I am skiing in Zermatt March 11-18. How is the train ride if we were to fly into Paris and ride to Zermatt? (Airlines reward miles are not available to use to Geneva or Zurich). Thanks!

In winter there is a direct TGV Paris - Brig called TGV de neige, maybe just 1 or 2 of them a week. Try to check is with www.sbb.ch.

Unless you can get on some super fast service the rail trip Paris to Zermatt with at least one change (definitely Brig or Visp depending on train type and route to Brig if not two (possibly Geneva depending onrouting)..

bottom line: about 7 1/2 to 8 hours total.

ONE alternative; fly on EasyJet from CDG to Basel and rail from there; fly on EasyJet from Paris Orly to Geneva and rail from there.

Thanks. Looks like I have to wait unitl much closer to my trip to book a train ride. No matter the time of the trip, it will at least be beautiful scenery I have never seen before. And that's worth it, right?

I also jsut checked out the EasyJet and that is a pretty good deal but the fact that we would still have to take the train from Geneva to Zermatt....may be better just to take the train the whole way.

Could you possibly fly into Milan with your miles? If you flew into Milan, I believe the train to Zermatt is about four hours, as opposed to the 7-8 hour ride from Paris.

Tracy

I agree with Intrepid, I did that last summer and it worked out well. Spent one day/night in Vevey which was breathtaking, then on to Zermatt.

flygirl,
so you flew from Paris to Vevey and then railed to Zermatt? How long was that train ride?

I would agree that trying to connect from your free flight in Paris to an onward paid flight to Geneva or Zurich would probably save the most time. Geneva airport is 4 hours from Zermatt, Zurich airport is 4.5 hours. Flying into Basel is kind of a pain as there is no rail connection at Basel airport and you have to take a taxi (expenisive) or a bus (a pain with luggage esp skis) to get to the train station. Milan would be much the same as Basel as there is no train connection at the airport (well there is, but it is to the wrong train station and would require a transfer between stations, not really fun with luggage esp skis), and it would take an hour or more by bus or taxi to get from the airport to the train station.

There is no airport in Vevey, you have to fly into Geneva for that region, I believe flygirl was talking abouy breaking up a longish train ride by stopping in Vevey for a few days; which is certainly on option for you and it is very beautuful, but hard to do on tobht ends of your trip as I assuem you have to fly out of Paris as well. Between what you would spend on jotels and meals you could spend on a round trip flight from Paris to Geneva and then just train from Geneva to Zermatt (4 hours).

If you can fly to London on for free using miles or get a good airfare, you might be able to fly from London to Sion, Switzterland on fly.be airlines. From there, you can take a train to Zermatt in 2 hours. It seems that some Fly.be flights go out of Gatwick airport so you may have to switch airports in London. You would also have to take a taxi or bus from the airport in Sion to the train station, about 15 minuties; so you would have to adding up all the time trouble and cost of doing this, but if you can get a free flight to and from London this might be worth it. From the website for the Sion airport, it dies not apopear that winter 2006 flight timings have been set yet, so it may be hard to plan.

In any event, if you can fly to London on free miles, you could also try to get a flight to Zurich or Geneva from there and then train down to Zermatt. You could also look into fly into Frankfurt or Amsterdam on miles and connecting to a flight to Geneva or Zurich.

Website for flybe. is http://www.flybe.com/. I kow nothing about this airline.

Webiste for the Swiss Rail train system is rail.ch. Also look into the price of the rail ticket versus the price of the flights, the TGV (the superfast train) is not espeically cheap.

You are right that the train ride is great on the TGV. You might consider taking a night train back to Paris from Zermatt if you have an early morning departure from Paris as this would give you a day in Zermatt, look at schedules.

snookle,

it was less than 3 hours Vevey-Zermatt. I landed in Geneve, took a late train to Vevey.

my experience was kinda like "living" the Wizard of Oz... arriving in the dark, I couldn't see my surroundings at all... (no idea how close the mountains were etc) and woke up the next morning to breathtaking mountains, sunshine, fresh air, and just stunning beauty. (likely also how people feel arriving in Venice via the train, for the first time... just takes your breath away).

there is just something about Switzerland!

my old thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34497722

If you arrive at CDG, take the train. But if it's Orly, check the times to see if you should fly easyjet from there to Geneva. Book early, I did it for under 30 USD incl. all fees and taxes - can't be beat if the timing works out. Then stay the night somewhere along the lake, like flygirl did, and maybe check out the castle Chillon before heading for Brig where you change for the Zermatt train.

WK