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Towns on the RhB


wollastonblue
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I am planning next years Eurocamp (other camping holiday providers are available). I would like to go to Italy on the Adriatic coast, and possibly spend 2 nights in Switzerland.

 

Where would be the best location for us to ride and see a bit of the RhB and are there any low cost hotels such as HotelF1 or Premierre Classe in that area? Also if there are any model shops as well would be a bonus.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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I agree Filisur is perhaps the best place to stay as your right in the station. I've stayed there twice and had good rates but it's often busy in the summer. They give you a railcard for free travel to Davos etc and there's at least 5 trains most hours. It's a short trip to Bergun for the museum and a pleasant walk down to the Landwasser Viaduct or even Wiessen. There are other good walks especially the hike up to Preda. There's also the Ladina at Bergun which is inexpensive. Alas it's the exchange rate that makes Swiss hotels quite expensive as most are mid-price.

 

Pontresina is a pleasant place to stay as well and there is quite a bit of shunting at the station but most of the hotels are a distance away in the town except for the youth hostel which is opposite. An open air orchestra plays in the forest just along from the first station out of Pontresina on the Bernina. Samedan is the place to see almost everything but it's not very pleasant. I'd recommend the open air trucks on the Bernina - nothing else like it.

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The campsite in Morteratsch is excellent on the Bernina Bahn, near Pontresina.  I've been there with my kids many times 

 

As an addition, the other campsites in Berguen and Filisur didn't have electricity hook-up when I looked a few years ago.  The one in Morteratsch does and some of the cleanest facilities I've seen at a campsite, a good shop, TV room and a play area for the kids.  Its a 15min walk to the station, but you can watch trains roll by on the other side of the river from the campsite.  we will go back next August for out annual trip :sungum:

Edited by MartinB
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Thanks for all your help. I have found an apartment for 2 nights in Celerina for £75  :sungum:  So the plan is on the Saturday to get the train to Filisur, walk to the Landwasser Viaduct Viewpoint, have an hour there, and then get the train back to Bergun to visit the museum, and then back to Celerina.

 

Just a couple of questions regarding travel on the RhB:

 

i) Can I break my return journey on a return ticket from Celerina to Filisur?

ii) Does my 4 year old travel for free (it only show 6-12 on the child prices)?

 

Cheers again.  :drinks:

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Unless they've changed it since 2013, break of journey is permitted on RhB tickets. I did it on the Arosa line.

 

Edit: yes, it's still in the general conditions for public transport companies, downloadable (German) from

https://www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/services/customerdialogue/fare-conditions-for-your-journey.html

as the fist document (T600 - Allgemeiner Personentarif (PDF))

 

24 Fahrtunterbrechungen

24.000 Innerhalb der Geltungsdauer eines Billettes kann die Reise beliebig ausgeführt und ohne Formalität unterbrochen werden.

 

Or, my literal translation "within the duration of validity of a ticket, a journey can be made arbitrarily and can be broken without formality."

"Fahrtunterbrechung" being "break of journey".

 

The Landwasser viaduct viewpoint is about 10-15 mins walk max, mostly level from Filisur station. There's actually another one on the other side of the valley, a bit more of a down and up trek, as you go down to the valley floor and can look up at the viaduct.

Personally, I'd budget for 2 hours there.

Edited by eastwestdivide
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Agree on the 2 hours.  Essentially, unless there are freight trains, you have 2 trains within 10mins and then a 50 minute wait until the next.  It might be worth seeing if you can consult one of the graphical timetables to see if there are any freight trains running around the half past the hour, given that the passenger trains in Filisur are just past the top of the hour.....said very badly I know!

 

My first trip to Filisur in 2003 quickly showed that there could be some very long waits and as pretty as the viaduct is, there were limits as to how long I wanted to wait :)

 

if you want to watch trains running, Bever is not a bad place to be.  For the museum, the ticket also gives you entrance to the museum in the village as well.  The layout there has been redone, but it only runs at certain times, so it might be worth checking that one out.

 

And yes, kids under 6 are free.....be sure to get the souvenir tickets for them :)

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Filisur would be your best bet: it's right at the heart of the RhB network with connections to pretty much almost everywhere. 

 

 

not sure I would describe Filisur as the 'heart' of the RhB network and one could argue that there are 'connections to almost everywhere' from all RhB stations (all Swiss stations come to that given the design of the Swiss passenger network).

 

Filisur is only on two routes (the Chur - St Moritz and vv services plus Filisur - Davos) with one per hour on each (plus the extra Bernina Express services), whereas Samedan for example has three routes (Chur - St Moritz,  Pontresina - Scuol, St Moritz - Landquart via Vereina). Combined these give you more trains per hour. At present the latter also give a bigger variety of loco and coach types to be seen.

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Agree on the 2 hours.  Essentially, unless there are freight trains, you have 2 trains within 10mins and then a 50 minute wait until the next.  It might be worth seeing if you can consult one of the graphical timetables to see if there are any freight trains running around the half past the hour, given that the passenger trains in Filisur are just past the top of the hour.....said very badly I know!

