The Glacier Express and St. Moritz

The Glacier Express is something I’d heard about over the years and had thought that someday I might have a chance to experience it.  They call it the “world’s slowest express train” because it takes 8 hours to travel the 181 miles between Zermatt and St. Moritz -or vice versa- with no train changes.  

Although I wouldn’t have gone to Switzerland and missed seeing the Matterhorn -it happens that Zermatt is the Western terminus for the Glacier Express.  The Eastern terminus is St. Moritz.

The train trip between Zermatt and St. Moritz was only made possible in 1926, after several different train lines were built in the region -starting in 1891- that linked the two ski towns.  By 1930, the Glacier Express train route was official, traveling between those two cities.  Around 2017, the Glacier Train was glammed up with special panoramic cars and an attempt to elevate the experience to feel more unique – 1st class.  I’m sure that’s when the prices started going through the roof too.  

I was doing some of my travel planning a bit late in the game and had no idea that tickets to the Glacier Express sell out faster than Taylor Swift concert tickets (not that I know that from personal experience).  You can use local trains to travel the same route (and faster), but it would require several train changes along the way. 

There are three Glacier Train departures in the morning every day from either end.  Each train holds between 250-300 passengers.  I “only” started to look for tickets about three months out.  They only sell them a certain number of days in advance. Rookie mistake!  There weren’t any tickets for the day I needed them, so I thought of ways to change our trip plans so we could do it on a different day – but every day that I checked was fully booked.  And I checked for departures from either Zermatt or St. Moritz.  I had just about given up when I realized there was a “consolation prize” version of the trip – We could take a local train from Zermatt to a town called Brig (about 2 hours of the overall trip) and then continue the rest of the route on the Glacier Train.  I was able to get seats for us by doing that, but the downside was that we’d be leaving in the afternoon, which meant arriving in St. Moritz at around 9:00 PM, rather than mid-afternoon.  

As it turns out, I didn’t realize beforehand that the Glacier Train follows the same rail line leaving Zermatt and we’d already seen the scenery between Zermatt and Visp anyway.  Brig wasn’t much further up the line from Visp -so it all actually worked out OK.   

We had a short wait in Brig before boarding the Glacier Train.  As we rolled out of Brig, we were on track (pun intended) and on our way!

Basically the Glacier Train experience is about the scenery.  And it was beautiful.  The disappointing news is that taking good photos from a train is really hard.  There’s either a ton of reflection from the inside lights or the train goes around a curve at the wrong moment.  

We reserved seats on the side of the train that only had a single row of seats (sitting at a table across from each other). The other side had seats arranged in sets of 4. No one had reserved the seats across from us, so I was able to take pictures on both sides of the train .

We saw more than one ski lift along the way.

They handed out earphones so that we could hear informational announcements about some of the sights along the way.  One example is when we were passing a small village off in the distance. We were told that it was the birthplace of Cesar Ritz -of the famous Ritz hotels.  He was born on a farm there in 1850, the youngest of 13 children, .  

I took more pictures than I have stories for -so enjoy the pictures!  (And excuse the window glare!)

One of the things that is offered on the Glacier Express is the option of preordering a meal.  With no dining or cafe car on the Express, bring your lunch bag if you don’t preorder!  We dutifully placed an order well in advance.  They have a limited menu, but we managed to find something that worked for both of us.  

When we got on the train, the attendants checked with us about what time we’d like to eat. When that time got close, they came to deliver our table setting and take a drink order.

Mike said the folded napkin looked like the Matterhorn.  

Weirdly, I didn’t come across Zermatt Bier while in Zermatt, but definitely needed to order one on the train.

We continued watching Switzerland go by while we were waiting for our food.

Our order was prepared on the train and delivered to our seats. It was a bit like being at a table in a restaurant -the attendants would take orders for drinks and served us our meal.  

The food was pretty pricey for what we got -but it it was tasty enough and definitely better than a grocery store dinner.  Hah.  

Pictures were often a moment’s decision as something came into view.  I took this one as we passed through the village of Disentus-Muster.  The building in the background is the Disentus Abbey -a Benedictine monastery founded around 700-720 AD. It has had a very tumultuous history (rebuilt several times) and yet still stands.  My picture just shows the towers, but it is quite a large building.  

The highest point of the journey was the Oberalpass -at 6,670 feet.  

