Paris, Switzerland and Rome by Rail

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Paris

   Paris Charles de Gaulle or Orly Airport to your hotel in central Paris

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Paris
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Orly (ORY). A driver meets your flight in the arrivals hall (we arrange a pick-up for each arrival time on day 1) for the drive into the city, about an hour from CDG depending on traffic, to a central hotel. Rooms are usually ready by mid-afternoon; if yours is not, the hotel keeps your bags and Paris is outside the door. If you land early, sit at a café on a square, walk the Tuileries or look at the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro terrace. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and hands out the rail plan for the week: every train, every change, and how your suitcase travels between stations and hotels, so the logistics are settled before the first departure. Then we walk together along the Seine towards the Île de la Cité as the lamps come on, and sit down to a welcome dinner of bistro dishes in a local restaurant.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Orly (ORY)
   • Welcome briefing and rail plan with your guide
   • Evening walk along the Seine
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the early-evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : The Louvre at opening, the Seine at dusk

   Paris: the Louvre, the Tuileries and the Île de la Cité

   • En bateau
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Paris
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the Louvre when the doors open at 9 am, with a timed entry and a licensed local guide, so the first hour is spent in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa before the galleries fill. After about two and a half hours inside, we walk out through the Tuileries garden and along the river to the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame, which reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire; the restored nave is pale stone again and entry is free, on a timed slot we book for the group. The rest of the day is yours. Lunch wherever you like in the Latin Quarter, then perhaps the Musée d'Orsay, Montmartre or a long sit in the Luxembourg Garden. At dusk the group meets again for an hour on a Seine boat, passing the Louvre, the Orsay and the Eiffel Tower as the lights come on; after dark the tower sparkles for five minutes on the hour.

   Compris

   • The Louvre at opening with a timed entry and a licensed local guide
   • The Tuileries and a walk to Notre-Dame on the Île de la Cité
   • One-hour Seine boat at dusk

   Activités en option

   • Musée d'Orsay (closed Mondays)
   • Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur

   Option plus facile : Skip the walk to Notre-Dame and take a taxi back to the hotel after the Louvre; rejoin the group at the Seine boat.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Paris

   Activité : The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, so day 2 never falls on one. We leave the hotel at about 8:30 for the 9 am entry. About 10,000 to 15,000 steps today.

3. Jour 3 : TGV to Basel, then Lake Thun to Interlaken

   Paris Gare de Lyon to Basel by TGV Lyria, then Bern and Spiez by Swiss train, and the lake boat to Interlaken

   • En train
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Interlaken
   Détail du jour 3

   A morning TGV Lyria from Gare de Lyon runs east through Burgundy and Franche-Comté to Basel in about three hours, and a van takes the bags across Paris to the platform so you board with a day bag. At Basel we break the journey with a sit-down lunch near the station, then an onward Swiss train runs through Bern to Spiez in about an hour and three quarters, so no single leg is much over three hours. At Spiez we leave the train for the lake boat: about an hour and a quarter across Lake Thun to Interlaken West, past the pyramid of the Niesen and the cliffs below Beatenberg, while your suitcase goes ahead by road to the hotel. The boats run this route from about April to October; outside those months the train covers the last twenty minutes. Interlaken sits between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and from the Höhematte meadow in the centre you see the Jungfrau, 4,158 m, at the head of the valley. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • TGV Lyria from Paris to Basel, first class with reserved seats
   • Sit-down lunch in Basel
   • Swiss train from Basel to Spiez via Bern
   • Lake Thun boat from Spiez to Interlaken West (about April to October)
   • Suitcases by road to the hotel

   Option plus facile : Stay on the train from Spiez to Interlaken, about 20 minutes, instead of the hour-plus boat, and rest at the hotel before the group arrives.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Interlaken

   Activité : Breakfast from about 6:30 and we leave the hotel at about 7:30 for a morning train. About five hours of rail plus the boat, with a long lunch stop in Basel.

