Glacier Express Excellence Class – St. Moritz to Zermatt on Switzerland’s most famous train

Eight hours. 291 kilometres through the heart of the Swiss Alps. 291 bridges. 91 tunnels. A five-course meal with a different wine at each course. Twenty seats total in the entire carriage. And the official title of “the slowest express train in the world,” which the Glacier Express wears completely unironically and with great pride. If you just finished the vlog and you’re now sitting there wondering whether CHF 812 for a train ticket is a defensible life decision — let’s talk through it properly.

This is the full St. Moritz to Zermatt route in Excellence Class — the top tier, the 20-seat private carriage, red carpet check-in, dedicated concierge, champagne before you’ve even moved, and a meal structure that essentially turns the entire journey into a moving fine dining event. the Matterhorn is waiting at the other end. The Landwasser Viaduct is somewhere in the middle. Let’s get into what the route actually looks like from a seat on the train.

What is the Glacier Express actually?

The Glacier Express has been running since 1930 and connects Zermatt in the Swiss canton of Valais with St. Moritz in the Engadin valley of Graubünden — two of the most famous luxury mountain resorts in the world, on opposite sides of the central Alps. The full route covers 291 kilometres, crosses 291 bridges and passes through 91 tunnels, climbing to a maximum elevation of 2,033 metres above sea level at the Oberalp Pass. It’s operated jointly by the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) and the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB), two separate railway companies whose networks interlock along this route.

The “slowest express” nickname is accurate and intentional. Average speed across the route is around 36 km/h. Sections of the route use rack-and-pinion railway to climb gradients too steep for standard adhesion. Parts of the Albula Line that the train crosses are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The panoramic windows are floor-to-ceiling, or close enough to it, specifically designed so you don’t miss anything while you’re eating your fourth course.

Three classes of travel are available:

• 🪑 2nd Class — comfortable panoramic seats, table service dining available for purchase
• 🪑 1st Class — wider seats, same panoramic windows, slightly quieter atmosphere, meals purchased separately
• ⭐ Excellence Class — 20-seat private carriage, 1-1 seating layout with guaranteed window seats, five-course meal with wine pairings included, dedicated concierge, Glacier Bar access, iPad route guide, everything included

The vlog is in Excellence Class. This article is about Excellence Class. The other classes are perfectly fine scenic train options — Excellence Class is the reason people describe this as a bucket list day rather than a nice train journey.

The price – let’s get this out of the way

Excellence Class costs CHF 540 for the seat reservation on top of a first class ticket. If you’re buying a standard full-fare ticket, the first class component runs approximately CHF 272, bringing the total to around CHF 812 per person for the full St. Moritz to Zermatt route. One way. No return included.

That is a genuinely significant amount of money for an eight-hour train ride. Here’s how people reduce the cost:

• 🎫 Swiss Travel Pass (1st class) — if you have a 1st class Swiss Travel Pass or a 1st class Eurail/Interrail Pass, the base ticket is covered. You pay only the CHF 540 Excellence Class seat reservation. This is meaningfully cheaper and the Swiss Travel Pass pays for itself quickly on a multi-day Switzerland itinerary anyway
• 🎫 Swiss Travel Pass (2nd class) — you can pay a one-day class upgrade fee to access first class for that day, then add the CHF 540 Excellence Class reservation on top. This works out cheaper than buying a full 1st class ticket
• 🎫 Half-Fare Travelcard — reduces the base ticket price by 50%. If you’re spending multiple days in Switzerland, the Half-Fare card (approximately CHF 120) pays for itself after a few train journeys and cuts the Glacier Express ticket cost significantly
• 📅 Timing — book as early as possible. Excellence Class has only 20 seats and it sells out. Reservations open 180 days before travel for Excellence Class (earlier than other classes). People have found last-minute openings through Switzerland Travel Centre but don’t rely on it

The honest framing on the price: one Excellence Class guest on TripAdvisor compared the service to Emirates and Singapore Airlines First Class suites. That comparison isn’t crazy when you think about the staff-to-passenger ratio, the food quality, and the fact that 20 people have an entire carriage, a dedicated bar, and a personal concierge for eight hours. You’re not paying CHF 812 for a train ticket. You’re paying for one of the best full-day luxury travel experiences in Europe.