At that point, we were very near the source of the Rhine river which was interesting to me because we’ve we’ve seen it further downriver in Germany and the Netherlands.  After flowing out of Switzerland, the Rhine marks the border between France and Germany for the next 114 miles.  Then flows through Germany alone for a few hundred more miles before entering The Netherlands.  After that, it is about 100 miles more before it empties into the North Sea around Rotterdam, Netherlands. 

Not long after, we entered the Rhine Gorge which is called the “Swiss Grand Canyon”.  It might be a bit of an exaggeration to call it that since the gorge is only about 8.7 miles long.  The scenery looked a bit like a moonscape through there. I loved the color of the water in the river.

The Glacier Express takes a short side trip for a stop in the town of Chur.  As we waited for people to get off and on, the weather got unfriendly!  

Fortunately it was an isolated shower.  The train had to backtrack for a short distance from Chur to switch onto the Albula line for the final run into St. Moritz.  At that point, we had about two hours left to go.  

After Chur, we went through the Domleschg Valley.  This valley has three different Alpine passes that were used for trade over the years.  That made the valley a very strategic area to control and defend. The highest concentration of castles in Switzerland is in the Domleschg Valley.  We managed to get pictures of a couple of them -they seemed to pop into our view unexpectedly!

The rail lines used for the Glacier Train are a feat in engineering.  On the way to St. Moritz we passed over a total 291 bridges and went through 91 tunnels.  As I mentioned, there are several different rail lines that, together, make up the Glacier Express route.

The Albula section of track passes through the second longest tunnel on the line at 3.6 miles.  This section also has 55 bridges and viaducts, plus 39 mainline trunnels, including three spiral tunnels and two helical tunnels, The spiral and helical tunnels were engineered to make it possible for the train to be able to adjust to the 1,312 foot height difference between two Swiss towns on the line -Preda and Bergen.  

Spiral tunnels and helical tunnels are both essentially built like a corkscrew where the train curves around on itself as it goes up (or down) -often inside the mountain.  I think the distinction between them is found within engineering language for the most part.  I was able to see a glimpse of this in some areas where I could see the track behind or ahead out the window and it was off to the side-not straight ahead.

In this picture the track is running next to the road. However, if you look close you can see the track slightly lower than the road to the left. Beyond that in the distance, you can see where the track crosses the bridge. I couldn’t quite figure out how it worked -but I’m sure that our train utilized all three spots in this picture..

The most famous bridge of the entire route is on the Albula Line -the Landwasser Viaduct.  The viaduct was built between 1901 and 1902 and is 213 feet high above the Landwasser River.  It is curved, so as the train approaches you can see it from the window if you’re sitting on the right side.  The drone photos and videos of the train approaching and crossing this bridge are probably the most iconic and most seen when it comes to pictures of the Glacier Express.

They had a display TV at the front of the car that showed just that view, along with other messages and footage of the train in different scenic spots along the route. 

This was my attempt

And on we went,

After a long day of staring out train windows – we arrived in St. Moritz.  

I enjoyed seeing the views along the way, but I am honestly leaning toward calling the experience over-rated.  I will say that I think being on the Glacier Express train rather than the local trains was a nicer experience.  

Like some of the towns we’d been in, St. Moritz is built on the side of a mountain, next to a pretty lake.  The train station was next to the lake, but slightly higher up.  We started following the pedestrian signs to leave the train station and go up into the town to find our hotel.  

Before we’d gotten very far from the station, we entered a tunnel that opened into a parking garage.  We were wondering if we’d made a wrong turn -not that we’d seen any turns.  We passed through the garage and entered an exit area with escalators.  It looked like the only way forward was up!

We rode up three extra long escalators to get up to the exit at street level. We used the map app on our phones to guide us to the hotel.  A few blocks down the street and up some more stairs -plus needing to backtrack a bit (the maps weren’t very precise) -we’d finally arrived.

We checked in around 9:30 PM.  We were very ready get up to our room and settle down for the night.  

Our hotel was an odd mix of ski cabin and modern art…. Our room was great and we were impressed that they’d done a turn down service for us (which we don’t get at the usual hotels we stay at!).  There were fluffy robes, precisely placed bedside slippers and candy on our pillow.  

When we woke up, we checked out our view, which was toward the lake.  The mountains were a bit grumpy.

