When we booked our Viking Rhine River cruise last November, I had a lot of fun looking through the pre- and post-extensions available to places like Belgium, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. Eight days on the river seems like the main event, but I was just as excited about the post-extension we booked to see Switzerland by train and Milan.
And I was right to be excited. I think the post-extension was my favorite part of the trip.
Our Viking Cruise extension, which went from Basel through the Swiss Alps by the scenic Bernina Express train, two nights in St. Moritz, another scenic train into Italy, a stop at Lake Como, and two nights in Milan, was fantastic. It had everything the river cruise sometimes lacked: free time, fitness centers, beautiful hotels, and a slower pace.
Let me tell you how our post-extension to Switzerland and Italy went.
Day 1: Chur: A Quiet, Car-Free Old Town
As soon as we disembarked from our Viking Cruise, we bussed to Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city. Chur has been continuously inhabited for roughly 11,000 years and they keep the downtown area car-free which makes it a joy to wander around.
Our tour of Chur was guided by a former school music teacher who had recently retired. He was also the cathedral organist, and so as we sat in the pews of their great church, he played us delightful traditional Swiss music that enveloped us in a time and place that seems long forgotten. It was wonderful.
We sat down to lunch outside at a lovely Italian restaurant before catching the train to St. Moritz.
The Bernina Express: Two Hours of Amazing Alpine Scenery
From Chur we boarded the Bernina Express, the UNESCO-listed scenic railway that crosses the Alps from Chur to Tirano, Italy. For the next two hours, the only thing we wanted to do was to stare out the window.
We were the most excited about this train trip. It had been on my travel to do list for over a decade and we were not disappointed. The Bernina Express is a fantastic way to see the alps. It’s relaxing, the windows are huge and the views are out of this world. Valley after valley unfolds outside the window, each with its own emerald meadow, glacial river, or tiny alpine village clinging to its hillsides. The train crosses viaducts and loops through passes with a casualness that suggests the Swiss have simply decided that engineering should be beautiful too.
We were headed to St. Moritz, which sits at around 5,900 feet (1,800 meters) in the Engadin valley and as the elevation climbed, the landscape shifted from forested valleys to high alpine meadows. The air was more crisp and the temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). After days of summer heat in Germany and France, it felt like a gift.
St. Moritz: Beautiful, But Upscale
We knew nothing about St. Moritz before landing there for two nights on this post-extension. It turns out, it’s basically the Vail, Colorado of Europe, filled with upscale shops and basically a rich person’s playground. Everything is expensive in Switzerland and everything is even more expensive in St. Moritz. (Just ask our credit card about the 42 Franc (around $52 USD) pizza we had our first night there.)
And yet, it is GORGEOUS here and I loved being in the mountains so much. The lake that sits at the center of the town is a deep, clear alpine blue and the surrounding peaks are dramatic in every direction. The air at 1,800 meters is so clear and clean and refreshing. You can strip away every luxury boutique and every Porsche Cayenne in the parking lot and what remains is a place of natural magnificence that I would like to stay in forever.
As part of our tour, we stayed at the Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains. It had a proper fitness center and I also I ran along the lake path one morning and had an amazing time.
That first evening we sat outside the hotel with (I’ll say it again, expensive) drinks and a view of the lake and the mountains going golden in the late light. No schedule. No time we had to be back on the boat. Just a drink and a view and the relaxing mountain air.
Day 2: Diavolezza and a Rainbow
The second day in St. Moritz started with a drive to a few scenic overlook points, then we headed to the valley station of the Diavolezza gondola. From here, the gondola lifted us up to 9,770 feet (nearly 3,000 meters) where you’re face to face with the Piz Bernina, the majestic Piz Palü, and the Pers and Morteratsch glaciers.
We did a short hike from the summit station, a mile or two along a trail with views that kept stopping us in our tracks. And the view when we came up over a mountain saddle into the next valley was probably my favorite of the entire trip.
Afterward, we sat in the Berghaus Diavolezza, the refuge at the summit, and had warm soup with a glacier view. There are meals you remember for the food and meals you remember for where you were eating. This was both – my God was that soup good.
Back in St. Moritz that afternoon, we walked around the lake, which is a lovely, easy circuit path (less than 3 miles or 5 km) with the mountains reflecting in the water. Partway through, a rainstorm erupted (our first rain of the trip). We found a dry spot under a tree. It passed quickly and then the most spectacular rainbow I have ever seen in my life appeared over the lake. It was a vivid, double rainbow that seemed to rise directly out of the water on one side and land somewhere on the peaks on the other. We hiked straight toward it until it faded.
