Switzerland by Train: Lucerne, the Jungfraujoch and Zermatt

Arrive in Zurich

Zurich Airport to your hotel in Zurich by train

• Welcome dinner
• Stay in Zurich
• By train

Afternoon

The afternoon is free to rest or wander down the Bahnhofstrasse to the lake.

Evening

In the early evening your guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the trains and reservations work, how your suitcase travels ahead to the next hotel, what to wear at 3,454 metres on the Jungfraujoch, and how we watch the forecast to choose the clearest morning for each mountain. Then we walk to a welcome dinner in the old town, where the menu leans Swiss.

Included

• Meeting at Zurich Airport (ZRH) in the arrival window, and the train into Zurich
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Zurich's old town, then Lucerne

Zurich old town walk, then the train to Lucerne

• Breakfast
• Stay in Lucerne
• By train

Morning

After breakfast your guide leads a two-hour walk through Zurich's old town while the lanes are still quiet. We climb to the Lindenhof, a tree-shaded terrace on the site of a Roman fort, for the view across the Limmat river, then cross to the Fraumünster to see the five stained-glass windows Marc Chagall made for its choir, finished in 1970. Over the river stand the twin towers of the Grossmünster, where Huldrych Zwingli began preaching the Swiss Reformation in 1519.

Afternoon

Lunch is your own in the Niederdorf lanes. Early in the afternoon we take the train to Lucerne, about 45 minutes, while your suitcases follow separately. In Lucerne we walk across the Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden bridge first built in the 14th century and rebuilt after a fire in 1993, past the octagonal Water Tower, and up to the Lion Monument, carved into the rock in 1820 and 1821 in memory of the Swiss Guards killed in Paris in 1792.

Evening

The evening is free along the lakefront.

Included

• Guided walk in Zurich's old town: the Lindenhof, the Fraumünster and its Chagall windows, and the Grossmünster
• Train to Lucerne, with your suitcase sent ahead
• Orientation walk in Lucerne: the Chapel Bridge, the Water Tower and the Lion Monument

Lake Lucerne and Mount Rigi

Lucerne by boat to Vitznau, the cogwheel train to Rigi Kulm, then down to Weggis and back by boat

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Lucerne
• By boat

Morning

Mid-morning we board a lake boat at the pier opposite Lucerne station and cruise about an hour to Vitznau, past lakeside villas and the cliffs of the Bürgenstock, with the peaks of central Switzerland ahead on a clear day. In Vitznau we change to the red cogwheel train of the Vitznau-Rigi railway, opened in 1871 as the first mountain railway in Europe, and climb to Rigi Kulm at 1,798 metres. From the top the view runs over Lake Lucerne and Lake Zug to a long line of Alps on one side and the green lowlands on the other.

Afternoon

Lunch is a sit-down meal on the mountain. Afterwards we walk downhill on a wide path to Rigi Kaltbad, about an hour and a quarter, or ride the train for the same stretch, then take the cable car to Weggis and the boat back to Lucerne. You are back by mid-afternoon with the rest of the day free.

Included

• Lake Lucerne boat to Vitznau and back from Weggis
• Vitznau-Rigi cogwheel railway to Rigi Kulm
• Sit-down lunch on Rigi
• Rigi Kaltbad to Weggis cable car

Optional experiences

• Late afternoon in Lucerne: the Musegg Wall towers (in season), the Bourbaki Panorama or the Swiss Museum of Transport, at your own cost where the pass does not cover entry

Over the Brünig Pass to Grindelwald

Lucerne to Brienz on the Luzern-Interlaken Express, the boat to Interlaken, then the train to Grindelwald

• Breakfast
• Stay in Grindelwald
• By train

Morning

We leave Lucerne mid-morning on the Luzern-Interlaken Express, a panoramic train that climbs over the Brünig Pass, past Lake Sarnen and the green water of Lake Lungern, then drops into the Bernese Oberland.

Afternoon

We get off at Brienz, a lakeside village known for its woodcarving workshops, about an hour and a half from Lucerne, and stop for lunch on your own by the water. From spring to autumn we carry on by lake boat to Interlaken Ost, about an hour and a quarter between steep wooded shores; when the boats run a reduced winter timetable we take the train instead. At Interlaken we change to the Bernese Oberland railway for the 35-minute climb to Grindelwald, a village at about 1,000 metres beneath the north face of the Eiger, where we stay two nights. The rest of the afternoon is free. Walk up through the village for the view of the Eiger and the Wetterhorn, or ride the gondola to Grindelwald First and its Cliff Walk.

Included

• Luzern-Interlaken Express over the Brünig Pass
• Lake Brienz boat from Brienz to Interlaken Ost (spring to autumn)
• Bernese Oberland railway to Grindelwald, with your suitcase sent ahead

Optional experiences

• Grindelwald First gondola and the First Cliff Walk, at your own cost (the Swiss Travel Pass gives a discount)

The Jungfraujoch, then Wengen and Lauterbrunnen

Grindelwald by the Eiger Express and the Jungfrau railway to the Jungfraujoch, back via Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen and Lauterbrunnen

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Grindelwald
• By train

Morning

Your guide checks the summit webcams first: if the top is in cloud all day, we go to a lower viewpoint below the cloud, such as Männlichen, and tell you at breakfast. The gondola takes about 15 minutes to Eigergletscher, and from there the Jungfrau railway runs through a tunnel inside the Eiger and the Mönch, completed in 1912, to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 metres, the highest railway station in Europe. From the Sphinx terrace you look down the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps, at the heart of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO site.

