Train trips suggestions from Geneva
The Swiss Train system is quite big. For recent expatriates and tourist with more time it can be something very interesting to discover and not only to go to visit some specific place. There is even a page with information about all travel passes you can get in Switzerland if you want to spend some time into trains.
Having a new colleague or friend coming to Switzerland, I try to give him suggestions about nice train rides one can make while at the same time visit some places. Below I leave the first suggestions, based on the 2010 timetables (trains are usually every hour. To confirm the timetable, check The Swiss trains web page.
Sugestion 1 – French Alps, Mont Blanc and Lake geneva panorama
Possible stops (time just for one/two if you want to do the tour in one day): Lausanne, Montreux, Gruyères (with extension to top of Moléson).
Genève |
Arrival
|
Departure x:36 |
| Montreux | x+1:39 | x+1:45 |
| Montbovon | x+2:31 | x+2:40 |
| (Gruyères) | x+2:58 | x+2:58 |
| Palésieux | x+3:55 | x+3:59 |
| Genève | x+4:50 |
Sugestion 2 – Chamonix (Mont Blanc) and tour of Lake Geneva by train
Possible stops: Chamonix and go to the top of Aguille du Midi (3800m)
Note: this tour departs from a small train station in the center of Geneva, trams 16 or 17 stop “Amandölier (gare SNCF)”.
| Arrival | Departure | Arrival | Departure | |
| Geneve-Eaux-Vives | 8:02 | 9:02 | ||
| Annemasse | – | – | 9:13 | 9:18 |
| St-Gervais | 9:25 | 9:32 | 10:25 | 10:32 |
| Chamonix | 10:12 | 11:12 | ||
| Chamonix | x:16 | (last at 17:16) | ||
| Vallorcine | x:52 | x:59 | ||
| Martigny | x+1:55 | x:+2:20 | ||
| Geneve | x+4:04 | |||
Sugestion 3 – Interlaken, Swiss pre-Alps and Bern
Possible stops (necessary to sleep somewhere if we want to combine this tirp with visits): Montreux, Gsaad, Interlaken (extension to any montain around), Bern.
Genève |
Arrival |
Departure 8:36 |
| Montreux | 9:39 | 9:45 |
| (Gstaad) | 11:03 | 11:05 |
| Zweisimmen | 11:32 | 11:38 |
| Interlaken Ost | 12:50 |
| Interlaken Ost | x:01 | (last at 20:01) | |
| Bern | x:52 | x+1:34 | |
| Genève | x+3:15 |
Sugestion 4 – Milan, Bernina Express and Glacier Express (3 days tour)
This is a suberb long weekend trip. Leave Geneva to Milan on Friday. Visit Milan on Saturday morning and then head to Tirano. On Sunday seven different trains (and lots of trust on Swiss rail system) to do probably the two most amazing train trips in Switzerland. Any time of the year is good for this trip (I did the whole in Christmas and found very nice; I did parts of it over Summer, which is also nice).
| Day 1(3:53) | Day 2 (2:30) | Day 3 (11:34) |
| Genève | Milano | Tirano (start 8:50) |
| Milano | Tirano | Pontresina |
| Samedan | ||
| Reichenau-Tamins | ||
| Disentis-Muster | ||
| Andermatt | ||
| Brig | ||
| Genève (arrive 20:24) |
|
|
|||||||||||||||