Taking the train across Switzerland is an efficient, relaxing and fun thing to do. We have spent a fair amount of time cross-crossing the country by rail on our two big Swiss trips. That being said, you are not going to take the Glacier Express for efficiency. With an average speed of 24 miles an hour, this iconic panoramic train is all about the views! Join us for our trip from St Moritz to Zermatt in this Glacier Express first class review.

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A Little About Us (Well, Me)

On our first trip to Switzerland, we were travelling with Interrail passes. We had certain logistics we had to comply with, and certain places that we had to be by certain times. Well, despite tying myself in knots, i could not figure out how to include the Glacier Express. We left with that box unticked and it irked me no end. From then on, I was planning a new trip to Switzerland and happily, could make it a reality in September 2024.

A Little About the Glacier Express

Without question, the most famous train ride in Switzerland is the Glacier Express and this is in no way a commuter train. Of course, other trains run on the same tracks, and if you are just trying to get from A to B, those are the ones you need to catch. The Glacier Express is all about the experience, the views, and the bucket list of moments! That is why it travels along at an average speed of 24 mph/38 KM/H.

The line was finished in 1930 to connect the popular ski resorts of Zermatt and St Moritz. This helped promote them as summer resorts too. The train was unable to run in winter due to the snowfall which hampered its journey. The tracks pass over 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels. This now includes the Furka tunnel which allows the train to run year round (but does take passengers away from the Rhone Glacier after which the train was named). The whole thing is a very impressive piece of Swiss engineering.

The Swiss Travel Pass on the Glacier Express

The Swiss Travel Pass is a one ticket covers all optoin for travelling through Switzerland. You can take trains, boats, buses and trams all for a fixed price. Amazingly, if you hold a Swiss Travel Pass, as we did, the ticket cost of taking the Glacier Express is covered. This saves up to CHF 159/272 on your ticket price depending on your class of travel and the distance travelled. This is an amazing saving when you include the rest of the benefits of the Swiss Travel Pass.

However, reservations are mandatory so there is a little more to pay to ride. You need to ensure you are making a reservation in the class of travel that matches your Swiss Travel Pass. As ours was first class, that is where we sat. Reservations are opened 93 days in advance so set an alarm and don’t miss those window spots. To travel the full route (St Moritz to Zermatt) it costs:

• First Class – CHF 49
• Second Class – CHF 44

You can pay for Excellence Class no matter which pass you hold. The highend carraige has most gorgeous leather seats and a gorgeous attatched bar car. This costs CHF 470 and includes a five course meal with wine pairings…which sounds divine.

Our Glacier Express First Class Review

Boarding at St Moritz

We arrived at the station in St Moritz a little too early, turning up at around 07:55. We had decided to be lazy and catch the bus from the hostel so we didn’t have to lug our backpacks around the lake. As the bus only went every 30 minutes, we wanted to ensure we weren’t late.

The train turned up at about 08:15 and we ran around taking photos until it was time to take our seats.

Boarding first class was just like hopping on any other train, but further along the platform, Excellence Class (the top tier) got a little welcome stand, a podium with a member of Glacier Express staff and even a short red carpet. As ever, the train pulled away promptly at 08:51.

If you would rather watch our YouTube video all about our experience, you can check it out here:

The Carriages

The first class carriages were clean and bright, with lovely large windows and wooden accents warming up the dark grey fabrics. We loved the engravings in here or the famous Matterhorn mountain peak. Of course, the coolest thing about the carriages are the panoramic windows. There are large picture windows that extend up to the roof, and then additional windows, that are tinted to reduce crazy sunlight, that look through to the sky.

The Seats

The seating configuration in first class is a table of four on one side of the aisle, and a table for two on the other. If you want to make sure that at least one of you has a window, book as soon as the reservations are released. The couple across from us both had the aisle seat and they didn’t look too happy about it. (In second class, there is a table of four on each side…but we aren’t here to review that).

Our set of two had a table which folded out allowing us to get in and out easily and have our table set properly for dinner. In the centre was a plastic section with four dividers, the perfect place to put glasses so they didn’t slip. This is a very clever design addition that I’m surprised we haven’t seen on more trains. There was also a bottle/cup holder each, which came in useful for our cola bottles and a handy place to hook my headphones.