Afternoon

Walk through the Ice Palace and out onto the snow plateau, then sit down to lunch.

Evening

Coming down, we take the train to Kleine Scheidegg beneath the Eiger's north face and the Wengernalp railway through car-free Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, where the Staubbach Falls drop nearly 300 metres from the cliff, and return to Grindelwald for a free evening.

Included

• Eiger Express gondola from Grindelwald to Eigergletscher
• Jungfrau railway to the Jungfraujoch: the Sphinx terrace, the Ice Palace and the snow plateau
• Sit-down lunch on the mountain
• Train down via Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen and Lauterbrunnen

Bern on the way to Zermatt

Grindelwald to Bern by train, then through the Lötschberg Base Tunnel to Visp and up to Zermatt

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Zermatt
• By train

Afternoon

This is the longest train day, about four hours of riding in all, so we break it in the middle with lunch in the Swiss capital. We leave Grindelwald after breakfast, change at Interlaken and ride along Lake Thun to Bern, about an hour and a half. Bern's old town sits in a tight loop of the green Aare river and is listed by UNESCO for its medieval street plan, its sandstone arcades, about six kilometres of them, and its painted fountains. Your guide walks you down the Kramgasse to the Zytglogge, the old city gate whose astronomical clock and moving figures perform a few minutes before each hour, past the flat where Albert Einstein lived when he wrote his 1905 papers, and on to the terrace behind the Federal Palace above the river. After a sit-down lunch in the old town we take the train south through the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, about 35 km long, to Visp, and change to the Matterhorn Gotthard railway up the Mattertal to Zermatt, about two and a half hours, arriving late afternoon. Zermatt has no petrol cars, so the last stretch to the hotel is on foot or by electric taxi.

Included

• Guided walk in Bern's old town: the Kramgasse, the Zytglogge, Einstein's street and the Federal Palace terrace
• Sit-down lunch in Bern
• Trains via the Lötschberg Base Tunnel and the Mattertal to Zermatt, with your suitcase sent ahead

Optional experiences

• Einstein House museum in Bern, at your own cost, if there is time before lunch

Gornergrat and the Matterhorn

Zermatt to the Gornergrat by cogwheel train, the Riffelsee walk, then back to the village

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Zermatt
• By train

Morning

After time on the viewing terraces we ride one stop down to Rotenboden and, from early summer to autumn when the path is clear of snow, walk about an hour down past the Riffelsee, a small lake that holds the Matterhorn's reflection on a still morning, to Riffelberg.

Afternoon

Lunch is a sit-down meal on the mountain before the train back to the village. The afternoon is free for the Matterhorn Museum and the old larch-wood barns of the Hinterdorf.

Evening

Tonight we meet for a farewell dinner of raclette or fondue, the cheese dishes of Valais.

Included

• Gornergrat railway, early train
• Riffelsee walk from Rotenboden to Riffelberg (early summer to autumn)
• Sit-down lunch on the mountain
• Matterhorn Museum entry
• Farewell raclette or fondue dinner

Optional experiences

• Cable cars to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at 3,883 m, at your own cost (the Swiss Travel Pass gives a discount)

Along Lake Geneva to Geneva

Zermatt to Visp, then along the Rhône valley and Lake Geneva to Geneva and Geneva Airport

• Breakfast
• By train

Morning

After breakfast we leave Zermatt at about 8:30. There is no next hotel today, so your suitcase rides with you: one change at Visp, seats reserved, and your guide helps lift cases onto the racks. The run of about three and three-quarter hours follows the Rhône valley past the castle hills of Sion to Lake Geneva. After Montreux the lake lies on the left, and the terraced Lavaux vineyards, listed by UNESCO in 2007, climb the slope on the right before Lausanne.

Afternoon

We reach Geneva around midday, leave cases in the station's left-luggage lockers and walk the old town with your guide: up to St Pierre Cathedral, where John Calvin preached, across the Place du Bourg-de-Four and down through the Parc des Bastions to the Reformation Wall. Lunch is your choice. Geneva Airport (GVA) is about seven minutes from the main station by train, on your Swiss Travel Pass, and your guide sees you onto it by about 3 pm, so book a flight from Geneva leaving after about 5 pm. Flying home from Zurich instead? You stay on the through train from Visp and reach Zurich Airport around midday, so book a flight after about 3 pm.

Included

• Train from Zermatt to Geneva along the Rhône valley and Lake Geneva
• Short guided walk in Geneva's old town: St Pierre Cathedral, the Place du Bourg-de-Four and the Reformation Wall
• Train to Geneva Airport (GVA)