the 12,000ft Wetterhorn mountain peak written up by British climbers in 1856 that ushered in the so-called golden age of alpinism, the exploration of the Alps by British mountaineers. 

We ride past alpine meadows and chalets to reach the Schwarzwaldalp. We change buses with time to visit the old Schwarzwaldalp sawmill. 

Then we continue past the Reichenbach falls that was the fictional location for where Sherlock Holmes, fights to the death with Professor Moriarty, at the end of "The Final Problem", first published in 1893. 

Once in Meiringen, we transfer to the Zentral Railway and travel over the Brünig Pass to  Lucerne where we connect to the train to Zurich.

In Zürich we will have lunch at a local restaurant in the heart of town. Afterwards there is time for your Guide to provide a walk-through in the old parts of Zürich. Towards evening we head to the Zürich main station and take the train to our Zürich airport hotel and check you in.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Radison Blu (or comparable lodging)
Transport: Grindelwald Bus, Zentral Railway

POST-TOUR TOUCH OF ITALY

Not ready to go home? The Post-Tour option extends your rail tour with 3 days of Italian flair, both in the Swiss canton of Ticino and the Lake Como-Bellagio-Lugano region of Italy. Click here for details....

Add to the memories by selecting the Post-Tour option when booking a 12-Day or 3-Day rail tour.