Flacier Express
 

Anyone traveled on the scenic Glacier Express through the Alps?
How do you reach from Milan?
We're traveling in early April. What's the weather like? Thanks

Hi patiboo,

We took the Glacier Express from St. Moritz to Zermatt.
Two things that stand out about the trip:

1) The scenery was great along the way, but so was the scenery on other trains we took in Switzerland.
2) The roughly 9 hours it actually took was WAY too much time spent on a train.

Sounded like a great trip, we enjoyed it for a while, but we wouldn't do the entire trip like that again.

Paul

Thanks for your reply (and sorry about my mistyping in the subject line).
The length of this trip was my concern too as we have two weeks and want to do Nice, Milan and Venice as well.
Did you visit the Lakes (Como, Maggiore) too?
Any Swiss villages that you would recommend? Thanks so much.

You can take it partly or for the full length of its two variants - Zermatt to Chur then Davos or St. Moritz.

A nice way to get from Milan to St.Moritz is the train to Lugano then the Palm Express coach to St. Moritz. Goes through a lovely piece of Italy. Check it out.

Or you take the fast train into Switzrland, to Brig, where you switch to the train up to Zermatt. Spend two nights (one full day) at least, then take the Glacier Express from there.

You could of course skip Zermatt, do Milan-Brig and hop on the Glacier Express right there.

So there are several ways to do it, take your pick.

Hi Pati - Have you considered the Bernina Express? A spectacular ride from Italy (Tirano) over the mountains to Switzerland (San Moritz) ...

Steve

I rode the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Chur in March of 2005. There had been a lot of snow and the views were spectacular. I rode 2nd class and purchased a picnic to take with me at the Coop. It was quite a congenial group in my car. I would do it again.

IMO The Glacier Express is one of the most over-hyped over-publicized scenic trains in Switzerland and i would consider several others to have much more dramatic scenery. Plus the whole thing is a long 8-9 hour marathon on a often packed train.

Take it for portions that are utilitarian like Dolly Llama advises but i would not go out of my way just to ride this rather mainly ordinary train (really scenic parts are Chur-St Moritz and Brig-Zermatt). Actually the moniker Glacier Express stems from the days when the Glacier Express climbed up and over the Furka Pass where you could glimpse the awesome glaciers from the summit - now the Glacier Express tunnels under the Furka Pass so you see no glaciers a'tall until just near Zermatt. The tunnel made year-round running possible whereas the Glacier Express previously had to suspend service due to snow on the Furka Pass.