3-Day Glacier Express Self-Guided Tour from Zurich

This was on my bucket list. My 8 year old daughter and I took the Glacier Express Zurich-Zermott-St Moritz. I requested 4 star hotels. The hoitel in Zermott was great but the dump in St Moritz was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. There was hair in the bathroom, the hotel Reine Victoria was old and outdated. Unfortunately i prepaid so i was stuck there for the night. As for the Glacier Express it was an 8 hour train ride - after 2 hours we were ready to get off.

The one day on the glacier express was the best of our Switzerland experience. We were, however, not so happy with the rest of the arrangements, in some of the other trains we only had standing places.

Zermatt accomodations were excellent....St. Moritz the hotel is in need of an upgrade ...room service sucked...did not provide any cutlery to cut a pizza ......Switzerland is worth exploring even thogh it is pricey....

Train trip was fabulous but we chose the 3 course meal and were very disappointed with what we received. A salad for entree, Chicken stew with rice & carrots & apple cake. Very unimpressed with the meal...we would have been better off selecting something from the menu because those meals look okay.

Overall, we had a great time! We are glad we did it, but probably don't ever need to do it again. The included schedule is not the easiest to decipher - there are 3 trains that leave Zurich to get you to Zermatt. Pick the one that works best for your schedule. That is the top part. The bottom section tells you that each of those choices involved taking a train to a connection, and then continuing on to Zermatt. Be aware there is only a 6 minute windows at the connection. Our first train was late, so we had to wait an hour for the 2nd train. Note that I recognize this is not Viator's fault - just a heads up that scheduling is tight. This is the only train we took that wasn't almost exactly on time. In Zermatt we stayed in the Hotel Julen. The hotel was super nice, and the staff was great. Cars are not allowed in Zermatt, but if you call the hotel, they will come to the station and pick you up in these little buggies they have. Zermatt was so nice I wish we had done a 4 day trip and stayed there an extra day. In Zermatt, if you take the early train, you can get there in time to go up on the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise excursion. It was kinda pricey, but definitely a once in a lifetime sort of thing to do. The actual Glacier Express was fun, but got to be kinda long. It is a full 8 hours on the train. There were a couple stops where we got off and walked around for 5 minutes, but that was it. Again, we paid for an upgrade (above this online Viator pricing - you have to call) to get first class tickets. I'm glad we did - a lot more space for that long. (There is also an Excellence class with even bigger seats and more amenities.) We were on the 8:52 train. There was a full lunch service. It was very good, but again, expensive. Water is 7CHF a bottle - I suggest bringing your own. I think for 1 water, 1 coffee, a Glacier Express salad (Americans would call it a chef salad), and a pork / spetzle lunch w/ dessert was 70CHF. That is just more than I normally spend at lunch. Like I said, 8 hours was a long time. My wife & I were ready to be done at the 1/2 way point. St. Mortis was a dud. It was a Sunday in the offseason - Everything was closed. The Hotel Stefani was fine, but dated. The ride back to Zurich was easy and quick.

This was amazing! the 4 star hotels were good. With the exception of the one in Zermatt where we paid for a 3 person room, but the room was barely big enough for 2 and the shower/tub was in the middle of the room. We ended up getting another room and paying separate once we saw the room that we had as part of the tour. If there was an option to include a first class upgrade to seats on the glacier express that would be even better. Good communication with the team before the trip while we set everything up!

I cant say enough good things about this trip. The hotels arranged for us were fantastic. The train trip itself was spectacular. Everything was planned to the exact detail. The only little criticism I have would be that a few more instructions like how to get to the train information centre to find the correct platform after collecting the paperwork would have been handy. Thank you for a wonderful trip.

A beautiful, comfortable way to trave!. Not all hotels were 4 star - Hotel in St. Moritz was quite worn and showing its age. Dumpy. Viator needs to do due diligence on the hotels they recommend.

Prachtige tocht, maar vooral de super begeleiding vanuit het reserveringenkantoor was prachtig. Zij (dank vooral aan Laura!) hebben veel moeite gedaan om het voor mij en mijn 87 jarige vader haalbaar te maken en zijn droom te realiseren. Heel veel dank!!!