Passes & Passports

This past New Year’s Eve, my son and I marked the end of a wonderful 2024 by taking a day-long trip on one of Switzerland’s premier panorama trains, the Bernina Express.

Spending the year-end/beginning in Switzerland was something I had planned for 2023. In fact, we departed our home on Dec 27, 2023 with intent on heading to Zürich but by 8pm, our plans had changed and we were on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany instead (standby life is whole a story-time adventure for another day). This year, I was determined to be in Switzerland so I skipped the gamble and in July, I went ahead and booked our tickets. With our flights confirmed, the excitement of planning our Swiss holiday began.

There were three major things I wanted to check off on this long awaited trip: 1. The Christmas Markets in the Alsace region of France (because, of course!) 2. A gifted excursion on Mt. Titlis in Engelberg, Switzerland and 3. Riding along a Swiss panorama train. With these goals and other interests, we split our trip into two bases: 3 nights in Basel followed by four nights in Zürich.

Switzerland offers a few panorama train options, each departing from and covering different regions of the country (and if you want to save some money, their regular regional trains running along the same routes generally offer the same view). I figured New Year’s Eve would be the perfect day for this experience and with that in mind, I booked early (highly recommend this for peak dates!). At the time of our booking, Bernina Express was offering a deal, which included RT fare for two in 2nd class, seat reservations (usually a separate fee) and lunch at your terminal destination for about 199 CHF. I took advantage of this deal and booked us for the Chur to Tirano, Italy route, and made a reservation for our lunch at the lovely Merizzi in Tirano.

Alas, Dec 31st arrived and it was Bernina day. We first took a train around 6:40 am from Zürich HB to Chur, which was about a 1 hour 15 minute ride. We were staying right in the heart of Zürich and literally a block away from the station at the Ruby Mimi Hotel, which made getting there, and everywhere, very simple. We grabbed some croissants, juice and coffee at the station and boarded our train to Chur. The regional trains in Switzerland are quite comfortable, even for their 2nd class cabins. We had individual seats facing each other, with a center table where we enjoyed our breakfast.

At around 8am, we arrived in Chur. With a quick transfer to another platform, we were finally face-to-face with this bucket list adventure. When you arrive to the platform, there are numbered stands and several attendants posted outside of the train so that you can easily locate your car. We were in car 13, seats 41 and 42 (window seats facing each other).

As we boarded the train, we quickly found our seats and got settled for the long journey. I’ll go right into the seating and cabins while i’m here. The 2nd class cars offer two-seat configuration on both sides of the cabin, with alternating seat direction (so benches facing each other). Alternatively, the seats in 1st class are wider and offer a single seat configuration on one side and double on the other. The view and windows are the same and the glass is pretty spotless (after all, the view is what you are paying for). In our four-seat cluster, my son and I sat at the window seats while another couple had the aisle seats. By the time we departed the station promptly at 8:17am, every seat in the car was filled.

That said, the cabin and seats in 2nd class can feel crammed after a while, especially if you are doing the full RT journey AND seated with strangers. If traveling alone with a small child, you might also want to go with side-by-side seat assignment, as the frequent bathroom trips means someone is getting up each time if that child is by a window (as was the case for us 😆). As far as direction of travel, I searched high and low but everywhere (including the RhB website) will tell you the same thing; you cannot predict direction of travel when picking your seats. What everyone did seem to offer (which I can now confirm to be accurate) is that the prime views are on the right side of the car traveling south towards Tirano and left traveling north to Chur. We lucked out and seats 41/42 of car 13 (and 31/32 back to Chur) were on the prime side. Yay!!

*So here is my hindsight opinion on seat/cabin selection: As a party of 2, with a small child and going the full RT journey, I would have paid the extra ‘non-promotional’ price to get a 1 v 1 or even a wider double seat in 1st class. But let’s get into the spectacular ride, because that didn’t muddy the experience.

The full span of the Bernina Express routes (including the route to/from St. Moritz) incorporates the Albula and Bernina railways and includes sections having UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. If you are coming from a place where this sort of landscape is not your norm (hello fellow NYC Metro peeps!) you will be in awe no matter which route/connections you decide to take. The snow capped mountains, the frozen lakes, the beautiful valleys and Swiss villages, it was all so surreal. (pro tip: some of the cars have a smaller window at the end that can be opened. If you can snag a spot there along the ride, you will get the best videos and pics, without the glare of the glass!)

Shortly after departing Chur, the train attendants began to distribute menus with snacks, beverages and souvenirs for purchase. Additionally, we were each provided with complementary boxes of their own branded Iced Tea and the cutest little Bernina Express tin trains filled with Lindt chocolates (both are also available for purchase).

At about 2 to 2.5 hours into the ride, we arrived at the Alp Grüm station, which is the photo op stop. Travelers quickly deboarded the train to find a beautiful backdrop and multiple spots for capturing some breathtaking pictures. The stop offered a sufficient amount of time for everyone to get some great photos and just take in the scenery outside of the glass. After what felt like about 15 minutes (I didn’t quite check), we were back on the train and on our way.

At around 12:45, we had completed the full one-way journey and arrived in Tirano, Italy. By this time, we were ready for lunch and thankfully, Merizzi was less than a 5-minute walk from the platform. With the assist of google maps, we headed straight over for our 1pm reservation. Merizzi is a stunning Italian restaurant, with a beautiful design and bar. We were seated quickly by the very friendly host/manager (who I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen making fresh pasta in an Instagram post!). We opted in advance for the ticket-included special, which was the pizzocheri and sliced mortadella (a traditional dish popular in the northern Swiss border region of Italy). I added a glass of Prosecco and capped it all off with a delicious cappuccino and Crème Brûlée.

For most travelers, Tirano was the terminal stop for the day, with many venturing off to continue their holiday in Milano. For the rest of us (surprisingly more than I expected) we returned to the train for our 14:24 departure back towards Chur. The time in Tirano goes by very quickly so I wouldn’t recommend venturing too far from the area if you are planning a same day return (Swiss trains are the most prompt I’ve encountered in my travels and when they say 14:24, they mean it!). If touring the Tirano areas is of interest to you, I’d pack a lunch to eat on board.

Since our seats were on the same side as our outbound, the first part of the return gave my eyes, arms and cameras a bit of a break. But as the sun began to set and the night sky took over, that same landscape turned into something I can only describe as scenes from a storybook. Surrounded by complete darkness were beautiful Swiss villages, illuminated by holiday lights and blanketed in pure white snow. Little children being pulled along in sleds, families enjoying an evening of tobogganing and cross-country skiing. It all looked like a department store holiday window and suddenly, with all the feels, a Swiss village winter-wonderland stay was added to my list. (The below video doesn’t do the scene justice but is one that I happened to capture)

At around 18:35, we arrived back in Chur. We were pretty exhausted and ready to get back to our hotel room so with less than 3 minutes, we raced over to the platform where the next train to Zürich was departing. We made it on board, panting, with just one minute to spare. The ride back to Zürich seemed quick and by 20:15 we were back at our hotel room. The streets of Zürich were full and lively, with everyone preparing for the New Year’s Eve celebrations and fireworks. But for us, our day-long journey was celebration enough…and by 21:00, with our year fulfilled, we were happy and fast asleep.