Riding both GE and BE
 

Any advantages or suggestions on doing one vs the other
a) From Milan via Tirano, ride the Bernina express to St. Moritz. Spend a couple nights there and then take the Glacier Express to Zermatt.

B) Follow the reverse order, from Milan to Zermatt, spend a couple days there and then take the glacier express to St. Moritz and then the Bernina express from St. Moritz to Chur.
Looking for input in terms of convenience, best routes on each of the 2 trains etc.
We want to ride on both and do not mind extended rides on both the trains.

My perspective: Don't use the "named" express on either route unless you are CERTAIN that the named (privately run) train suits your purposes better than the options through Swiss Rail, which I believe would be less costly. You won't have windows over your head -- but frankly, you don't need to see the sky. ;-) Local and regional trains travel these same tracks with greater frequency and greater flexibility (as you can get off and back on quite easily). Look at the web-site for Swiss Rail to see what would work for you:
http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

Once you explore your options, you can decide which sequence works better for you.

Time of year might also matter, and I don’t think you mentioned that….

Agree that there is no reason to actually pay for the BE. BE is a fancier car with Windows on the ceiling, but hooked into the regular train. So you travel the same route regardless of which car you ride in.

I wouldn't stay in St. MOritz as I found it sterile. Go on to Pontresina, it's a cute little town maybe 15 minutes or so down the track.

St. Moritz to Chur has nothing to to with the highlights of Bernina Express; it's just backtracking along the Glacier Express itinerary.

The panorama cars have MUCH larger windows than regular cars in addition to those "windows on the ceiling." On the Glacier there used to be a running commentary played in the panorama cars.

It really IS up to you. You can ride the "named" train or you can ride, and change, using the local services.

I agree about the sterility of the "downtown" (if you can call it that) of St. Moritz. Now, that said, I also said the panorama cars are better so I'll leave it to you.

Here's another perspective: why the hell would anybody go all the way to Switzerland and then ride some "regular" train?

Agree, the windows are bigger on the BE. That said the ones on the regular cars were just fine I thought. While the one BE car was pretty full, the regular cars were not. It was nice to be able to jump back and forth between sides for the views on both sides. The schedule was more accomodating for the regular train with just a couple times for the BE (this was in Sept). I guess I'm just a regular kind of person. Here are pictures https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...tbnw=240&w=504

"why the hell would anybody go all the way to Switzerland and then ride some "regular" train?"

Some reasons: greater convenience in scheduling, avoiding the crowds on the named trains, using one's limited money for other purposes, being able to OPEN the windows (which I don't believe is possible with the panoramic windows), ...

To each his/her own!

"why the hell would anybody go all the way to Switzerland and then ride some "regular" train?"

in order to see how Swiss people and Swiss families travel,
in order to get an idea of the different local dialects which change completely from valley to valley,
in order to chat with local people who are often happy to speak (and improve their) English,
in order to see better the beautiful some hundred years old wooden houses in the Goms Valley, because the standard train stops at these places,
in order to be able to open the windows and to take pictures at particularly scenic places,
in order to leave spontaneously the train at a particularly scenic station and to go on with the next one 1 hr later,
in order to leave the train at Fiesch for example, deposit the luggage at the railway station and take the gondola to Eggishorn, a almost 3000 meteres high viewpoint just above Aletsch Glacier with views from Mont Blanc via Matterhorn up to Jungfraujoch, have lunch at Fiescheralp, go down by gondola and continue the train journey some 3 hrs later.....

All that is not possible in sterile GEX trains where the board language is English and where you will find no Swiss people (except the train staff).

@ neckervd: :-)