The best Swiss train journey for a honeymoon is the GoldenPass Express in Prestige Class, Montreux to Interlaken in 3 hours 15 minutes, with a seat supplement of CHF 49 per person. It is the right length for a day a couple will actually enjoy, it runs between two of the best honeymoon hotels in the country, and it costs a fraction of the Glacier Express in Excellence Class while delivering most of the drama.
That is a real choice and I will defend it, but it is not the only answer. If your honeymoon runs ten days rather than five and you both love being on a train, the Glacier Express in Excellence Class is the greater day on rails, and I say so below. What follows is the honest comparison, the hotel to pair with each train, the months that work, and a five-day plan you can book as written.
Why the GoldenPass Express wins for a honeymoon
A honeymoon is not a rail enthusiast's holiday. It is a week of being somewhere beautiful, together, without a schedule that feels like work. Judged that way, the four candidates separate quickly.
The GoldenPass Express leaves Montreux on Lake Geneva, climbs through the vineyards above the town, crosses the Pays-d'Enhaut, passes Gstaad, changes track gauge without you leaving your seat, and arrives at Interlaken Ost with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in front of you. Three hours and fifteen minutes, lake to high Alps, and it runs up to four times a day, so you can take a late morning train after a slow breakfast.
Prestige Class is the point. The seats are heated leather, raised 40 centimetres above the rest of the carriage so you sit in the landscape rather than beside it, and they turn to face the direction of travel. There are only two small Prestige compartments on each train, so it feels like a private carriage, and the reservation is CHF 49 per person on top of a first class ticket. Seating is limited and the reservation is compulsory, so book it when you book the hotels.
[PAU: add a personal note on the Prestige seats, which side of the carriage you choose Montreux to Interlaken and why]
The four candidates compared
| Train | Route | Time | Premium class | Supplement, per person | Honeymoon verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoldenPass Express | Montreux to Interlaken | 3 h 15 min | Prestige Class | CHF 49 | The pick: right length, right hotels at both ends |
| Glacier Express | Zermatt to St. Moritz | About 8 h | Excellence Class | CHF 590 | The milestone splurge, if you have ten days |
| Bernina Express | St. Moritz to Tirano | About 2 h 15 min | Panoramic car, 1st class | Seat reservation, roughly CHF 30 | Best half day, add it to a St. Moritz stay |
| Gornergrat Bahn | Zermatt to Gornergrat, 3,089 m | 33 min up | None | CHF 132 return in summer, half with a Swiss Travel Pass | Not a journey, but the best morning in Zermatt |
Supplements are the figures on each operator's site in October 2026, on top of a ticket or Swiss Travel Pass. The Glacier Express fares shown on glacierexpress.ch at the time of writing are CHF 284 for a first class ticket plus CHF 590 for the Excellence Class reservation, so CHF 874 per person for the day, before you have left the hotel.
Glacier Express Excellence Class: the greater day, the harder honeymoon
I want to be fair to the Glacier Express, because in Excellence Class it is the best single day on rails in Europe and I have said so elsewhere. Twenty passengers in the carriage, a guaranteed window seat with two seats facing across one table, champagne and an aperitif platter on boarding, a five-course regional menu with wine, a concierge who checks you in on the platform and carries your bags, and your own tablet with the route commentary. From Zermatt it departs at 08.52 and reaches St. Moritz at 16.37, through 91 tunnels and across 291 bridges, over the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres, the highest point of the line.
The honest problem for a honeymoon is the shape of the day. Nearly eight hours is wonderful on day four of a ten-day journey and exhausting on day two of a five-day one. You arrive in St. Moritz at 16.37 having eaten five courses, which rules out dinner, after a full day of a short honeymoon sitting down. It also has a long autumn break: no trains between 11 October and 4 December 2026, and in spring 2027 the Rhine Gorge section closes for works from 17 April to 2 May, with Excellence Class off some trains until 3 May. If your honeymoon falls in those windows, the question answers itself.
My rule: book Excellence Class if the honeymoon is nine days or more, if you are already staying in both Zermatt and St. Moritz, and if the two of you would rather watch a landscape than walk in it. Then it becomes the centrepiece. My full guide to the Glacier Express covers the seats and the seasons in detail. Standard seat reservations open 93 days before travel, while Excellence Class can be booked for the whole timetable period, which is worth doing early because it sells out.
Bernina Express and Gornergrat: the two to add, not to build around
The Bernina Express from St. Moritz to Tirano takes about 2 hours 15 minutes, climbs to Ospizio Bernina at 2,253 metres, the highest station on the Rhaetian Railway, and descends through the Brusio circular viaduct into Italian chestnut woods. The line has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since July 2008. It is the best half day on this list and the cheapest, but it ends in Tirano, a small Italian town with no honeymoon hotel I would send you to, so treat it as a day out from St. Moritz with lunch in Poschiavo or Tirano and the train back.