We had one day to explore St. Moritz.  Unfortunately, it was Sunday and not much was open.  Too bad -I was fully ready to stop by Hermes for a scarf, swing through Louis Vuitton -appointment needed- for a bag (between $1,000-$4,000), and browse through Valentino, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana on my way to Cartier for a new watch!  NOT! I’m sure they wouldn’t have let me in their doors -hah.

Fortunately, the town isn’t that big.  After breakfast, we just wandered around and took pictures of whatever caught our eye…

This church was in a small square right outside the hotel entrance.

I liked the old look of these stairs for getting up to the next street.  

This is a memorial fountain dedicated to Count Jules de Bylandt, who had a fatal accident on the Cresta Run in 1907.

While St. Moritz was first known for its medicinal springs, winter tourism eventually became the draw.  The Cresta Run was first built in 1884.  I had to look up Cresta:  In modern times it is now called the Skeleton (an Olympic winter event).  Riders lay on the sled on their stomachs and go head first down the run (instead of the luge position -laying on their back and going feet first).  

This statue was installed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Cresta Run.

St. Moritz is also the birthplace of bobsledding.  Starting in around 1888, visitors had started improvising bigger sleds by cobbling toboggans and cresta sleds together.  By 1897, there was an official bobsled club and an official bobsled track was opened in 1904.  St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948.  The town has promoted and hosted many different winter events over the years, such as the first European skating championships in 1882, and other more whimsical local events on the frozen lake -like snow polo and even a winter golf tournament.

As we walked down the street, we saw this entrance to a church and the church up above it..  

St. Moritz’s mineral springs were discovered as far back as 3,500 years ago.  It was a health and wellness destination long before winter sports came into popularity.  There are still a few spas in town using the springs today.

For several hundred years, the springs were a pilgrimage destination.  So much so that in 1519 Pope Leo X issued a papal decree that pilgrims making the pilgrimage to the “Church of the Springs” would be granted full absolution for their sins.  Unfortunately for us, that papal decree has expired.  

The Church of the Springs is actually named St. Mauritius. It was originally built in the 1100s and like all churches, it underwent updates and restorations…and demolition.

Me helpfully pointing out St. Mauritius.

In 1893, the church was mostly demolished after a a small landslide damaged the stability of the building.  The only thing not torn down was the bell tower and part of the the old churchyard.

We’d taken some stairs to get up to the churchyard.  The steps continued up behind it, so we were able to partially circle it.

It looks less likely to topple over from the side.

This bell tower actually tilts further than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

By then we were heading back toward the central part of St. Moritz, which was a very small area, but had some interesting buildings.

A spot with a view. That large building is part of the Badrutt Palace Hotel.

If you can, zoom in on this building. It was so pretty!

This building looked like it was once someone’s lakeside home, now converted for another purpose.

The view they would have had.

This gorgeous wood carved facade is part of the Badrutt Palace Hotel.

The hotel was opened in 1896 and was owned by the Badrutt family until around 2006.

In 1856, Johannes Badrutt arrived in St. Moritz and purchased a small guest house that evolved into the Kulm Hotel (located nearby).  In 1864, his son, Caspar, bought a small hotel on this site and created Badrutt’s Palace Hotel.  It is a big sprawling building and very fancy -which is why we weren’t staying there!  They have a fleet of  Rolls Royce cars  -one of which originally belonged to Queen Elizabeth II of England- which they use to transfer guests to or from the train station (about 3 blocks away!).

We managed to find a little pedestrian pier for a view of the lake.

This was a unique planter that we saw a few of.  The whole town was abloom.

The next morning we dragged our suitcases past the Badrutt Hotel on our way to the train station instead of being driven in Rolls Royce luxury.  Destination:  Zurich Airport. Our train took the same route as the Glacier Train as far as Chur.  I was able to get a few more pictures on that section.

High above a road, approaching a short tunnel.

This time the famous bridge and tunnel were behind us.

We saw some lovely scenery after Chur, but I was in “travel mode” by then and didn’t take pictures.  We spent our last night at a hotel connected to the Zurich Airport.  It was time to go home.  

We enjoyed seeing Switzerland, but I can’t say it is on our list of favorite places to visit.  Without a doubt it is beautiful there, but something was missing for me.  I’m glad that we were able to mix some Tour de France experiences into our itinerary. That did make the trip more interesting.  I think if we went back I’d focus more on getting out into the countryside for hiking or biking, rather than spending time in the cities.

Categories: Part 9 -The Glacier Express and St. Moritz, Switzerland 2026