The Glacier Express Trip: A good experience (but overrated?)

The Glacier Express and I

I was always fascinated with the Glacier Express. I remember my cousin showing me the photos of his experience aboard the Glacier express in the late 1990s. In this Swiss trip in late April 2022, I decided to travel the Glacier express myself!

How did I book the tickets?

Online. I booked the tickets at the only official site you can do so. www.glacierexpress.ch. However, when I did try making the payment, it kept declining the Credit card. This was a little frustrating experience. I later learnt that this was a software glitch. I decided to call the number provided and book the tickets on a telephone call (usually I hate doing so, but I was desperate). Well, the tickets were mailed to me and I was ready to go.

How much was it priced?

I decided to travel first class. The train has three classes, the Excellence class, the First class and the second class. I had booked the travel from Chur to Brig. The ticket, the reservation (which is charged separately) and the meal costed me CHF 222. (approximately the same in Euros at that time). The same experience can be booked at roughly 60% of the price in second class and 150% in excellence class.

From where does it travel?

Each day, depending on the season, a number of trains travel from East to West (St Moritz to Zermatt) and vice versa. Depending on your time availability and location where you are based you may chose any of them.

Which is the best sector to travel?

Difficult for me to say; the people who have travelled the entire train often say that the St Moritz to Chur segment is very beautiful, but most of the websites concentrate on the Chur to Brig section; I decided to try the latter.

How did I travel?

I was based in Zurich. I took a train from Zurich Hauptbahnhof to Chur. I gave myself an hour and a half to roam around Chur, a dainty town at the foothills of the Alps. I took the train at 1105 from Chur. I travelled upto Brig, where I reached at 1540. I roamed an hour in Brig, then back to Zurich via Bern.

The total travel time from room in Zurich to back was 12 hours. (730 am to 730 pm)

The train per se.

Awesome ambience. The first class seats were at 2x1 configuration,. In the second class, it is 2x2 and in the Excellence class, it is 1x1. The upholstery was great. The seat was comfortable. It had a plug-in ear phone set, on which information was conveyed periodically, which I felt was very useful and fun. The staff were extremely polite. To top it all the master chef on that day was a Tamilian, and he was happy to speak to me in his (our) mother tongue! The windows were huge and the sites that could be seen were amazing all around!

Possibly the only two things I didn't like was that there are no solo experience seats. By default, if you travel alone, you need to sit opposite a total stranger, who shares the lunch table with you. The person who travelled with me was a friendly Dutch nationa,l and I did have some pleasant conversations, but the privacy was lacking.

The Sun can particularly be strong and there are no shades in the compartment. So Sunglasses need to be on for quite a while.

The food.

I liked it. I had ordered for the meat, fearing that I may be served beef or pork (both of which I don't relish for various reasons) but Chicken was served and it was delicious . I may be biased as it was a Tamil style preparation and spices were optimum. The dessert of chocolate cake was awesome 

The sights.

Well, well. Really good. The train passed the Rhone Valley gorge; also called as the Grand Canyon of Switzerland. Awesome experience. I was lucky that I was seated in the correct side to appreciate its beauty to the maximum. 

The second part of the trip, the train climbs steeply upto the Oberalppass, right upto the glacier of the river Rhone; and boy was that scene beautiful. We weren't allowed to get down at Oberalppass, which I felt was a bit of an anticlimax, but the scenes were too good. 

I have decided not to go into detail of every sight seen on the train, as that would be better read on information websites. But overall the the trip itself was too picturesque!

Will I recommend it?

Yes, of course. Its great for a one time experience and we should do it atleast once in our lives. But to be very frank, unlike Jungfrau, Titlis, Grindelwald and Bern, maybe it lacks the mojo factor to travel in it twice!