Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 64 Transcript

Journey across Switzerland on the Glacier Express

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Announcer

Are you dreaming of visiting Switzerland? Planning a trip to Switzerland is very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you choose? Which of the many scenic cities, towns and villages to visit? Which mountaintop excursions should you take? And what’s the best way to get around Switzerland? And of course, how much of the country can you realistically see within your time frame? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions, this is the podcast for you. This is the Holidays to Switzerland travel podcast, and in each episode your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, chats with Swiss travel experts to answer your most commonly asked questions, provide practical tips and take you on a virtual visit to the most popular destinations. And, of course, some hidden gems to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. And you’ll hear plenty of conversations about Swiss cheese and chocolate too. Are you ready to plan your trip to Switzerland? Well, let’s get started.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Gruezi, and welcome to episode 64. Today we’ll be taking a virtual ride on one of Switzerland’s most famous trains, the Glacier Express. This iconic train journey connects the resorts of St Moritz and Zermatt, passing through some of Switzerland’s most spectacular scenery along the way. It’s a bucket list trip for many visitors to Switzerland and is one of the most discussed train rides in the Switzerland Travel Planning Facebook group. With so much interest around the Glacier Express, I invited Gabi Aberle from Matterhorn Gotthard Railway back onto the podcast. Gabi was a guest on episode 51 where she chatted about the Gornergrat railway in our episode about Matterhorn excursions from Zermatt. Gabi is just as passionate about the Glacier Express as she is about Gornergrat so I know you’re going to get a lot of helpful information from this episode. If you’ve ever dreamt of travelling on the Glacier Express or you’re just wondering what all the fuss is about, you won’t want to miss this episode. Before we get started, as always, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the lovely folks from Switzerland, tourism sponsors of the podcast. Their website, myswitzerland.com is packed with tips and inspiration to help with your Switzerland trip planning. So do go and take a look. If you need a natural trophy, you need Switzerland. Now, let’s hear from Gabi and learn all about the Glacier Express. 

Carolyn Schönafinger

Welcome, Gabi. Thank you very much for coming back onto the podcast. It’s lovely to have you here. And for those people who haven’t heard you on episode 51 where you told us all about the Gornergrat excursion at Zermatt, could you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about what you do?

Gabriele Aberle

Hello, Carolyn. Thank you for having me back. Yes, and of course I can tell you a little bit about what I’m doing. I’m working at Matthorn Gotthardbahn, which is a regional train company, and Materhorn Gotthard co-owns Glacier Express together with Rhaetian Railways 50/50. I’m right now responsible for the market of Japan, North America and Australia and representing Gornergratbahn and Glacier Express there. Doing this since about, I think, eight years now.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful. So two of probably the most scenic train rides in Switzerland and you get to represent both of them. That’s a pretty good job.

Gabriele Aberle

It is. When I talk about what I’m doing to people, they usually tell me, how can I get your job? Or where do I apply it?

Carolyn Schönafinger

I’m sure. So we’re here today to talk about the Glacier Express, and it is probably one of the most famous train rides in the whole world, I’d say, not only in Switzerland. So I know a lot of our listeners will have heard of the Glacier Express, but they possibly don’t know a whole lot about it. So could you tell us more about this famous train ride?

Gabriele Aberle

Of course. So the Glacier Express is one of the, I would say, four panoramic train rides within Switzerland. Glacier Express connects the two resorts of St Moritz, which is very well known, with Zermatt in a direct train ride. The train ride itself takes about eight hours and carries the guests through changing sceneries, various different areas, actually, from the higher parts of St Moritz and Zermatt, over the Oberalp Pass, the highest peak within the ride, which is about 2,000 metres high and also down to two valleys, meaning that you get all kinds of changing sceneries when you’re travelling on board of the train. Plus you do have food service at your seat, which makes it even more enjoyable when you’re doing the whole stretch. And as I said, Glacier Express is part of the panoramic trains of Switzerland. So the trains would be the Bernina Express, the Golden Pass Line and the Gotthard Panorama Express, just to mention them as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful. So eight hours from St Moritz to Zermatt with all that beautiful scenery going past your panoramic window. And I believe that the train is actually nicknamed the world’s slowest express train.

