Switzerland Rail Tours on the Panoramic Trains

What Does a Switzerland Rail Tour Include?

Think of it as the famous trains of the Swiss Alps, joined up for you. You fly out, meet your tour manager, and from then on the itinerary is planned around each train journey, from the Bernina Express spiralling down to Tirano to the GoldenPass Express rolling from the vineyards above Lake Geneva into the Bernese Oberland. Someone else has checked that the connections work.

What's included varies by tour:

• Flights from UK airports, into Zurich, Geneva or Milan.
• Accommodation, either one hotel all week or a few stops on a touring route.
• The rail journeys and excursions named in the itinerary, with seats reserved where needed.
• Some meals, from breakfast only to lunches and dinners.
• A tour manager (Travelsphere calls theirs a Holiday Director) who looks after tickets, check-ins and timings.

Anything listed as optional, such as the Jungfraujoch on Travelsphere's summer tour, is an extra. The tour cards say which is which.

Which Panoramic Trains Does Each Tour Ride?

None of these train tours in Switzerland rides every famous line, and that's no bad thing: cramming them all in would leave little time for the lakes and villages.

Only one strings the big three together. The Best of Switzerland crosses the Bernina Pass to Tirano and back from Davos, rides the Glacier Express west to Brig, then follows the GoldenPass line down towards Lausanne, with a Lake Thun cruise and the cable car up the Schilthorn along the way. If ticking off the famous names is the point, start there.

Bernina Express

The Rhaetian Railway's Albula and Bernina lines are a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Bernina Express runs over both, from Chur over the Bernina Pass into Italy. Near the top you'll pass the Palü Glacier, then the line loops right round the Brusio Circular Viaduct before rolling into Tirano. Every passenger pays a Bernina Express seat reservation, and on a tour it's part of the booking.

Newmarket's Lake Como, St Moritz and the Bernina Express takes the line on a day out from Italy, with time in St Moritz. Our Bernina Express guide follows the route stop by stop.

Glacier Express

Nicknamed the slowest express in the world, this train links St Moritz and Zermatt and takes most of a day end to end, through deep gorges, over high passes and past meadows that stay green until the first snow. On The Best of Switzerland you ride it as far as Brig with lunch served at your seat.

Two rules catch independent travellers out. Seats must be booked ahead and that supplement isn't covered by a Swiss Travel Pass, and the train takes an annual break from mid-October to early December (both are on the Glacier Express FAQs). The Glacier Express holidays page lists every tour that includes it.

GoldenPass Express

These days the GoldenPass Express runs right through from Montreux via Gstaad to Interlaken without a change of train, its carriages switching track gauge at Zweisimmen. Climbing out of Montreux, you look straight down over the vineyards to the lake.

Then the scenery turns to chalets and cow pastures.

Winter in Switzerland rides it from Interlaken to Montreux and adds a guided visit to Chillon Castle with wine tasting, while Swiss Alpine Glories is based at Château-d'Oex, right on the line, and rides it both ways. Prestige class, a step up from first class, needs its own booking (see MOB seat reservations), and our GoldenPass Express guide explains the classes.

Centovalli Railway and the Jungfrau Cogwheel Line

Two smaller lines round things off. The Centovalli Railway twists through the "hundred valleys" between Domodossola and Locarno, and Lake Maggiore, Zermatt and the Centovalli Railway pairs it with a day over the Simplon Pass and up to Zermatt by shuttle train for the Matterhorn. In winter, Winter in Switzerland takes the cogwheel train from Grindelwald up to Kleine Scheidegg, right below the Eiger, for lunch in the snow!

Escorted Tour or the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland on Your Own?

The Grand Train Tour of Switzerland is the tourist board's own route, a loop of scenic trains linking Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Montreux, Zermatt, St Moritz and Lugano, with the Gotthard Panorama Express on the stretch between Lugano and Lucerne (MySwitzerland's Grand Train Tour page has the sections). You travel it yourself, on a pass or point-to-point tickets, and our grand train tour of Switzerland page covers it in detail.

Going alone lets you add Lucerne, Lake Lucerne and the Rigi, which none of these escorted tours visit. The catch is that every job below becomes yours.

The Glacier Express suggests no more than one extra piece of luggage beyond your hand luggage, and SBB's luggage service delivers cases two days after you hand them in, so independent travellers often pack light.

Timing Your Train Journey Around the Seasons

The trains set the calendar. With the Glacier Express resting from mid-October to early December, the touring itinerary runs from late spring to early autumn, when the high passes are clear. Then there's the snow week. Travelsphere stays in one hotel in Interlaken and sticks to the mountain railway to Kleine Scheidegg and the GoldenPass Express, with frozen waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen valley and fondue in Gruyères. Our guide to Switzerland in winter covers what runs and what closes.

Which of These Swiss Rail Tours Suits You?

• The famous names in one go: The Best of Switzerland, the only touring route here.
• Snow, chocolate and fondue: Winter in Switzerland, with a visit to Maison Cailler.
• One lakeside hotel in Italy: the Lake Como or Lake Maggiore tours, crossing the Alps on day trips.
• A quiet Alpine village: Swiss Alpine Glories in the Pays-d'Enhaut, with Grindelwald and Gruyères as excursions.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Book

For every escorted holiday on the site, see Swiss rail holidays, or compare the scenic train rides in Switzerland first. The rest of our rail planning lives on Switzerland by Train.

Questions people ask