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-   -   Best train route - Zermatt to Zurich (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/best-train-route-zermatt-to-zurich-854518/)

drchris Aug 13th, 2010 08:47 PM

Best train route - Zermatt to Zurich
 
We will be traveling from Zermatt to Zurich on the last leg of our trip to Switzerland and are wondering which route to follow. We will have traveled from Zurich to Lucerne to Lauterbrunnen to Montreux to Zermatt and have been thinking that we would like to travel the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Andermatt, then transfer and go north to Zurich (about 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours, depending on which trains we use). Is Zermatt to Andermatt a particularly scenic portion of the Glacier Express? Is it worth the additonal time to take the Glacier Express all the way to Chur and then head up to Zurich (about 7 to 7 1/2 hours)? Or should we skip the Glacier Express and just take the fastest route to Zurich, via Bern (about 3 1/2 hours)?
Thanks!

swandav2000 Aug 13th, 2010 09:38 PM

Hi drchris,

After about 15 trips to Switzerland, I just took the Glacier Express at the end of July 2010. It's vastly over-rated.

The best part is the highest bit, from Disentis to Andermatt; I thought that the other parts were no better than any other train ride through the Alps. So, no, it wouldn't be worthwhile to make a detour to see it.

Looking at your schedule, it seems that you are doing quite a lot of train travel on your trip. I do hope you have enough time to get your feet onto the mountains in your destinations and aren't just flitting from one place to the other. As nice as the views are from the train, they are hundreds of times more impressive and more dramatic from the tops of mountains. You don't have to hike to enjoy them; just take a cable car up to a mountaintop, sit at a mountaintop restaurant, and memorize the views. That's the real Switzerland imo.

For instance, when I took the GE in July, I spent four nights in Scuol and then three nights in Brig.

Anyway, have fun planning!

s

drchris Aug 16th, 2010 07:08 PM

I hope we won't be disappointed, but for us, the train travel is an important part of the trip, just sitting back and watching the scenery pass by. Our lives have been way too hectic lately for people our age, and we need some "down time." That said, we do plan to "go to the mountain tops" while in Lauterbrunnen (Jungfraujoch) and Zermatt (Gornergrat), and hope to have time for Mt Pilatus while in Lucerne. We have always managed to cover a lot of territory on our travels and still enjoy them. When we find a place we truly love, we try to return for a longer, more leisurely stay, and hope that will be the case for Switzerland - though we have lots more Europe (not to mention the rest of the world) that we hope to see!


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