Gabriele Aberle

That’s right. And I did some research lately, or actually yesterday, and found out that when it started, it was in 1930, the connection between St Moritz and Zermatt was really looked at as being an express train, because you don’t have to change. And obviously in the 1930s, going via regional trains from one resort to the other would have taken even more time. This is not the case any longer. Meaning the train covers a stretch of roughly 300 kilometres. And the average travel speed, well, not really speed, the train is kind of slow because of all the ups and downs and going through valleys and going through tunnels. And so the average speed is actually 30 kilometres per hour. And this is the reason why it takes eight hours to go from one place to the other, which is nowadays no longer a fast express train. It’s actually one of the slowest express trains we do have in Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

But what a beautiful journey. And I was actually looking up a few facts about the Glacier Express too, before we started chatting. And I was interested to hear that it crosses 291 bridges and goes through 91 tunnels on the trip. And the longest tunnel is just over 15 kilometres long, so you certainly get the variety. As you said, that goes into the valleys, it goes over the Oberalp Pass at 2,000 metres. So there’s a bit of everything.

Gabriele Aberle

Yeah, that’s right. What I found interesting, I actually heard a podcast myself lately about the Glacier Express from another tour operator. And he mentioned 291 bridges. And I thought, no, that’s the distance. He’s mixing up something. And then I looked it up and realised it’s actually the same number. So bridges and stretch or kilometres is the same number. And yeah, it’s really interesting. And especially if you may be a little, little bit into, you know, construction and how did they build everything, it’s a really interesting trip as well. And when you’re just sitting on the train and enjoying your ride, you just have all kinds of changing sceneries outside of your window because it’s so diverse where you’re travelling through. And this is a great thing to do. Yeah. When you want to get from A to B and not just get on a train.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say are some of the highlights of the, of the trip and the, perhaps the main reason that some people like to take the journey.

Gabriele Aberle

We already, or I already mentioned that the scenery, of course, is changing all the time and the view is, of course, of course, spectacular. Then you have the possibility to eat and drink some local dishes on board of the train and they’re all served when you are sitting at your seat. There are also a couple of landmarks I would say you travel over or you pass by. Let’s start in St Moritz. St Moritz is well known as a resort, a ski resort, actually. St. Moritz is one of the first highlights where you get on board of the train, of course. From there you travel along the UNESCO World Heritage, World Heritage site of the Albula Line, which belongs to Rhaetian Railway. And within this World Heritage area is the Landwasser Viaduct, which is quite famous. And you see it very often when you see promotional material for Glacier Express. That’s the bridge where you see the train just on the bridge, because it comes from one tunnel and goes into the next tunnel and the bridge is really high. So the Landwasser Viaduct, it’s the next highlight. From there you reach the oldest city of Switzerland, which is Chur.

Gabriele Aberle

In Chur, actually, the train direction changes, so what was front becomes back and the other way around. And the next highlight you enter would be the Rhine Gorge, where you well, the Swiss refer to it as the Grand Canyon of Switzerland, which is in a way true, but it’s not as impressive and not as big. But the train is the only means of transportation which is travelling through this gorge. And when you see pictures, you hardly see the train because it’s really, really big and it’s very impressive. From there we travel via Disentis, which has a huge monastery you can’t unfortunately visit because the train is not really stopping there. But in Disentis we change the locomotives then, because from there on we use the cogwheel system to get up to the Oberalp Pass, which would be the next highlight. The Oberalp Pass is 2000 metres high, roughly, and that’s the highest point you get with the train. Ride a regular train service and you reach really high altitude. And by the way, it’s not a problem if you think high altitude is not for me, you hardly feel it because the train is so slow.

