When the Alps go quiet: riding the Glacier Express out of season
By the Aerodome rail specialists · 6 min read
Between the ski crowds of February and the tour groups of July there is a fortnight when the panoramic carriages empty out — and the Alps put on their best light for almost nobody.
Everyone rides the Glacier Express in summer. The windows are clean, the meadows are green, and the seat next to you is occupied by someone else's elbow. The train earns its reputation either way — eight hours, 291 bridges, 91 tunnels, the slow theatre of the Oberalp Pass — but the journey the railway staff talk about among themselves happens in late May and again in mid-October.
In those weeks the light comes in low and sideways, the larches on the Albula line turn the colour of good brass, and the first-class carriage can feel like a private viewing car. The kitchen still serves the full lunch — plated, white tablecloth, wine from Graubünden — except now the sommelier has time to tell you about the vineyard.
Winter's scenery with autumn's timetable — and the first-class carriage feels like a private viewing car.
The case for October
October is the braver choice and the better one. Snow has usually dusted everything above 2,300 metres, so you get winter's scenery with autumn's timetable — no ski traffic, hotel rates at their gentlest, and the St. Moritz end of the line pleasantly out of season. The famous stretch through the Rhine Gorge — Switzerland's own small canyon — is at its most photogenic with the birches turning.
The trade is weather risk. A grey day in the gorge is still handsome; a grey day on the Oberalp is just fog. This is why we build our rail itineraries with a spare day on either side of the crossing — it costs little and turns a gamble into a choice.
How we plan around it
Our journeys board at Chur rather than Zermatt when travelling out of season: the morning light favours the eastbound run, and Chur's old town deserves the previous evening anyway. We reserve the right-hand side of the carriage for the gorge, the left for the pass, and we will tell you honestly which matters more for your date.
One more heresy from our specialists: the regional trains that shadow the Glacier Express route cost a fraction of the price, stop where the view is best, and carry locals instead of tripods. On the quietest weeks we sometimes mix the two — the Express for the set pieces, the stoppers for the wandering. That is the kind of adjustment a human planner makes and a booking engine never will.
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