More about those later….

Determined to drink in the views and not just waste our time, as we were on a normal train, we didn’t watch videos or bring any entertainment. There was a brochure about the route and history of the Glacier Express to leaf through and a mains plug if we did want to charge your devices. Don’t forget, that Switzerland has its own plugs so you will need either a Swiss-specific adapter or a European plug which is very, very, very thin.

The other provided entertainment, or should that be infotainment, was the inbuilt audio system. Everyone was given a pair of headphones on their tables and these plugged into the dock on the side of your chair. Every so often, a set of chimes would play which indicated that it wass time to put the headphones in. Then, everyone was treated to some information about what bwe were seeing outside, or about the train itself. There were also a couple of music channels, one of which played modern German music and the other played very traditional oompah-style songs. I quite enjoyed listening to these as they gave it such a jolly vibe.

The Glacier Panorama Carriage

Next door to our first class carriage was the Glacier Panorama carriage. It had a very small souvenir shop and a couple of coffee machines. I don’t think we saw it officially open really, but we made use of it for three reasons. The first was as somewhere to wander to. Eight hours of sitting can give you rather restless legs. The second was to look through and sign the guest book. Finally, when we were about to pass over the Landwasser Viaduct, the very kind staff offered to open the big window in there so that we could get a nice shot of it. You can see the video we took further into this blog post.

Our Food and Drink

Hot Drinks

Our ticket included a meal and soft drinks throughout the day. We’ve began by ordering a couple of hot drinks. I opted for a cappuccino, which was pretty decent and Mr Fluskey chose a hot chocolate. He doesn’t really like hot drinks, but he does have a sweet tooth, so this was perfect. The hot chocolate was a famous Swiss brand, and came as a glass of hot milk and a sachet. We mixed it in and then happily sat and sipped.

10:15 – The table was set but they warned us that food wasn’t due for a while yet. Considering it was lunch, I didn’t mind at all but there is something about having your table set that sets the hunger niggles going. We had the Menu of the Day which costs CHF 49 (£43/$56) per person. This sounds very expensive but food is expensive everywhere in Switzerland so this is only a tiny bit more than you would pay anywhere else.

First Course

11:45 – A small bread basket was placed on the table and I was about to pounce on it but realised that no butter was provided. I thought I would wait for that to arrive before tackling the slices. Then shortly afterwards, our salads appeared. These were simple dressed salads with a wedge of hard-boiled egg and a vinegarette. It was tasty but not super exciting

Main Course

12:35 – After half an hour’s break, the staff suddenly appeared bearing large dishes of food. They came and served it at the table, silver service style which was a real treat. Mr Fluskey had chicken with root vegetables and Spaetzle. Spaetzle is a German dish which sits somewhere between pasta and dumplings. It is a delightful, salty, carblicious, filling side dish. The whole dish was well-seasoned and the chicken was delightfully tender. It looked simple but hit the spot beautifully.

,I am not a mushroom fan and had seen a few videos/blogs which mentioned their main course was mushroom chicken so I requested a dish without it. Instead, I was offered the vegetarian option. This was a tomato dahl (an Indian lentil dish) with rice and a poppadom. The dish was considerably cheaper to make than the main so I think I would have felt a little more short-changed if I was actually a veggie. Mind you, it was a large portion of dahl and rice…only a quarter of a poppadom though which I thought was a bit off. There was a strong tomato taste which was good but it lacked spices. I don’t mean chilli, but just the base level spices that didn’t really come through.

Dessert

13:10 – There was a long break between the main and dessert, so much so that I almost forgot it was coming. It was nice to spread out the service (it is a long train ride) but I think it would have been nice to know what to expect. The chocolate cake that arrived was moist and fantastic. It had a lot of fresh chocolate cream on which was cooling and addictive, I could have used a big bowl full.

Oh, and we never did get any butter. Maybe I should have asked?