Gabriele Aberle

It’s not a problem to get to the 2000 metres. From there, the next stop are we going actually down in curves and turns to Andermatt, which becomes right now a new hub for getting on and off the Glacier Express and either move on to the southern part of Switzerland or going up to the northern part, like Lucerne, Interlaken and Zurich. Or you could interrupt the train ride there after like four hours, moving on through the Goms Valley, which is a very typical Swiss valley. Still you have a lot of farms there, you see a lot of cows, you see farmers with their daily work, you see little villages, you see old churches. It’s very, very nice to travel up there. And from there the next stop is Brig, which is again down in the valley. It’s about 500 metres high. And then it’s the last part of the trip which takes you up to Zermatt and takes about another hour. The distance is not that far. But going up to Zermatt is a really steep train ride. And as I mentioned, we already changed our locomotives to be able to do that in Brig. You could actually get off as well another UNESCO World Heritage area, which is the Aletsch arena with the world famous Aletsch Glacier.

Gabriele Aberle

But you don’t see it from the train and yeah, then you arrive in Zermatt, world famous Zermatt with the Matterhorn. And after those eight hours you have travelled through a lot of different Swiss sceneries.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, absolutely. And what would you say if you could just choose one, is there a part of the trip that is the most picturesque?

Gabriele Aberle

Well, I would say it depends a little bit what you expect or what you want to see. I feel, of course the part between St Moritz and Chur is quite impressive, but then again, Oberalp Pass is just a different area region, so it really depends a little bit. And as I already mentioned, going up to Zermatt is also something special because the valley is so narrow, which is not the case in the other areas. And then I always, because I get this question quite often, I always think if you have not been there and you don’t have any comparison, in the end it really doesn’t matter where you travel because you will be impressed anyway, one way or the other. But I know for example, that in some countries they promote the Landwasser Viaduct quite often and so people want to travel over this bridge. But I feel, and we already talked about that we have 291 bridges, so there are other spectacular bridges along the way as well. So if you want to cross over a bridge, it does not necessarily have to be the Landwasser Viaduct.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Absolutely. And that’s a great point that you make there too, about if you haven’t been to Switzerland before and you’ve got nothing to compare it by, the whole trip is just going to be spectacular. And it’s the whole experience too, isn’t it? Hopping on in the morning and then hopping off in the evening after travelling through Switzerland. Such a beautiful route. So what can our listeners expect on board in terms of the services on the train and the different classes and so forth?

Gabriele Aberle

Well, on board of Glacier Express we have of course first and second class and they basically look the same. The only difference between first and second class is the setup, meaning you do have a little bit more space in first class because the configuration is always two seats, an aisle and one seat. And in second class it’s actually two seats and an aisle and another two seats. And we also introduced in 2019 a new class which is above first class and it’s called Excellence Class. So Excellence Class is our premium product, selling very well. And the difference between first, second and Excellence Class is basically that in Excellence Class, food and drink is included in the supplement. You need to pay for the seat reservation. We also have the possibility to have wheelchairs on board. We even do have a wheelchair accessible bathroom in one of our first class carriages. And even if you do have a second class ticket, you would be placed there and you would travel in first class because that’s just the only carriage which has this special. So yeah, this is a possibility. But if you are in a wheelchair and you need to get on board of the train and you can’t walk, you would need to get in touch with the rail service so they can make the proper arrangement.

Gabriele Aberle

If the wheelchair is just because you can’t walk that good, then you can probably get on board of the train yourself and then back to the wheelchair. But I would always recommend to let the rail service know that there will be a wheelchair with this reservation. Then we do have, I already talked about it as well, a real kitchen on board of the train, which is more or less in the middle of the train. And from there they do food or menu service and drink service to the whole train, meaning first, second class and of course Excellence Class. Having said that, I would like to mention that you are not forced to drink and eat on board of the train. If you feel like it, like it, you can actually go to the next supermarket, buy something there like a bottle of wine and some cheese or whatever it is, and bring it on board of the train. You are not forced to order something there. Most people who want who a little bit on a budget usually bring some drinks, bring some snacks and order drinks and that’s it. But you can even bring your own drink and you can bring your alcohol if you feel like that.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And one thing you didn’t mention there about Excellence Class, you mentioned that the food service is included, but I think you should tell everyone how many courses that actually is.

