Across Switzerland by Train, Steamer and Bus - and a Magic Ticket on my Phone Screen
If you have spent any significant portion of your adult life standing on a draughty West Country railway platform, staring bleakly at a departure board that has just announced the 10:14 to Paddington is "delayed due to a member of the train crew being out of position," what happens in Switzerland borders on witchcraft.
You step off a flight into Zürich, follow the signs downstairs to a train platform, and board a sleek double-decker express bound for the high Alps. The second hand clicks onto the twelve, a whistle blows, and two hundred tonnes of precision engineering glides silently into motion. It does not shudder; it does not apologise. It just goes.
I have just returned from five days of careering around the Bernese Oberland and beyond, trying my level best to see if you can truly navigate one of the most rugged, vertical landscapes in Europe without ever touching a car steering wheel.
The entire escapade hung on a single digital bar code stored on my telephone...
The Swiss Travel Pass.
Before the full, blow-by-blow despatches begin in print — starting with my usual double-page spread in this Saturday's Hesp Out West — I wanted to post the 12-minute film I shot while on the move. It gives a far better sense of the sheer, kinetic madness of the trip than a handful of glossy postcards ever could.
Watch the Film: Testing the Swiss Travel Pass
One Pass, Endless Connections
The premise of the Swiss Travel Pass sounds like the fever dream of an exhausted British commuter: one ticket covering virtually every scheduled mainline train, rack railway, postal bus, lake steamer, and city tram in the country.
And it actually works. There is no wrestling with automated ticket barriers that refuse to swallow a crumpled cardboard stub, and no panic over missed connections. If you linger too long over a glass of Chasselas in a lakeside village, you don’t find yourself stranded for the night; you simply stroll down to the jetty or the halt, wait twelve minutes, and catch the next pristine conveyance heading your way.
In the space of under a week, we put that pass through its paces:
Up into the clouds at Piz Gloria: Hauling up the sheer rock faces of the Lauterbrunnen valley on the world’s steepest cable car to stand atop the Schilthorn at 2,970 metres, where George Lazenby once fled Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and where the Eiger and Jungfrau look close enough to touch.
Footpaths through the vines: Chugging across Lake Biel by boat, then walking the narrow, sunlit terrace tracks between Ligerz and Twann, where the winemakers still tend tiny biodynamic parcels by hand right down to the water's edge.
The Luzern–Interlaken Express: Crossing mountain passes with a morning coffee in hand while the cogwheel tracks ground us up past turquoise waters that looked almost absurdly over-saturated.
Steaming across Lake Lucerne: Trading steel rails for polished brass and timber decks on a lunchtime paddle cruise beneath the shadow of Mount Pilatus.
Bicycles and funiculars: Pedalling an e-bike along the glacial rivers of Interlaken, before riding the vintage funicular up to the crow’s nest perch of Harder Kulm to stare back down at the narrow strip of land separating two colossal lakes.
More to Come
A short film can give you the sweep and the scale, but it misses the smaller, quirkier textures — the aroma of melted Gruyère bubbling over a burner while floating down a river in an inflatable raft, the conversations with local vine-dressers over a sharp, mineral white wine, and the quiet genius of how a nation decided that a mountain peak is no excuse not to build a railway station.
Those stories are on the way.
Look out for the first major instalment in Saturday’s newspapers, after which I’ll be running a series of detailed guides and photo-essays right here on the site — including a proper, hard-nosed appraisal of whether the Swiss Travel Pass actually saves you money, and how best to tackle the routes if you're planning a trip yourself.
For now, give the film above twelve minutes of your time, and see what happens when a country takes moving from A to B completely seriously.
For more information on Switzerland, visit switzerland.com
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS)
SWISS offers more than 160 weekly flights from the UK to Zurich or Geneva. One-way fares start from £76 to Zurich and from £54 to Geneva, and include all taxes etc, one piece of checked luggage weighing up to 23kg and one piece of hand luggage. SWISS will also transport your first set of ski or snowboard equipment free of charge in addition to your standard free baggage allowance subject to availability (excluding hand-luggage-only fares). swiss.com
Travel Switzerland
Travel Switzerland’s Swiss Travel Pass offers international visitors to Switzerland unlimited travel on consecutive days across the rail, bus and boat network, plus scenic routes (seat reservation fees apply) and local trams and buses in around 90 towns and cities. It also includes the Swiss Museum Pass, which grants free entry to 500 museums and exhibitions. Prices start from £254 for a three-day second-class ticket. swisstravelpass.com - also see the special Day Discoveries website https://www.travelswitzerland.com/experiences/day-discoveries/
Airport Help
For West Country residents, flying from Heathrow can be a challenge. Holiday Extras is the market leader in UK airport parking, hotels, lounges, and transfers – and in 2025 its customers saved an average of £200 per trip by booking their airport parking in advance.
Booking an airport hotel with parking means you can enjoy more holiday with less hassle – and can actually cost less than booking airport parking alone. A standard room at Hilton Garden Inn T2 & T3 with six days’ Purple Parking Meet & Greet T2 at Heathrow Airport is available for £464.66 (based on arrival on 11/11/2026). Plus with Flextras, if you need to cancel or amend you can without charge. For more information and to book, HolidayExtras.com or call 0800 316 5678.