   

4. Jour 4 : The Jungfraujoch

   Interlaken to Grindelwald Terminal, the Eiger Express to Eigergletscher and the Jungfrau Railway to the Jungfraujoch, down via Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen and Lauterbrunnen

   • En train
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Interlaken
   Détail du jour 4

   We take one of the first trains of the day, ahead of the late-morning crowd, from Interlaken Ost to Grindelwald Terminal, where the Eiger Express gondola lifts us in about 15 minutes to Eigergletscher under the north face of the Eiger. From there the Jungfrau Railway, finished in 1912, climbs inside the Eiger and the Mönch to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 m, the highest railway station in Europe. Up top, the Sphinx terrace looks down the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps and the centre of the Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site; there is an ice palace cut into the glacier, and the snow plateau when the weather allows. We come down by train the other way, to Kleine Scheidegg at 2,061 m, for a sit-down lunch facing the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, then ride the Wengernalp railway down through Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, past the Staubbach Falls, and back to Interlaken. Late afternoon is free, and tonight we eat together: a Swiss cheese dinner, fondue or raclette.

   Compris

   • Train to Grindelwald Terminal and the Eiger Express gondola to Eigergletscher
   • Jungfrau Railway to the Jungfraujoch with your guide: the Sphinx terrace, the ice palace and the plateau
   • Sit-down lunch at Kleine Scheidegg
   • Train down via Wengen and Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken
   • Swiss cheese dinner in Interlaken

   Option plus facile : Stay lower: ride the Eiger Express to Eigergletscher with the group, take the short train down to Kleine Scheidegg at 2,061 m and wait on a terrace with the Eiger above you, then lunch with the group when they come down.

   Option plus active : After lunch, walk the Panorama Trail from Kleine Scheidegg to Männlichen, about an hour and a half and mostly level, then take the Männlichen gondola down to Grindelwald Terminal and the train to Interlaken.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Interlaken

   Activité : Breakfast from about 6:30 and we leave the hotel at about 7:15 and are back in Interlaken at about 3 to 4 pm. This is a long day on trains and lifts: the easy option stops at Kleine Scheidegg and skips the summit. If the summit is in cloud, your guide checks the webcams the evening before and day 4 becomes Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and the Schilthorn (or Harder Kulm above Interlaken if the Schilthorn is closed in too). The weather plan is confirmed at booking. Bring a warm layer and sunglasses.

5. Jour 5 : Lake Brienz and the Brünig Pass to Lucerne

   Interlaken Ost to Brienz by lake boat, then the Luzern-Interlaken Express over the Brünig Pass to Lucerne

   • En bateau
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Lucerne
   Détail du jour 5

   Your suitcase leaves the hotel by road this morning, and we walk to the pier at Interlaken Ost with day bags for the boat across Lake Brienz, about an hour and a quarter on milky turquoise water, past the Giessbach Falls dropping through the forest on the south shore. At Brienz we board the Luzern-Interlaken Express, which climbs on a rack section over the Brünig Pass at 1,008 m and runs down past Lake Lungern and Lake Sarnen to Lucerne in about an hour and a half. Lunch is yours when we arrive, by the river or in the old town. In the afternoon your guide walks the group across the Chapel Bridge, first built in the 14th century and partly rebuilt after a fire in 1993, and the Spreuer Bridge with its painted Dance of Death panels, then up to the Lion Monument, carved in 1820 and 1821 for the Swiss Guards killed in Paris in 1792. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Lake Brienz boat from Interlaken Ost to Brienz
   • Luzern-Interlaken Express from Brienz to Lucerne over the Brünig Pass
   • Suitcases by road to the hotel
   • Old-town walk in Lucerne: the Chapel Bridge, the Spreuer Bridge and the Lion Monument

   Option plus facile : Skip the afternoon walk and rest at the hotel; the Chapel Bridge is a few minutes from the old town and easy to see on your own.

   Option plus active : Walk the Musegg Wall, the old town ramparts, and climb one or two of its towers for the view over the roofs to the lake (open about April to November).