Gabriele Aberle

Oh yeah, okay. Well, it’s not only that the food service is included, it is a six course menu which is included in the service as well. Plus fitting wines to each service, meaning also the wine, or if you prefer beer is included in the service. Six courses are basically when you get on board of the train, you get like a little starter or get some starters and a glass of champagne. And then in summertime it’s salad and in wintertime it’s soup. That’s the next course. Then there is usually a cold course which might or usually is trout. Then there is the main course which is steak. Then there is chocolate cake as a dessert and after chocolate there is a cheese plate and then you’re done with your lunch. But at around 4 o’clock they also have a tea time service. So this kind of rounds up your day. And your last course is the tea time course or the tea time, which is all included in the price. But I mean, Carolyn, when we’re talking about that, prices are a little bit different, but we get to that, I think a little later on.

Gabriele Aberle

So I will mention the prices for excellence class there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful. It certainly sounds like you would not get off Excellence Class feeling hungry.

Gabriele Aberle

And usually you’re also a little bit tipsy, I have to say, because I mean every meal, even if it’s only a small glass, comes with a glass of wine. So. And you can get more wine if it’s not enough for you. So, yeah, if you arrive at one of the two starting points. Yeah, you usually feel really good and we usually have very pleased customers. So, yeah, that’s something which is happening as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful. So you kind of touched on this before when you said that when the train goes from St Moritz to Chur that the direction changes. But I was going to ask you, is there a best side of the train to sit on? So let’s say if someone was travelling from St Moritz to Zermatt, should they try, if possible, to sit on a particular side of the train because of.

Gabriele Aberle

Especially from St Moritz to Chur, the train is turning all the time, so it’s going down with turns and tunnels and what you have it. So the side is changing all the time as well. The next part where this is happening is from the Oberalp Pass down to Andermatt, but from Andermatt it’s more or less straight onward. As the carriages are having those overhead windows, I don’t feel there is a good or a bad side, to be quite honest, because when I think about it, there’s usually the train is in the middle of a valley and yes, on the right hand side you see different mountains and on the right left hand side, but still you see the mountains. So I don’t feel that there is a good side where you should try to sit on. No, I don’t think so, .

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, wellm that’s great to know. So let’s talk about the tickets. For starters, let’s just talk about the individual tickets. If someone doesn’t have a travel pass and they’re just going to buy a ticket for their journey on the Glacier Express, how far in advance can they buy that ticket?

Gabriele Aberle

I would like to emphasise that it’s not the ticket tickets which are the problem. The problem is, well, not the problem, but the bigger issue is the seat reservation. So in all of Switzerland, if you are an individual traveller and you just want to buy your tickets and your seat reservations for Glacier Express, the seat reservation can be done three months prior to travel date. For individual travellers, the tickets, which are usually not an issue at all, can only be bought two months prior to the travel date. So what you want to do is make sure that you get your seat reservation and don’t worry about the tickets. You will get some tickets, whatever it is. In the end, the ticket is not the issue. The seats are the issue. Because the Glacier Express still in very high demand. And as we expect that the Asian markets are coming back stronger this year, this will not really help when it comes to available seats.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So you’re suggesting that people try and book their seat reservations as early as they can, so three months in advance, if possible.

Gabriele Aberle

Yeah, exactly.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And they do that on the Glacier Express website.

Gabriele Aberle

They can do it on the Glacier Express website. They can actually also call the rail service, which is the reservation team. They can do it when they are already in the country. At any SBB station they also make the reservation. I would never recommend to get to the train and try to find empty seats and try to get on board of the train because you are, for some reason, already in St Moritz or Zermatt or somewhere in between, this is usually not working. But to make the reservation, I would recommend the website, which is probably the easiest way to do it. What you would need as well is a credit card because you need to pay right away for the mandatory supplement. Plus, we also need to get your personal data, like name and birth date. If you put that into the system and everything is okay, and you can actually choose when you go onto the website, your seat, with a seat plan, you get the confirmation and that’s it for the moment. So, yeah, you have everything printed out for your trip and that’s what I would recommend. Go on the website of Glacier express, which is www.glacierexpress.ch and that’s it.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. And so if the travellers just need to print out that seat reservation and show that to the conductor on board?