The Gornergrat Bahn is not a journey, it is 33 minutes from Zermatt to a terrace at 3,089 metres facing the Matterhorn and 29 peaks above 4,000 metres. In summer the return fare is CHF 132, halved with a Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card, and the first train leaves Zermatt at 07.00, which on a clear morning is the one to take. Walk down from Rotenboden to the Riffelsee for the reflection and you have the most photographed hour of any Swiss honeymoon.
Which hotel to pair with each train
The train is three hours of the honeymoon. The hotel is the rest of it, which is why I choose the train by the hotels it connects.
| Train | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| GoldenPass Express | Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, on the lakefront since 1906, or the quieter Grand Hôtel du Lac in Vevey, ten minutes down the line | Victoria-Jungfrau, Interlaken, with the Jungfrau in the window and the Nescens spa |
| Glacier Express | The Omnia, reached by a lift through the rock, or the Zermatterhof, which collects you from the station by horse-drawn carriage | Kulm Hotel St. Moritz, where Alpine winter tourism began in 1856 |
| Bernina Express | Kulm Hotel St. Moritz | Back to the Kulm the same evening |
| Gornergrat Bahn | The Omnia or the Zermatterhof | Same hotel, lunch at altitude |
Two more belong in a honeymoon even though no famous train stops at the door. Bürgenstock, above Lake Lucerne, is reached by boat and funicular from Lucerne, and the GoldenPass line continues from Interlaken to Lucerne over the Brünig Pass in 1 hour 50 minutes, so it is the natural last stop. The Four Seasons Hôtel des Bergues in Geneva is where I put couples arriving on a long flight the night before the Montreux train. For quieter villages, The Capra in car-free Saas-Fee sits one valley from Zermatt, and Huus Quell in Appenzell is for couples who want a spa and no crowds at all. The spa side is covered in the Swiss spa hotels worth travelling for.
Best months for a honeymoon by train
June. Long light, the passes open, wildflowers along the GoldenPass line, and the school holidays not yet started. My first choice.
September to early October. Clear air, warm lake at Montreux, the larches turning gold at altitude. Book early, because this is when Swiss couples travel too. Note that the Glacier Express runs its last 2026 trains on 10 October.
Late December to March. Snow at every window on all four trains, and Zermatt and St. Moritz at their best. Pack properly and allow for weather days.
Avoid the last two weeks of July and the first two of August if you can, when Prestige seats and Excellence tables are booked months ahead, and mid October to early December, when the Glacier Express does not run and several mountain hotels close between seasons.
[PAU: add a personal note on the month you would choose for your own honeymoon and why]
A five-day honeymoon, day by day
This is the plan I would book for a couple with five days, built around the GoldenPass Express. Every train is a scheduled service with a first class ticket, and every hotel is one I use.
Day 1, Montreux. Arrive at Geneva and take the train along the lake to Montreux, about an hour. Check in to the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, lake-view room, walk the promenade towards the Château de Chillon or take the boat. Dinner at the hotel.
Day 2, Lavaux. The local train to Vevey and the vineyard terraces of Lavaux, a UNESCO site, for a walk between villages and a winemaker's tasting. Back to Montreux for the spa. If you prefer, swap the Fairmont for two nights at the Grand Hôtel du Lac in Vevey and reverse the day.
Day 3, GoldenPass Express to Interlaken. A late breakfast, then the Prestige seats, Montreux to Interlaken Ost in 3 hours 15 minutes. Check in to the Victoria-Jungfrau, an afternoon in the Nescens spa, the Jungfrau from the window as the light goes.
Day 4, Lucerne and Bürgenstock. The Luzern-Interlaken Express over the Brünig Pass, 1 hour 50 minutes. From Lucerne, the boat across the lake and the funicular up to Bürgenstock. The pool on the cliff edge above Lake Lucerne is the image most couples take home.
Day 5, Zurich. A slow morning on the cliff path, then down to Lucerne and under an hour to Zurich for the flight. Four nights, three hotels, two of the great trains, and no day longer than four hours in a seat.
If the honeymoon is for the Matterhorn rather than the lakes, the same five days work in the south: two nights at the Omnia with the first Gornergrat train on the clear morning, the Glacier Express in Excellence Class to St. Moritz, then two nights at the Kulm with the Bernina Express as the day out. It costs more and sits longer in trains, and for the right couple it is the one. My ten-day Swiss Wellness Grand Tour does both, the GoldenPass Express in Prestige and the Glacier Express, with the hotels above.
What I would tell a friend
Book the GoldenPass Express in Prestige Class and spend the money you saved on the room. Put the Gornergrat in if the Matterhorn matters to you. Add the Glacier Express in Excellence Class only if you have the days to give it, and book it the moment the timetable opens. Send me your dates and I will tell you honestly which of these fits them.