   Temps libre : Lunch and evening free in Lucerne

   

6. Jour 6 : Pilatus by boat, cogwheel and cableway

   Lucerne to Alpnachstad by lake boat, the cogwheel railway to Pilatus Kulm, then cableway and gondola to Kriens and back to Lucerne

   • En bateau
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lucerne
   Détail du jour 6

   This is the Golden Round Trip, and the order matters. We leave Lucerne mid-morning on a lake boat, about an hour and a half across Lake Lucerne below the Bürgenstock to Alpnachstad. There the Pilatus cogwheel railway, opened in 1889 and the steepest in the world at gradients up to 48 percent, climbs to Pilatus Kulm in about half an hour, through meadows and then bare limestone. At the top, short paths lead to the Esel and Tomlishorn viewpoints, over a dozen lakes and across to the Bernese Alps you saw from the Jungfraujoch. Lunch is a proper sit-down meal at Pilatus Kulm. We come down the other side by the aerial cableway to Fräkmüntegg and the panorama gondola to Kriens, then a short bus ride back into Lucerne by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is free: the Swiss Museum of Transport, a swim from a lakeside lido or a drink by the river.

   Compris

   • Lake Lucerne boat from Lucerne to Alpnachstad
   • Pilatus cogwheel railway to Pilatus Kulm
   • Sit-down lunch at Pilatus Kulm
   • Aerial cableway and panorama gondola down to Kriens, bus to Lucerne

   Activités en option

   • Swiss Museum of Transport

   Option plus facile : Stay on the summit terraces at Pilatus Kulm instead of walking out to the viewpoints.

   Option plus active : Walk the Tomlishorn path to 2,128 m, about 45 minutes there and back on a railed rock trail, before lunch.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free in Lucerne

   Activité : We leave the hotel mid-morning for the boat. The cogwheel railway runs from about May to November; outside those months we go up and down by gondola and cableway from Kriens. If Pilatus is in cloud in the morning, your guide waits and we go up from Kriens by gondola at midday when it clears; if it stays closed in all day, the boat and lunch go ahead and your guide re-plans the afternoon in Lucerne. The weather plan is confirmed at booking.

   

7. Jour 7 : Over the Gotthard to Milan and Florence

   Lucerne over the old Gotthard line to Bellinzona, then Milan and the high-speed train to Florence

   • En train
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Florence
   Détail du jour 7

   This is the one long rail day, about seven hours including a long lunch in Milan, and we chose it over a flight because the line is the point. We ride the old Gotthard mountain line, opened in 1882, instead of the 57 km base tunnel opened in 2016; the exact train, and any change at Arth-Goldau, is confirmed when we book. It follows the Reuss valley up to Wassen, where the loops show you the village church three times from three levels, runs through the 15 km summit tunnel at Göschenen to Airolo, and spirals down the Leventina into Italian-speaking Ticino. At Bellinzona, below its three UNESCO-listed castles, we change for Milan via Lugano. A sit-down lunch near Milano Centrale breaks the day before the Frecciarossa high-speed train to Florence, just under two hours. We reach Florence in the late afternoon, and as the light goes your guide walks you to the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio. Dinner tonight is your choice.

   Compris

   • Train over the old Gotthard mountain line from Lucerne to Bellinzona
   • Train from Bellinzona to Milan via Lugano
   • Sit-down lunch in Milan
   • Frecciarossa from Milan to Florence
   • Suitcases between station and hotel in Lucerne and Florence
   • Evening walk: the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio

   Option plus facile : Skip the evening walk in Florence and rest at the hotel; the Duomo is on tomorrow's walk too.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Florence

   Activité : We leave the hotel at about 8:30 and reach Florence in the late afternoon, about seven hours door to door including a lunch stop of about an hour and a half in Milan.

8. Jour 8 : The Uffizi at opening, then Rome

   Florence: the Uffizi and the Duomo, then the Frecciarossa to Rome

   • En train
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Rome
   Détail du jour 8

   We are at the Uffizi for its 8:15 opening, with a timed entry and a licensed Florentine guide, which buys about an hour before the corridors fill. Inside: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo and the Caravaggio rooms, with the view down the Arno from the top-floor windows. Afterwards we walk back past Piazza della Signoria to the Duomo, Brunelleschi's dome and the Baptistery with its bronze doors. Lunch is yours: the market stalls upstairs at the Mercato Centrale are an easy choice. Mid-afternoon the Frecciarossa reaches Rome in about an hour and a half, and a van takes the bags to the hotel. Early evening, your guide walks the group through the centre of the old city as it fills up: the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain, lit after dark. Dinner is free tonight, on whichever piazza you like.