Gabriele Aberle

I recommend to print it out for some totally different reason. We don’t have a wi fi or Internet accessibility all the time on board of the train. So if the conductor shows up and you are in a so called hole, fugloch we call it in German, then you can’t get, unless you have a screenshot or something, you can’t get it from your phone. And this is why I always recommend print this stuff out. You’re on the safer side.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So for people that are travelling with a Swiss Travel Pass, I just want to let them know what’s required. So the Swiss Travel Pass covers the actual journey on the Glacier Express, but they also need to purchase a seat reservation, is that correct?

Gabriele Aberle

That’s correct. Meaning if you have Swiss Travel Pass, you just need to pay for the seat reservation, which makes the ride, if you really do the whole stretch, kind of not so expensive.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so can you tell us then what those seat reservation fees are for the different classes?

Gabriele Aberle

I will. I just want to mention something else in this regard. If for some reason you have a first, second class Swiss Travel Pass and you want to travel in first class, this is actually possible, you would pay the difference for the ticket on board of the train or before you leave at one of the SBB train stations, you can do that. So you are not really bound to your second class to travel on board of Glacier Express in second class. And the same applies if you have second class ticket and you want to go on Excellence Class. Same works there as well. So you can actually travel on Excellence Class. The supplements we were talking about for the reservation, we do have two seasons which is winter and summer season. The winter season is from mid December to mid of April. There we do have a supplement for the whole journey or the longer part of the journey of 39 Swiss francs. In summertime, which is the rest of the season, the supplement is 49 Swiss francs. We also do have a couple of stretches which are looked at or called short journeys. There the supplement is like 10 Swiss francs last.

Gabriele Aberle

So in wintertime for example, that would be the stretch between St. Moritz and Chur. And then for this so called short journey you would pay in winter 29 Swiss francs and in summer 39 Swiss francs. I was already mentioning Excellence Class and here comes the reason why not everybody’s booking that. So the supplement for Excellence Class and you can only book it between St. Moritz and Zermatt or the other way around is 474.70 Swiss francs. And again, it includes a lot of services, but it’s probably not for everybody. But if you do have a Swiss Travel Pass, that would just be what you need to pay when you want to travel on Excellence Class. And the Swiss Travel Pass should be first class.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful. Well, that’s a bucket list of mine. As you know, I did a short section of the Glacier Express last year from Andermatt to Zermatt. But yep, the Excellence Class, that’s definitely a dream that one day.

Gabriele Aberle

Yes, well, let me know one day.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, so it’s an eight hour journey. Do many people take their children on board and do you think it’s suitable for kids?

Gabriele Aberle

Well, it depends, of course, I think on the age of the kid and it also depends how easily they travel. If they’re really active and want to run around and explore places or whatever it is, I would really not recommend it because if the train is really full, first of all, it’s hard to walk just from one carriage to the next one because there is also luggage everywhere and the people everywhere. And it’s not something a child I feel with like, let’s say four or five years, would enjoy. But if you have a child which is 10, 11 and which is happy to also probably play some time with a cell phone or whatever it is, or to have, have an iPad or whatever it is, then I think yes, it would work. But again, take into consideration that if you do the whole journey, it’s an eight hour train ride and a child might not be so impressed by all the changing scenery. If you know your child can sit still for a couple of hours. Yes. Okay. But if you know that’s not a good idea, you don’t enjoy the ride as well. So I would not bring the child or the children then.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. And do children get a discount?

Gabriele Aberle

Yes. And there’s actually a discount for children the age of 6 to 16 which pay half for the ticket, but they all pay full for the supplement. So the ticket price is between St. Moritz and Zermatt, roughly 180 Swiss franc, second class. And the supplement would be in high season, 49 Swiss franc. So they would pay 90 for the child, plus the supplement of 49 Swiss francs. We do have, I mean, this is something I wanted to mention as well. Sometimes you have not really groups, but let’s say the grandparents travelling together with their children and with their children. And when you end up having more than 10 passengers in your group, then you are looked at as a group and then the price reduction is becoming even more Interesting because for groups 10 people or more, the reduction on the ticket price is actually 30%. So instead of paying the 180, you get a 30% reduction. So you’re also now down more or less to 120. And the child rate, the child age goes up to 24. So if you have older or youngsters within your group, when they are younger than 25, 24 is the cut. Then they also get the 50% child reduction for the ticket. Which makes it quite interesting, I think, as a group.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And we should also probably mention there too that if it’s just a family, say it’s mum and dad and two children and the parents are travelling with the Swiss Travel Pass, the children travel free if they have the Swiss Family Card. So they would only need to pay the seat reservation fees there as well.