Boarding – the red carpet moment is real

The vlog starts in Zurich before heading to St. Moritz station to board. The boarding experience for Excellence Class begins with a dedicated welcome desk on the platform — a concierge meets you, takes your luggage, and walks you to the carriage. There is, genuinely, a red carpet. It’s a small detail and it signals the entire register of what the next eight hours will be.

The Excellence Class carriage is positioned and clearly marked. You’re not hunting for it through a crowded train. You walk straight to it, your luggage goes into a locked luggage area managed by the concierge, and you find your seat — a plush leather reclining armchair, 1-1 layout meaning one seat on each side of the aisle with nobody next to you, guaranteed window position. Every single seat is a window seat. The carriage has its own private toilet facility, maintained throughout the journey. The Glacier Bar is at one end of the carriage. There are 20 people in this entire space and a dedicated service team.

The panoramic windows run essentially floor to ceiling on both sides. The double glazing is the honest caveat for photography: reflection-free shots require either positioning yourself carefully, using the two small opening windows at the end of the carriage (the main reason professional photographers and vloggers congregate there at key sights), or heading to the bar car where one large window on each side can be fully lowered. The vlog handles this well — the Landwasser Viaduct footage in particular benefits from using the open window position.

Also worth noting before departure: only one piece of luggage per person is allowed on the Glacier Express, and no dogs. Plan accordingly if you’re carrying ski equipment or oversized bags on a winter itinerary — arrange separate luggage forwarding if needed.

The meal – a five-course event across eight hours

The Excellence Class food service is structured to stretch across the journey — roughly one course per hour, which turns the entire ride into something between a meal and an experience. This is not airline food. This is not hotel conference dining. The menus are seasonal and regional, developed by Swiss gastronomy professionals using local ingredients from the cantons the train passes through.

The sequence:

• 🍾 Champagne and amuse-bouches before the train moves or shortly after departure. This is the moment you understand the CHF 812 decision was correct
• 🥗 Starter — typically something light and regional: cold cuts, seasonal vegetables, local cheese elements
• 🍲 Soup course — the mid-journey warming course, usually something with Graubünden or Valais character
• 🥩 Main course — regional meat or fish with Swiss-sourced sides. The execution is notably better than most train dining anywhere in the world
• 🧀 Cheese course — Switzerland. On a train. This is the correct country for this
• 🍮 Dessert — seasonal, Swiss, the right note to end on as you descend toward Zermatt

Each course comes with a wine pairing — a different wine for each course, included in the Excellence Class price. Soft drinks, mineral water, and coffee are all included throughout the journey. Beer is also included, which several reviewers note with some surprise. The Glacier Bar has a cocktail list for anything beyond the included beverages.

Pre-ordering your meals is recommended before the trip — the Excellence Class page on glacierexpress.ch lets you select your menu choices in advance. For dietary requirements or preferences this is particularly important. The menu changes seasonally so what’s being served in winter looks different from summer.

The route – section by section

The full St. Moritz to Zermatt journey divides into distinct character sections. The vlog covers the major highlights and timestamps them clearly — here’s the landscape context for each:

🏔️ St. Moritz to Chur – the Albula Line (UNESCO World Heritage)

Departing St. Moritz at 1,775 metres above sea level, the first section follows the Albula Line — part of the Rhaetian Railway UNESCO World Heritage Site that it shares with the Bernina Express route. This is technically and scenically the most complex section of the entire journey: the railway engineers who built this line in the early 1900s had to solve the problem of climbing and descending steep mountain terrain without gradient-busting switchbacks. The solution was a series of spiral tunnels, loops, and helical curves that gain or lose elevation while staying within manageable grades.

The Landwasser Viaduct appears on this section, at approximately the 13:37 mark in the vlog, and it is the single most photographed railway structure in Switzerland. The viaduct is a six-arched curved limestone bridge 142 metres long and 65 metres high — and uniquely, it leads directly into a tunnel carved into the cliff face at the end. The train goes from open sky to carved rock in one continuous motion. To see it properly from the train travelling St. Moritz to Zermatt (westbound), the right-hand side of the carriage is theoretically better — though in Excellence Class with 1-1 seating, you have windows on both sides visible regardless of your seat. The bar window is the photographer’s choice here.