Aperol Time

When you are travelling in first class, you can still bring your own food and drink. You don’t need to feel like the menu is the only option. We decided, to bring a couple of cheap and cheerful bottles of Aperol Spritz along with us that we picked up in Italy, sneaky afternoon apertivo. despite knowing we were allowed to do this, we still felt a bit awkward, fully expecting people to give us money stairs, but the staff didn’t mind one bit. 

The Views

Across the Valleys

Sliding through the landscape on a train is so relaxing and on this route, it is never boring. The villages below us and green hills above never got boring as it was all so very picturesque. For the first two hours of the ride, the clouds clung to the valley sides, giving an eerie quality to the pine forests. Then the sun burned through much of it and the colours began to pop. Every time we twisted around the edge of a hill, the red flash of the train caught my eye and had me grabbing for the camera. Later in the trip we dove to a valley floor with white stone either side and a milky turquoise river snaking beside us. This is the Rhine gorge and is known as the Swiss Grand Canyon. It was such an interesting contrast and looked so pretty in the sun.

The Landwasser Viaduct

There are lots of viaducts and tunnels on the Glacier Express route but the combination of the two at Landwasser Viaduct is the most stunning. The train emerges out of the dark and away from a dramatic rock face before immediately curving away. The 65m high viaduct stand high above the edge of a valley giving amazing views down, as well as being pretty striking itself.

Filming/Photographing the Landwasser Viaduct – If you are travelling from St Moritz to Zermatt you need to be on the left side of the train looking backwards. Travelling the other wa? Be on the right looking forward. For the best, unobstructed views, ask the staff. We hung out of the window in the Glacier Panorama car but there might be another good spot near you. If you have a 360 camera, don’t forget to use it…like we did.

The Oberalp Pass

Up at 2033m, this is highest point of the line. I cannot stress how much I loved traversing the Oberalp Pass. It was clear and crisp right over the lake, with stunning reflections of the snow in the dark water. Apparently, the first snow of the year was just a couple of days before (on the 14th or 15th September) so we were so, so lucky. The train slowed down beautifully as we passed the lake so everyone could get the best shots, which was really lovely.

Up to Zermatt

The Schöllenen Gorge was another beautiful and dramatic vista which I wasn’t ready for. Sadly, we couldn’t ask them to reverse so i could get a better photo. From here the train meandered through Andermatt and Brig before heading up towards its final destination.

Everyone was craning their necks to try and spot the Matterhorn as we appraoched Zermatt. The train entered an opensided tunnel and I prepared to try again once we came out…but we came into the station so that wasn’t too successful.

Arriving in Zermatt

We grabbed our luggage and disembarked, slight shell-shocked that we had already arrived. Somehow ithe time had gone so quickly! We exited the station, ready to find our hotel and spotted the Matterhorn for the first time. I felt like such a fan girl, ecited to see her favourite celeb. Thats probably a weird reaction for a big piece of rock but what can I say…it’s famous!

Peaky Riders

We walked fro about 15 minutes to reach our accommodation for two nights. Peaky Riders is a self-check in hotel on the edge of the village. We checked in on a large tablet and set up our room keys which was very exciting. Our Matterhorn Snug room was up on the fifth floor (one higher that the lift goes). We loved our little room. The bathroom was decked out in marble with a decent shower and cool rock sink. It came with some nice toiletries too.

The room had a nice big bed with storage room underneath, a small wardrobe, and big TV. There was a nice skylight above the bed which made it all feel so much lighter and larger, especially when combined with the glass doors outside. From the balcony, we could see the Matterhorn so we decided to toast the end of the day out here with a glass of wine, carried from Italy. Oh, and the tockens in the picture? That was for two free coffees from the machine downstairs so that was my breakfast sorted for our two night stay.

Final Thoughts on Our Glacier Express First Class Review

I adored our trip on the Glacier Express. The views were beautiful and the atmosphere was relaxed but fancy. I hope you will get the chance to travel on this legendary train ride and if you are in first class, you are going to have a marvellous time!

I would LOVE to take thr Glacier Express once more. This time though, in the winter to see everything covered in snow. It must be so magical. Maybe we will splash out on the Excellence Class experience (those cream leather seats are calling to me). Maybe you’ll get a full second class review? Who knows!

Rosie xx