Gabriele Aberle

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, good that you mentioned that. I was not thinking about that. Yes, but that’s right.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, good. Okay. So luggage space. A lot of people use the Glacier Express to, you know, to travel from A to B and then continue on their journey from there. So if they’re travelling with their luggage, is there much space for storing it on board?

Gabriele Aberle

Good that we mentioned that. And I know especially when you’re coming from Australia or New Zealand or wherever it is, you have a lot of luggage because you usually stay not only two nights. We right now do have a problem with luggage because people tend to bring, I don’t know, three or four suitcases. And then, yes, we run into problems. But generally spoken, there is a luggage storing area where you enter the carriage on your right and left hand side. So yes, there is space available. There is also additional space between the seats or under the seats as well. But if you’re really travelling with three or four suitcases per person, I’m talking not about for a family. I mean, then everybody has one suitcase. You also need to know that we don’t have help when it comes to luggage storage. Meaning it’s up to you to get all the luggage on board and then find space to store it. The conductor will help you if it’s really too much. But we have not a lot of space for luggage on board of Glacier Express.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And is there a luggage transport service that people can take advantage of?

Gabriele Aberle

There is the possibility to have your luggage brought from one hotel to the next one within a day. So that’s what I would recommend. If you really have a lot of things to carry with you, use that and have the luggage brought from St. Moritz to Zermatt, so you don’t have to carry it, don’t worry about it. And just bring a day pack and then you’re good. And yeah, that’s probably the best way to do it.

Carolyn Schönafinger

That sounds like a good idea. How many services of the Glacier Express operate each day in each direction?

Gabriele Aberle

We do have in wintertime service, one service in each direction. Winter time again is till mid of April. Then in mid of April it changes and we go up to two trains per direction every day. And then around May we increase the number of trains operated to actually four per direction. Whereas I have to say that two of those four trains are not going the whole stretch going only part of it, but they cover the stretch between St. Moritz and Brig and then the other direction is Zermatt to Chur, which is what a couple of people do because they want to get off at Brig or Chur and then travel on to other parts of Switzerland and not doing the whole stretch. If you do the whole stretch, you have basically three services every day doing that. I also want to mention that Excellence Class, which only has 20 seats, is one carriage, is only operated once a day with one carriage each direction. So if you look for having a seat there, and I forgot to mention, Excellence Class can be booked all year round. So if you plan to do travel on Excellence Class, you can book it now for, let’s say, next year or this year, September.

Gabriele Aberle

It’s absolutely possible. Excellence Class is bookable all year round.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. Oh, that’s great to know.

Gabriele Aberle

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. Sorry.

Carolyn Schönafinger

That’s okay. We know now, so that’s great. That we’ll definitely, definitely keep that in mind. Is it possible to break the journey? So I know you’ve talked about before about people maybe getting off at Andermatt and going to other places in Switzerland, so just travelling part of the distance on the Glacier Express. But, but if they wanted to, say, stop there overnight and then resume their Glacier Express journey the next day, is that possible? And how would that work from, let’s say if they were buying an individual ticket, can they buy the through ticket or do they have to buy two separate tickets?

Gabriele Aberle

They could buy the through tickets, whereas when you do buy two separate tickets, it should be the same price. So that does not influence your stopping or not. What does influence it is the fact that if you break the journey, you need to have another seat reservation for the next day. And this means you pay the seat reservation fee twice and depending on your budget and what you really want to do. I mean, thinking of Andermatt, there is no through train to St. Moritz, that is true. But you could take a regular train the next day and change in Chur to St. Moritz. And for Zermatt it’s actually a through train. It takes also a while because it stops basically at every village along the way. But in regards to luggage and everything, you could take a train from Andermatt all the way through to Zermatt, which is not a Glacier Express, but runs obviously on the same tracks.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And does the Glacier Express run all year round?