The vlog reaches Chur at the 18:16 mark. Chur is the capital of the canton of Graubünden and Switzerland’s oldest city, at 585 metres above sea level — the lowest point of the entire journey, which gives you a sense of how much the train has descended from St. Moritz. Something else that happens at Chur: the train reverses direction. Chur is a dead-end terminus; the Glacier Express runs in, then back out the other way. You don’t need to do anything, but your seat will now face the direction you just came from. The view out your window changes sides accordingly.

🏔️ Chur to Andermatt – the Rhine Gorge and the Oberalp Pass

Leaving Chur, the train re-enters the Rhine valley and follows the Rhine Gorge — known locally as Ruinaulta and sometimes called “Switzerland’s Grand Canyon.” White cliff faces and geological formations rise from the river on both sides. The left side of the train has the best river views in this section. The gorge is accessible only by foot, bike, train, or boat, which explains why it looks completely undeveloped from the window — there are no roads through it.

After the gorge, the train climbs toward Disentis/Mustér at 1,142 metres where the locomotive changes — the Rhaetian Railway hands over to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn here. This is a good legs-stretch opportunity if you want one. From Disentis the line becomes the steepest section of the entire route, using a rack-and-pinion railway system where a toothed rack between the rails engages with a cog on the locomotive to prevent slipping on gradients too steep for normal adhesion. You can see the rack between the rails from the window.

The climb ends at the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres — the highest point of the entire journey and the geographic centrepiece of the route, visible at the vlog’s Natschen section around the 32:05 mark. In winter this section is often dramatically snow-covered, the landscape is completely alpine and treeless, and on a clear day the panoramic windows are earning every franc you paid for the seat. This is the moment that justifies the entire premise of the Glacier Express. The concierge team will be describing what you’re looking at through the headset commentary — this is one of the sections where the iPad route guide and the audio commentary add genuine value to the experience.

Descending from the Oberalp Pass the train passes through Andermatt and down through the Urseren valley into the canton of Valais.

🏔️ Brig to Zermatt – the Mattertal

The vlog reaches Brig at 34:35. This is the last major town before Zermatt and the point where the train enters the Mattertal — the valley that leads directly to the Matterhorn. The right side of the train has better views along this section from Zermatt eastbound (so left side when travelling St. Moritz to Zermatt as in the vlog). The valley narrows progressively as you approach Zermatt, the walls getting steeper and the scenery more dramatically alpine.

Critically: Zermatt is a car-free village. No private motor vehicles are allowed. The Glacier Express arrival at Zermatt station is genuinely one of the better train arrivals in the world — you step off directly into a mountain village where the Matterhorn is visible above the rooftops, there are no cars, and the scale of the village ensures the transition from train to hotel involves a short walk or an electric taxi. The vlog captures the arrival from 34:35 onward and it lands exactly as dramatically as it should after eight hours of Alpine traverse.

The train at different seasons

The vlog title mentions “views across different seasons” and the footage reflects this — the route looks fundamentally different depending on when you travel. This matters for planning:

• ❄️ Winter (December-March) — the Oberalp Pass section in deep snow is the iconic Glacier Express image. Deep powder coverage on the high sections, dramatic ice and snow formations, the whole route at its most visually extreme. The downside is that some sections through lower valleys are less dramatic when the deciduous trees are bare. Winter is when the train is associated most strongly with the ski season context
• 🌸 Spring (April-May) — the contrast between snowcapped high peaks and blooming lower valleys is remarkable. Some of the most photographically interesting footage comes from late spring when multiple seasonal registers are visible simultaneously
• 🌿 Summer (June-September) — the most popular travel window. Full green coverage on the lower sections, waterfalls in full flow from snowmelt, the longest daylight hours. The Oberalp Pass in summer is green meadow alpine rather than snow-covered, which is a different but equally compelling landscape
• 🍂 Autumn (October-early November) — larch forests in Graubünden turn gold and orange. The contrast against grey rock and blue sky is extraordinary. Many regular Glacier Express travellers consider autumn the single best season for the scenery

Important operational note: the Glacier Express does not operate on certain dates in November and early December. The exact closure dates vary by year — check the current timetable at glacierexpress.ch before planning a trip around this window. In 2025, the train was not operating from mid-October to early December.

