Dear All Community member,
I have plan to visit Interlaken and Zermatt next December (exact date on December 24th, and December 25th) each trip take from Basel. I have seen the schedule on the eurail app, which state that seat reservation optional.
I do not have experience to visit both places before during christmas holiday. May I ask your suggestion whether it is necessary to book seat reservation for both trip during christmas holiday? Thank you for your help.
Best answer by Danhiel
I don’t recommend to reserve seats,
Trains in Basel are usually available 10-15 minutes before departure and empty, arrive early at the station.
For the return trip, you don’t know in advance how long you will stay in Zermatt/Interlaken. You will be more flexible without reservations. If the weather is good, I suggest to visit Mürren (via Grütschalp), Grindelwald or Wengen. Interlaken is not very interesting, you will find the same souvenir shops in Zermatt.
I don’t recommend to reserve seats,
Trains in Basel are usually available 10-15 minutes before departure and empty, arrive early at the station.
For the return trip, you don’t know in advance how long you will stay in Zermatt/Interlaken. You will be more flexible without reservations. If the weather is good, I suggest to visit Mürren (via Grütschalp), Grindelwald or Wengen. Interlaken is not very interesting, you will find the same souvenir shops in Zermatt.
Dear Danhiel,
Thank you for your reply. For the return trip I plan to go back to Basel in the evening. Do you have any suggestions whether I need to reserve seat or not?
For the trip to Zermatt and Interlaken I will do in 2 separate days, which each trip I will depart and return to Basel.
On December 24th and December 25th in the evening I think that trains will not be very busy. December 26th is also a public holiday in Switzerland, it means that most people stay in the Alps. You can see the expected occupancy rates of a specific connection in the timetable with the three human icons on sbb.ch or in the SBB Mobile app (currently not available for December):
For the return trip I plan to go back to Basel in the evening. Do you have any suggestions whether I need to reserve seat or not?
Reservations in Switzerland are generally wasted money.
Thank you for your opinion.
So, do you mean I do not have to reserve seat for my trip to Interlaken and Zermatt? It is still possible for me to get seat on the train?
Because I will travel with my baby which is not possible if we have to stand throughout the trip (in case we do not get seat). Therefore, I am asking this questions to make our trip more comfortable for my baby.
So, do you mean I do not have to reserve seat for my trip to Interlaken and Zermatt? It is still possible for me to get seat on the train?
In my experience, there's always lots of space. Reservations are only available in some of the carriages anyway (the rest is free seating) and the Swiss themselves don't reserve.
Because I will travel with my baby which is not possible if we have to stand throughout the trip (in case we do not get seat). Therefore, I am asking this questions to make our trip more comfortable for my baby.
I've never had to stand in any Swiss train during dozens of trips over 30 years.
So, do you mean I do not have to reserve seat for my trip to Interlaken and Zermatt? It is still possible for me to get seat on the train?
In my experience, there's always lots of space. Reservations are only available in some of the carriages anyway (the rest is free seating) and the Swiss themselves don't reserve.
Because I will travel with my baby which is not possible if we have to stand throughout the trip (in case we do not get seat). Therefore, I am asking this questions to make our trip more comfortable for my baby.
I've never had to stand in any Swiss train during dozens of trips over 30 years.
Actually is does happen that Swiss trains get crowded, for example on the line Zürich/Basel to Ticino/Milano this is rather common, but mostly on Friday and Sunday evenings or in the beginning and end of Swiss-German holidays and long weekends.
As someone wrote above, the 25th shouldn’t be to bad, since most people will stay put and celebrate.
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
