Goldenpass Express: Interlaken to Montreux

You don’t need a reservation to ride the Goldenpass Express, but it’s highly recommended if you want a good seat. You should book as early as possible. We tried one week before and all the window seats in first and second class were taken. We were able to get seats on a Monday two weeks out.

The website for booking is here: https://www.gpx.swiss/en/

We chose the first class for the panorama windows, which cost 20CHF more than the standard fair. I had the GA pass so the rest of my ticket was ‘free’ and Bry had the half-fare pass so he paid an extra 46.50CHF on top of the first class price, for a total of 66.50. If you have no sort of discount card panorama car tickets would cost 113 CHF.

These prices are also one-way. We took the regular train back from Montreux to Zurich.

The train left around 9am from Interlaken Ost. I was immediately impressed by the big windows and spacious seats.

The ride was about 3.25 hours long and the views were spectacular! We sat on the left side of the train. I heard this side was worse, but I thought they were about even in terms of scenic quality.

Overall it was a very nice experience but I do have some critiques:

Food:

We ordered the wine and aperitif before hand (27CHF) because we thought it would be cute. It was fun when they brought it out to us and the presentation looked good but honestly I wouldn’t do that again. You can just bring your own wine/beer or snacks on the train and save 20CHF. Also my roll was stale.

Waiting around:

There’s quite a few stops between Interlaken Ost and Montreux, and we would sit at the train station for 5+ minutes at a time, which was boring—when you’re enjoying the ride you want to keep going and not look at an empty rural train station.

Visibility:

There’s no controlling this especially since you have to book your tickets in advance, but it started snowing between Zweisimmon and Montreux and visibility went way down. This is just a risk you take traveling in winter, I guess. The snow at least made it feel cozier on the train.

Overall:

This was the first scenic train ride I did in Switzerland (not counting the mountain trains of Rigi and Jungfraujoch) so I have to do a few more to compare.

If you have the GA or half tax ticket it’s a pretty reasonable deal for what you get. The panorama car first class car is completely worth it, but I would skip ordering snacks and just bring your own.

Ultimately these sorts of experiences are unique to Switzerland and could be a major highlight for a trip here! For this reason we given this route 4 snacks.