One of the most stunning bus journeys you can take in Switzerland is from St Moritz to Lugano.
The so-called “Palm Express” is a Post Auto route directly from St Moritz in Engadine to the swaying palms of the Mediterranean-like town of Lugano in the south of Switzerland.
Normally, you would have to traverse many alpine passes to reach this town if you stayed within Switzerland (I have driven it and it is very time-consuming but stunning).
However, via this shorter route, you pass into Italy via the Maloja pass and the border town of Castasegna to Chiavenna. You then skirt along Lake Como to Menaggio, then pass along Lake Lugano to reach Lugano from the east, instead of the north.
Lugano itself is one of the gems of Tessin in Switzerland with far warmer and sunnier Mediterranean weather with loads of things to do and see year-round.
The entire route is around 180km and takes approximately 4 hours by Post bus from St Moritz to Lugano.
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Timetable
The timetable for the Palm Express is a little complicated to understand.
You can find it here.
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Further Information
It runs once a day (on the days it is running), and leaves St Moritz at 10.15 am. arriving in Lugano at 2.06 pm
In the opposite direction, it leaves Lugano at 3.30pm and arrives in St Moritz at 6.56 pm
After breaking down the timetable it appears to run:
- Daily between 10th June – 20th October (2024)
- Outside of this main season, it runs fewer days of the week (see the footnotes for details)
** On the timetable, the numbers 1-7 are used to designate days of the week (Monday is 1, Sunday is 7)
Another more concrete way to check if it is running on the day you want is to use SBB.ch and try for the date you need. Make sure to look around 10am for St Moritz departures , or 3.30pm for Lugano depatures.
Booking A Seat
Booking of seats is mandatory and can be done via this link
Hi, Ashley,
I badly need your help. I plan to take the Palm Express from St. Mo to Lugano on June 19th or one day before or after, I am flexible. I looked on rome2rio and it shows there is a bus on that day at 10:31 AM. However, if I want to buy a ticket on the Post Bus site, it sends to the train route through Chur. What am I supposed to do? I do not know for sure if the bus goes on that day, Do not know to buy ta ticket ahead of time (r2r says it costs between $ 11-17), I am afraid that I leave the reservation for later on I will not be able to get a ticket, etc. DO you have any help suggestion?
Hi Roxanne, I have emailed you the details that should help you find the right timetable and seat reservation. I have also updated the post above with those details.