   Compris

   • The Uffizi at opening with a timed entry and a licensed local guide
   • Walk to the Duomo and the Baptistery
   • Frecciarossa from Florence to Rome
   • Suitcases between station and hotel in Florence and Rome
   • Evening walk: the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain

   Activités en option

   • The Accademia and Michelangelo's David (closed Mondays; book ahead)

   Option plus facile : Skip the evening walk and rest at the hotel; the Pantheon is on tomorrow's free afternoon too.

   Option plus active : Climb the 463 steps of Brunelleschi's dome before lunch (timed ticket at extra cost).

   Temps libre : Lunch and dinner free

   Activité : We leave the hotel at about 7:50 for the 8:15 entry. The Uffizi is closed on Mondays, so day 8 never falls on one.

9. Jour 9 : Ancient Rome and a Trastevere farewell

   Rome: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, then Trastevere

   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Rome
   Détail du jour 9

   We start at the Colosseum at the first timed entry of the morning, with a licensed Roman guide, before the heat and the queues build. Inside the amphitheatre, finished under Titus in AD 80, you look down on the exposed corridors under the arena floor where animals and fighters waited. From there we walk up the Palatine Hill, where the emperors built their palaces, for the view over the Circus Maximus, and down into the Roman Forum along the Via Sacra, past the Arch of Titus and the Curia where the Senate met. Lunch is a sit-down meal together in Monti, a few streets away. The afternoon is free: the Galleria Borghese if you booked it, the Spanish Steps, or a long rest away from the midday sun. In the evening we cross the Tiber to Trastevere for a farewell dinner of Roman dishes in a neighbourhood restaurant.

   Compris

   • The Colosseum at first entry with a licensed local guide
   • The Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum
   • Sit-down lunch in Monti
   • Farewell dinner in Trastevere

   Activités en option

   • Galleria Borghese (timed entry, book ahead)

   Option plus facile : Skip the Palatine climb and wait in the shade for the group at the Forum end.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Rome

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot this morning on uneven ancient paving with some climbing; bring water and a hat in summer.

10. Jour 10 : The Vatican, then home

    Rome: the Vatican Museums and St Peter's, then Rome Fiumicino Airport

    • Environ 45 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 10

    A last early start: we are at the Vatican Museums on an 8 am timed entry at opening and a licensed local guide. The route runs through the Gallery of Maps and the Raphael Rooms to the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgement are best seen before the room is full; talking is not allowed inside, so the guide explains before we enter. From there we walk into St Peter's Basilica for Michelangelo's Pietà and the scale of the nave under his dome. Around noon a van collects you near St Peter's Square for the drive to Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO), about 45 minutes, and your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 3:30 pm to see the Vatican. For an earlier flight we drive you straight from the hotel, and you can stay on in Rome if you would like more time; ask us about extra nights.

    Compris

    • The Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel at opening with a licensed local guide
    • St Peter's Basilica
    • Drop-off at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO)

    Option plus facile : For a flight before about 3:30 pm, go straight from the hotel to the airport after breakfast.

    Option plus active : Climb the dome of St Peter's for the view over the square (extra cost, if time allows before the transfer).

    Activité : Breakfast from about 6:30 and we leave the hotel at about 7:15 with your suitcase, which goes ahead in the van. The Vatican Museums are closed on most Sundays, so day 10 never falls on one. Covered shoulders and knees are required in St Peter's and the Sistine Chapel.

Faune et météo : From May to early October the lake boats and the Pilatus cogwheel railway run full timetables and the high passes are clear. Summits can be in cloud on any day, so your guide checks the webcams the evening before and adjusts the day: a Jungfraujoch day in cloud becomes Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and the Schilthorn, and a cloudy Pilatus morning becomes a midday ascent on the same day. Rome and Florence are hot in July and August, which is why their sights are booked for the morning.

• Paris2 nuits
• Interlaken2 nuits
• Lucerne2 nuits
• Florence1 nuit
• Rome2 nuits