 

if you want to watch trains running, Bever is not a bad place to be.  

 

Agree as well. Unless you are there when a Bernina Express runs in addition to the hourly RE then you won't see anything on the viaduct as the trunk RhB freight trains don't run on a Saturday (apart from one later afternoon).

 

An easy way to gauge when things pass Filisur and the Landwasser is to look back through the archives of the webcams to equivalent past dates to those of a proposed visit. 

 

I recommend Bever as well. There are some nice spots a short walk from the station by the river (the first bit of the path up to Spinas). Bever is also a very traditional Swiss station with low platforms - a dying facet of Swiss railways. Some Bever pics here, others in  my RhB album:

 

gallery_3117_4158_7458.jpg

 

 

gallery_3117_4158_4422.jpg

Edited by Gordonwis
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not sure I would describe Filisur as the 'heart' of the RhB network and one could argue that there are 'connections to almost everywhere' from all RhB stations (all Swiss stations come to that given the design of the Swiss passenger network).

 

Filisur is only on two routes (the Chur - St Moritz and vv services plus Filisur - Davos) with one per hour on each (plus the extra Bernina Express services), whereas Samedan for example has three routes (Chur - St Moritz,  Pontresina - Scuol, St Moritz - Landquart via Vereina). Combined these give you more trains per hour. At present the latter also give a bigger variety of loco and coach types to be seen.

I always think of the Landwasser/Filisur as being the start of the Albula line proper.....rightly or wrongly I always do a trip there, but agree that Samedan is the place to see more trains. Making use of the car can make seeing trains in different locations, in a short space of time is a good option and I've done it myself when I've stayed in Filisur and Bergun....time spent around the Albula spirals is always interesting.

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The reason I want to go to Filisur is just to see the Landwasser Viaduct, it's seeing a photo of the viaduct that got me interested in the RhB in the first place. I have worked it out so that we see the Glacier Express go over it while we are there, if the timetables are correct. I also don't want to bore Mrs Wollastonblue too much with trains, although I'm sure once she's lazing on the beach on the Venetian riviera, she won't mind that much. 

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The reason I want to go to Filisur is just to see the Landwasser Viaduct, it's seeing a photo of the viaduct that got me interested in the RhB in the first place. I have worked it out so that we see the Glacier Express go over it while we are there, if the timetables are correct. I also don't want to bore Mrs Wollastonblue too much with trains, although I'm sure once she's lazing on the beach on the Venetian riviera, she won't mind that much. 

 

 

Be assured that the scenery around the Landwasser Viaduct is more than pleasant enough to be appreciated by non railway buffs. You may find that the best walk is to stay at valley level. Your wife and kids might prefer that as it is next to the river rather than an up and down walk on mountain paths.

 

This summer my wife and I did lots of walks from a Bergün base, and the railway varies from incidental to the main event, and the benefit of Switzerland is that it is never too long before another train turns up.

 

The trains next year (excluding new early/late GEX turns) that will pass Filisur in the gap between the 'top of the hour' REs each way are:

 

BEX southbound

0933

 

GEX southbound

1541 

1642

 

GEX northbound 

1017

1117

 

BEX northbound 

1717

 

Of course it is usually assumed that the visitor will want to see a train heading towards the rock face (ie southbound) which may not work for your timings.

 

Also there will still be an option for you to pull in the Landwasser stop by driving to the St Moritz area via Tiefencastel and the Julier Pass.

 

 

.

 

.

Edited by Gordonwis
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If you use the car and walk, it is a steep trek up the viewing area on the south side from the valley floor......the path isn't great.  When I was last there, I was glad to have trekking poles with me especially as I had a load of camera gear on my back 

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Yes the Valley floor is a long trek for your little one ;) the viewpoint above is easier. If you go for the classic ground shot make an afternoon of it with lunch to break up the walk :)

Edited by PaulRhB
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I've booked the apartment in Celerina, and booked a hotel overnight in Boppard. I have  can get a Campsite similar in Italy via the Sun £9.50 holidays. So now I'm looking at somewhere potentially in Austria or southern Germany on the way home to stop for maybe 2 nights.

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Austria: if it has to be train-related I'd suggest Bludenz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Vienna is probably beyond your budget anyway, but it has a nice public transport system. For a "train-break", try Raggal, a small village near Bludenz in the "Gross Walsertal". Been there, nice scenery, no trains (the nearest main station is Bludenz). Alternatively, consider the surroundings of Lindau (east-end of the Bodensee/Lake Konstanz) or Possenhofen (Starnberger See, south of Munich). Its claim-to-fame is that it's the birthplace of Sissi, Empress of Austria, immortalised by the young Romy Schneider in the film series of that name. Further west is the small village of Dittishausen (nearest station: Löffingen, between Freiburg i. Br. and Donaueschingen). We'd rented a holiday cottage there ages ago (late 80's) but I don't think there's a lot on offer culturally or in entertainment.

 

HTH!

Agree, Lindau is a nice spot with lots of variety of rolling stock from Austria, Germany and Switzerland and loads for the kids to do in a lovely island town.  For Austria, have you thought about the Zillertal? 

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