REVIEW: Switzerland’s luxurious Glacier Express takes nearly eight hours to wind through spectacular mountains.
The Swiss hail the Glacier Express as the world’s slowest express.
The train takes almost eight hours and the services of two private, narrow-gauge railroads to traverse the 270 mountainous kilometres between two resort towns – Zermatt and St Moritz.
But as it is one of the most luxurious and spectacular train journeys, so you want it to be slow.
In fact, as slow as possible to take in the grandeur and enjoy of the magnificent regional five-course menu with accompanying wines.
From Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn, this amazing panoramic ride takes you over 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels to the chic St Moritz.
Zermatt is the most famous mountain village in the Swiss Alps, with views of no less than 38 4,000-metre peaks and the most photographed mountain in the world, the Matterhorn.
All the coaches and travel classes on the Glacier Express feature panoramic windows right up to the ceiling to take in the magnificent scenery.
There are three classes on the Glacier Express – excellence, first and second.
All passengers have their own iPad with an infotainment system that provides real-time information on the highlights along the route in eight languages.
Excellence class was launched in 2019, and two carriages were redesigned by Swiss design studio NOSE.
Superlatives abound when you are seated, and the champagne arrives.
This is going to be special.
Your neck gets sore from the twisting and turning as you spin from one magnificent scenic wonder to another.
It becomes a challenge when your gourmet meal starts arriving and you are torn between the artwork on your plate or the palette outside.
The journey slips by as you are occupied with changing scenery that does justice to the brochures that extol the beauty of Switzerland.
We were lucky on our journey as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
The Glacier Express was opened in June 1930, after 40 years of planning and construction.
In the 1930s, the number of passengers between July and September was about 20,000 but winter operations were not possible at the time.
The line reopened in 1946. The journey has many highlights.
From Zermatt to Brig, the Mattertal valley offers a variety of landscapes: wild gorges, jagged rock faces and eternal ice towers high above the valley floor.
Alpine meadows bloom along the route and vineyards abound.
Brig, in the Rhone valley, is famous for its stately 17th century castle and it is a good starting point for hikes around the great Aletsch Glacier, which has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2001.
The next sector is the 70km from Brig to Andermatt, where the opening of the Furka Base Tunnel has meant the route can be open all year round.
On the 90km sector from Andermatt to Chur, the Glacier Express crosses the Oberalp Pass at 2,033m above sea level, and this is the highest point of the journey and a popular photo stop in all seasons.
Just outside Chur, the train passes through a unique gorge with bizarre rock formations, also known as ‘the Swiss Grand Canyon’.
The final section is an 85km stretch to St Moritz and you go through the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes, which is a masterpiece of engineering.
The most spectacular bridge constructions are the Solis Viaduct and the elegant much-photographed Landwasser Viaduct.
Booking the Glacier Express can be tricky, so seek the advice of a good travel agent to work the best deal because you need two tickets – one for the train and one for your seat.
