Fabulous trip. Could have been made even better with a couple more 'free" days.
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This was a great experience with amazing hotels and trips would recommend
Absolutely stunning
Good holiday. Little too much travelling on some days?
Simply super experience
Great trip to some iconic places. Highlights for us: Giessbach Grand Hotel, Pilates Kulm and the Bernina Express to Italy and back.
Excellent tour. Great places visited. Nice variety of train journeys Nice hotels , good food and excellent tour guide Liz
A wonderful holiday! Very well looked after by our excellent Tour Guide.
Fantastic trip, the highlight being Mount Pilatus, the view is breathtaking. Grand Hotel Geissbach was everything I hoped it would be too. Very well organised.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Margaret,
I'm glad to hear that you had such a brilliant holiday to Switzerland, and that the views were as breathtaking as expected! I do hope that we can welcome you on tour again soon.
Best wishes,
Richard
Views from the Pilatus Hotel have to be seen to be believed. Simply spectacular! Hotel was lovely. Couldn't complain about anything. We were above the clouds. First hotel, The Grand hotel Geissbach had equally stunning views across the lake. An old fashioned, charming hotel withuch to recommend it.A hectic holiday but worth every minute.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Mrs Newitt,
Thank you for your review.
I'm delighted to hear that you had such an enjoyable holiday up in the Alps! The views on your photographs really are spectacular.
We hope that we can have the opportunity to welcome you on tour with us again soon!
Best wishes,
Richard
Great hotels and superb trips. The fantastic Geissbach hotel is one of the best we've stayed in, although the bedroom was on the small side the shower room was superb and the all- day facilities for sitting, eating and drinking combined with brilliant staff meant we only used the room for sleeping in. The journeys to the Rothorn, the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express were exceptional and the Mount Pilatus experience is unique. We also had a fantastic free day on Cable car bus and steamer across Lake Lucerne.
A wonderful holiday visiting some stunning locations.
We booked our holiday in December 2024 for travel in May 2025. The original itinerary included a first night stay in Basel. Day 3 Brienz-Rothorn and Day 5 Bernini Express. All of these were changed and the replacements were extremely poor. Day 1 Mulhouse hotel Mercury was a dump Day 3 Harder Kulm was ok but we didn’t see any views from the top. Day 5 we spent the morning in Davos which was essentially closed and the afternoon at Monsteiner Brewery which was not great. A number of people opted not to join the tour and seemed to have a better day in St Moritz than we did. Our tour manager was excellent and very well organised. There were 21 of us in the group. The hotels ranged from poor to very good. Pilatus Kulm and Strasbourg being the best. We would not have booked this holiday had we known about the amount of travel time between places and 4 days of dragging our suitcases on transport. Others on the tour had travelled with Great Rail Journeys many times over and recommended other tours they had been on.
very disappointed Berlina express was taken out as replacements were poor and not worthwhile.
1. Jane Kotz was an excellent Tour Manager – informative, friendly, concerned (where necessary) – certainly as good as any we have experienced thus far (this is our 6th GRJ). 2. Paris – Mulhouse: the train was over two hours late (due to vandalism); SNCF refund 50% of the fare for such a delay – no doubt GRJ benefited from this – the Group received nothing! 3. Geissbach Hotel: it is inconceivable that there should be a coffee lounge outside guests’ bedrooms as there was outside ours (304 from memory) – the rooms weren’t particularly soundproof as it was (noise from the adjoining room). By the time we realised what this meant (post 9pm and pre 7am) it was too late to move. There are two perfectly good lounges on the same floor as Reception – why on earth could the coffee lounge not be sited there? Jane, to her credit, did ensure that we had quiet rooms in the subsequent hotels. 4. Meals: Breakfasts were good – particularly at Hotel Schweizerhof (St Moritz) where there was an “egg station”. The same could not be said of the evening meals where the food was not always hot and the choice of dishes “peculiar”! At Hotel Pilatus Kulm, both dinners began at 6.30pm and ended around 8.15pm – the hotel was short staffed! The only good meal was that in the Strasbourg restaurant. Why on earth did GRJ not arrange a Swiss evening (fondue and raclette etc.) whilst in Switzerland? 5. Lucerne: it was absolute nonsense that we had to take a public bus and then walk up from the bus stop to the start of the cable car – it was hot and steep! Compare that to Strasbourg. This has been shared with GRJ and a telecom is imminent.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Dear Mr Patterson,
Thank you for your review.
I appreciate you taking the time to write such detailed feedback and for sending something through to us directly.
I do understand your concern regarding the group tickets. As we purchase group tickets for our tours, which are bound by different terms than standard, we are unable to claim for any delays or cancellations.
Your other concerns will be passed on to our product team who will endeavour to make the necessary improvements to this tour in the future.
All the best,
Richard
Great railway trip, great scenery
It expectations in many ways. The luggage forwarding was a boon. The planning behind the whole trip was complex and constantly monitored by our excellent tour manager. Our big disappointment was the lack of a promised lake view at the St Moritz Schweitzerhof. Overall we were very pleased with the experience and would not hesitate to book another holiday with Great Rail Journeys.
well organised, beautiful scenery let down a little by mealtime delays on the 1st 3 nights
An absolutely wonderful experience. We were glad we used the optional luggage service which worked really smoothly for us. The tour guide (Oliver) was amazing, sorting out minor glitches without fuss. The hotels were everything we had hoped. We would very highly recommend this tour.
An unforgettable experience with great people, good hotels. Quite tiring, some early mornings and lugging of suitcases. Unfortunate that the April tour advertised some things that didn't start till May, so not everything was as advertised..Also a long delay on the trip home was a bummer.