Switzerland & the Alps
Templates · 10 days · 5 stops
Scenic rail through the Alps — Glacier and Bernina lines, mountain bases, cogwheel day trips.
- Zurich
- Lucerne
- Interlaken
- Zermatt
- St Moritz
Day 1 · Zurich → Lucerne
Zurich→Lucerne
Day 2 · Lucerne
Day 3 · Lucerne
Day 4 · Lucerne → Interlaken
Walk the Chapel Bridge and the old town at first light before the day-trippers arrive.
Day trip up Mount Pilatus — the world's steepest cogwheel railway; come down by cable car and gondola.
Day trip to the Rigi by paddle steamer across the lake, then the cogwheel to the summit ridge.
Lucerne→Interlaken
Day 5 · Interlaken
Day 6 · Interlaken
Day 7 · Interlaken → Zermatt
Wedged between two lakes; the paragliders drift down over the Höhematte all afternoon.
Day trip to Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe" — book the early train and the timed ascent to beat the cloud.
Day trip to Grindelwald and the First cliff walk; the Lauterbrunnen valley waterfalls are a short postbus away.
Interlaken→Zermatt
Day 8 · Zermatt
Day 9 · Zermatt → St Moritz
Car-free village under the Matterhorn. Take the Gornergrat cogwheel at dawn for the alpenglow on the peak.
Zermatt→St Moritz
Day 10 · St Moritz → Zurich
Arrive on the Glacier Express — eight hours, 291 bridges, the panoramic windows worth every franc.
St Moritz→Zurich
Descend on the Bernina Express through the Landwasser Viaduct and the Brusio spiral.