Gabriele Aberle

It runs more or less all year round. We do have a break mid of October till beginning of December, which we use for construction work. We use it for maintenance work. And in former times it was actually the season where there we did not have a lot of demand. It changed a lot in the last couple of years. But we still have this break which we need for, as I said, maintenance and mostly because of construction work which needs to be done before the first snow falls. And this is the window we do have to do that.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, great. Now, if someone is staying perhaps say in Zurich or Lucerne or Interlaken, and they don’t have time in their itinerary to do the whole section or the whole journey from St. Moritz to Zermatt, or in reverse, can they just do a part of the journey? And what would be the easiest place to start from those locations?

Gabriele Aberle

Well, if you are in Zurich, it can be done from all three locations. It’s going to be a long day, but it can be done. When we think Zurich, it would be either going to Chur and then further on to Brig and get off there, which is basically like a four, four and a half hour journey on board of Glacier Express. But you do have the Rhine Gorge and the Oberalp Pass included. And then back to Zurich. The trip from Chur to Zurich is about one and a half hours and from Zurich to Brig is about two hours. And then the in between part I was talking about, but that’s absolutely doable if you start from Interlaken or from Lucerne. Interlaken would work with Brig as well. And then either travelling all the way to Andermatt, which is looked at as a short journey, so the supplement would be less. And from Andermatt then going back to the central part of Switzerland. Same applies for Lucerne, but you could also do it the other way around. You could get from Lucerne to travel to Brig or Chur works both and then go back to Lucerne and spend your night there. But again, it takes a little bit of time and the day is quite long, but yes, you can do day trips from all three locations.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, well, that’s great because obviously sometimes people are in Switzerland and they’re desperate to do a ride on the Glacier Express, but they can’t fit in the whole journey. So knowing that they can fit in at least a section of it is great. Thank you, Gabi, that’s been really helpful and I’m sure everyone listening is really keen now to book and have a ride on the Glacier Express. Is there anything else that we should know about the journey before I let you go?

Gabriele Aberle

I mentioned more or less everything already, which I put here in my notes. The only thing I did not mention and probably want to emphasise that we did a refurbishment of the whole train, meaning first and second class are now really up to date. And the blueprint for first and second class was actually Excellence Class. So all three classes have, we call it Alpine chic, have now a lot of wood inside of the carriages, have a lot of local stone actually inside of the carriages and look totally different from what you might know when you have been on the train a couple years before. So I highly recommend to repeat this journey, of course, because now the interior is really nice and although I should not mention that I do it anyway, do have now windows which can be opened and for photographers, you get really nice or good pictures without this mirror effect on the windows. And one of the bigger windows we do have is actually the bar carriage in the middle of the train and it’s on both sides, so those can be opened. And also at the doors, when you get on board of the train, those windows can be opened as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Oh, wonderful. That’s great to know and I’m sure all the photographers will be happy to hear that.

Gabriele Aberle

Yeah, I think so.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Thank you very much, Gabi, for taking the time to chat to us today. I’ll include a link in the show notes for the Glacier Express website so people can find more information if they need it. And also to book those all important seat reservations.

Gabriele Aberle

Yeah, and book it as early as you know your dates.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Gabriele Aberle

Thank you for having me. Bye.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Bye.  Is a ride on the Glacier Express going to be a part of your Switzerland itinerary?  It’s certainly a journey you’ll never forget.

Do take Gabi’s advice, though, and make those seat reservations as early as you can as it would be so disappointing to miss out. Seat reservation bookings open 3 months in advance for 1st and 2nd class seats, and Excellence Class seats can be booked any time – but with only 20 Excellence Class seats available per day in each direction, the sooner you reserve these, the better.

I’ll include a link in the show notes to the Glacier Express website so you can go ahead and make your seat reservations.  And if you’d like step-by-step instructions on how to make the reservations, there’s a detailed guide on our website which takes you through the process.  

That link will also be in the show notes, which you can find at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode64

There are lots more helpful and interesting episodes coming your way in 2023, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.  And if there’s a particular destination or topic about visiting Switzerland that you’d love to know more about, you can reach out to us via email at hello@holidaystoswitzerland.com

Until next time, Tschuss.

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.