Oh yeah, we also had afternoon tea at the hotel. It was a near-perfect day. We are thoroughly in love with Switzerland.
Day 3: Back on the Bernina Express and Into Italy
On our third morning we boarded the Bernina Express again, this time the section from St. Moritz south to Tirano, Italy, which is the most celebrated stretch of the UNESCO route. This train had an open-air observation car at the back, which meant we could feel the alpine air and hear the landscape rather than watching it through glass.
The descent from the Swiss Alps into Italy is one of the more dramatic geographic transitions I’ve experienced. You leave the high, clean, orderly world of the Engadin and the train winds down through increasingly Mediterranean-feeling, but still mountainous terrain. The vegetation changes, the light changes, the architecture changes and by the time you reach the Italian border, you feel like you’ve crossed between two different versions of Europe.
The train journey takes about 2.5 hours and is worth every minute.
Lake Como: An Hour Is Not Enough
From Tirano we stopped at an unremarkable agritourism lunch spot, then on to Lake Como. Lake Como was a short stop for around an hour. Just enough time to take a walk by the lake, see the beautiful mountains surrounding it, and have a gelato with a view.
Lake Como, at least this part of the lake, is filled with tourists. So, what could have been a relaxing stop in a quaint Italian town was really just a quick step into the madness that exists in Italy over the summer. I would like to return someday, renting a little villa far away from the towns around the lake.
We quickly got back on the bus and drove another couple of hours to Milan. We arrived in Milan in the evening and spent the night at Hotel Cristoforo Colombo, which had, again, a proper fitness center and streets and parks nearby were ideal for an early morning run. After a week on a river boat, the ability to just put on running shoes and go out the front door was a luxury I had taken completely for granted before this trip.
Day 4: Milan: Cathedral, Castle, Shopping, and a Very Good Bottle of Wine
The next day we had a guided tour of Milan that took us from the Sforza Castle, a massive 15th-century fortress that now houses several museums, including some of Leonardo da Vinci’s final works, through the city to the Duomo, Milan’s extraordinary Gothic cathedral.
After the tour, we were on our own for the whole afternoon and evening. We wandered into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the gorgeous 19th-century shopping arcade adjacent to the Duomo, with its soaring glass-and-iron dome and its mosaic floors. We did some shopping. And then we found a lovely restaurant and spent two hours at dinner, keeping pace with our bottle of exceptional Italian wine. I just absolutely love the unhurried service in Europe and the food.
Otherwise, it is packed with tourists.
There is no better way to end a European trip than a long, slow dinner with good wine with no particular reason to hurry.
The next morning, we had to go home.
A Comparison: The Extension vs. The River Cruise Itself
I liked the extension significantly more than the river cruise.
The hotels (the Kempinski in St. Moritz and the Hotel Cristoforo Colombo in Milan) were both excellent, with fitness centers I could actually use and neighborhoods I could run through in the morning.
The pace was different too. On the river cruise, the schedule was the schedule (excursion departure times, meal seatings, docking logistics) and free time had to be found in the margins. On the extension, the days had structure but also breathing room. We had more free time on our Diavolezza excursion and could hike and linger over the view. At night, we could sit outside the Kempinski with drinks until we felt like going in. We could spend two hours at dinner because nothing else was happening that night. That’s the kind of pace I like. I like the adventure and I like the breathing room.
The extension made it easy for us to see amazing things. The Bernina Express is one of the great train journeys in the world. Diavolezza at nearly 3,000 meters with the glaciers right there in front of you is an experience with no equivalent at sea level. St. Moritz’s lake at 60 degrees after weeks of European summer heat felt perfect. And our guide in Milan unlocked the famous sites in a way we couldn’t by ourselves.
Would I do the river cruise again? Yes, but probably as an ocean cruise next time, where the ships have fitness centers and pools and the logistical constraints of river levels don’t apply.
Would I do this extension again? Without a moment’s hesitation. In fact, I’d go for longer and probably purposefully get lost in the mountains.
This post is part of our Rhine River trip series. You can read the full river cruise review, including the good, the bad, and our verdict, here. You can also read about our time in Amsterdam before the cruise here. And if you’ve done the Bernina Express or spent time in Switzerland, I’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments. We’re definitely going back to Switzerland.
