Booking Panoramic Trains in Switzerland: Tips and Tricks

One of the biggest challenges I see when visitors to Switzerland want to ride one of the many panoramic trains is reserving your seat.

In this post, I will show you exactly how it all works, where to reserve your seats, and a whole range of other tricks to make booking easier.

Do You Need Tickets Or Seat Reservations (Or Both?)

The confusion starts when people want to book a panoramic train and they have to decide on

• seat reservation
• ticket purchase
• or both

Swiss Travel Pass Holders

If you have (or plan to have) a Swiss Travel Pass that is valid when you take your panoramic train, then you do not need a ticket. The Swiss Travel Pass is your ticket. You only need a seat reservation.

Half Fare Card Holders

If you have a Half-Fare Card, you should be able to apply that discount when you purchase your seat and ticket.

Where To Book Your Seats (And Tickets)

Unfortunately, each panoramic train company has a different and equally confusing website to book everything.

So, below I am going to link each of them for your convenience:

• Glacier Express
• Bernina Express
• GoldenPass Line
• Gotthard Express
• Lucerne-Interlaken Express
• Palm Express Bus

How Many Days Ahead Should I Book?

The simple answer is as soon as possible. Especially with the more popular routes (I have listed them in order of popularity above).

Some routes only open reservations a specific time period ahead:

• Glacier Express: 93 days (ie. three x 31 days = 3 months ahead more or less)
  • 👉👉Excellence Class does not have this restriction – book as early as you can
• Bernina Express: No Restrictions
• GoldenPass Line: 365 days (The special – Belle Epoque is usually 2 months)
• Gotthard Express: 360 days (Closed December to March)
• Palm Express: Any Time (Daily from mid-June to approx. mid-October)

NOTE: Some may be restricted later in the year due to timetable changes on Dec 13. These then come online, usually in mid-October.

Choosing Seats & Direction Of Travel

Another more perplexing topic is the direction of travel and how to get the best views.

It can be quite challenging to say which side of many of these trains is best. And on top of that, for trains like the Glacier Express, the carriage reverses many times (because it comes to an end station – comes in, and goes back out the same way), so even if you think you know, you don’t!

There are a variety of useful posts on these topics online that I have read that I will reference below:

Lucern – Interlaken Express

This one is simple – Right Hand Side every time.

The booking interface even has it shown (Panoramic View – see below) so they always remind you. But essentially 90% of the best views are on the right hand side no matter which way you are traveling.

This may actually seem counter-intuitive if you think about it as one way should be left, the other right. Right?

But the train changes direction mid-way in Meiringen, so no matter whether you are coming from Lucerne or Interlaken, always sit on the RIGHT HAND SIDE :>

Glacier Express

According to the pros at seat61

Eastbound from Zermatt, the right-hand side is best along the Mattertal Valley from Zermatt to Brig, but in the Rhine Gorge, all the river scenery is on the left.  The train changes direction in Chur.  Then from Chur to St Moritz the best views are on the right hand side, including the classic view as the train curves onto the Landwasser Viaduct.  Westbound from St Moritz, it’s obviously the opposite side in each case.  However, when booking you can’t tell which way round the carriages will be, so unfortunately you can’t reserve a seat on a specific side.

Bernina Express

Apparently, the reservation system does not say which way round the carriages are, so it becomes a little irrelevant (let me know if I am wrong).

The only advice here is that couples should sit opposite each other in a 2-seater, and families of 4 in the four-seater if it allows.