Swtizerland
 

Hello,
Trying to plan a trip out of St Louis to Switzerland. The tour is called Vacation by Rails. This is an 11 day trip that involves all trains. I never been that far out of th US. Has anyone been on this tour. If we go it would be in July.

Welcome to Fodor's forums! Always nice to see new people posting.

I have had many wonderful trips to Switzerland, but I just flew into Geneva then went by train to other cities around Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). I was not part of a tour.

July should be beautiful weather in Switzerland! No idea about the tour provider though.

What company is offering the tour? The title on its own is meaningless.

It is very easy to travel in Switzerland on your own without a tour. For info on trains see: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-switzerland.htm

Larry, are you choosing this tour because you don’t feel comfortable planning this yourself? If so, Fodor’s is a great resource, and so many people here would be willing to help you.
If you can log into a travel forum, you are halfway to being able to plan your own trip.

This tour looks so rushed. One thing I did when starting my planning was look at what tours offered and check those sights and work out what my goals were (don’t know if you are interested in historic towns, easy or hard mountain hikes, museums, lake cruises..)

Can I reassure you that Switzerland offers an incredibly efficient and coordinated transport system. A train ride to Meiringen for example, will be met by a number of bus options to distant villages or thrilling mountain passes.

if you feel a bit overwhelmed, the beaten path is popular because it is spectacular. Get off your plane in Zurich, buy a ticket to Lucerne, stay there, do mountain and lake cruises, get on a bus and jump off at some little villages, then move on to a mountain destination, easy to spend a week in Wengen or Meiringen or Sils Maria and you’d be surrounded by mountains and wonderful lakes (walks, cable car rides, fantastic rail or bus journeys).

Each region is quite different and interesting, and a tour would just whizz you through them.

Please don’t feel like your lack of prior travel to Europe means you can’t do this yourself.

One thing to remember is that in some places, if you stay at a hotel you get a free pass for local transport. If you stay at a hotel in Lugano, for example, your free transport pass (2nd class) will cover public transport (buses, trains, at least one funicular) for the entire Ticino canton. Here in Basel, the local pass covers the Basel urban area. So with this tour group, you could be paying for something you would get free, depending on where you stay. Note: these passes aren't offered with AirBnB/ VRBO etc rentals.

Ticket agents usually speak English and can be very helpful with your trip planning. If you really want to take an organized tour, fine, your choice, but travelling independently is actually quite easy in Switzerland and you can pick the locations and type of accommodation that most appeals to you.

I did an all rail trip to Switzerland in 2016 (click on my name, and the trip report appears in my profile). Bought a 15 day Swiss Travel Pass and used the heck out of it. With the SBB (Swiss Rail) app, it made getting anywhere easy as trains were coordinated with connecting busses and boats, both of which were covered by the Pass. Even gets you a discount on high mountain lifts.

If you aren't comfortable planning your own trips, then a guided tour is fine, but the logistics of getting from point to point by public transportation don't get any easier than Switzerland. and you can use the itinerary for some of those guided trips as a starting point. There are folks here who can help you make adjustments and fill in the details.