Seat side advice and photography tips

One of the most common questions about the Glacier Express and one that gets genuinely complicated answers: which side of the train for the best views?

The technically correct answer by section, travelling St. Moritz to Zermatt (westbound):

• St. Moritz to Chur: right side for Landwasser Viaduct approach
• Chur to Rhine Gorge: left side for the river gorge views
• Oberalp Pass section: both sides are spectacular, no preference
• Brig to Zermatt (Mattertal): left side for the valley walls

The practical reality for Excellence Class passengers: the 1-1 seating means you have window access on both sides regardless of your seat, and the carriage is narrow enough that the opposite window is visible from your seat. You’re not locked into one perspective in the way that 2nd or 1st class passengers with aisle seats are.

For photography through the panoramic windows: the double glazing creates reflections and colour shift that makes clean shots difficult. The two small opening windows at the end of the carriage (the ones outside the sliding door leading to the luggage area) are the solution for video and serious stills. They’re narrow but they work. The bar car option (one fully lowerable large window on each side) is the other approach — most passengers doing serious photography of the Landwasser Viaduct position themselves there in advance.

Practical notes – booking and what to know

A few things that aren’t obvious from the marketing materials:

• 📅 Book early — Excellence Class (20 seats) sells out. Reservations open 180 days before travel. For peak dates (January-February, July-August) book the moment reservations open
• 🧳 One bag per person — this is enforced. If you’re travelling with ski equipment, book a separate luggage forwarding service (Swiss Post Baggage is the standard option) and send the big bags ahead
• 🐕 No dogs — the only train in Switzerland’s scenic rail network that doesn’t allow dogs. Worth knowing if your travel party includes one
• 🍽️ Pre-order your meal choices — Excellence Class lets you select your menu preferences before travel. Dietary requirements need to be communicated in advance. The seasonal menu is published on the website
• 🧭 Direction of travel doesn’t matter for seat reservation — when booking online you cannot specify which way you want to face in the carriage. Both directions have good views. Don’t stress about it
• ☀️ Weather matters — a cloudy or foggy day on the high sections significantly changes the experience, particularly the Oberalp Pass. Some travellers wait until a clear forecast day to book; others factor it into expectations and find the journey worthwhile regardless. The lower sections (Rhine Gorge, Landwasser Viaduct) are less weather-dependent than the high alpine sections
• 📱 iPad commentary — the digital tablet provided in Excellence Class has an interactive map showing your exact position on the route with information about what you’re seeing. Use it, especially for the Albula section where the spiral tunnels make spatial orientation surprisingly difficult

Is it worth CHF 812?

The honest answer is: for the right person on the right day, yes, unambiguously. The Glacier Express Excellence Class is the best full-day luxury rail experience in Europe and one of the best in the world. Twenty seats, a moving fine dining restaurant, one of the most scenic train routes on earth, and a concierge service that anticipates things before you ask. It’s the kind of day that people describe accurately and specifically years afterwards, which is the real benchmark.

The honest caveats: CHF 812 full fare is genuinely expensive for one direction on one train. If you have a Swiss Travel Pass or a Half-Fare card the effective cost drops significantly. If you’re already spending multiple days in Switzerland and have the pass, the Excellence Class supplement (CHF 540) for a once-in-a-lifetime Alpine traverse is a straightforward yes. If you’re flying to Switzerland specifically for the Glacier Express and paying full fare without any pass, the maths is tighter and requires more conviction.

The alternative that comes up occasionally in planning discussions: regular panoramic trains on parts of the route (like the standard RhB trains from Chur to St. Moritz) cover similar scenery at a fraction of the cost. This is true and worth knowing if budget is the primary constraint. But it doesn’t include the meal, it doesn’t include the 20-seat carriage isolation, and it doesn’t include the concierge and the champagne before you’ve moved. Those elements are the point of the Excellence Class version of this journey, and they’re genuinely different from sitting on a regular Swiss train with the same view.

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by Momo Travel