FIRST CLASS GLACIER EXPRESS TRAIN (worth $300 for an 8 hour train ride?)

If you're new to our channel, I'm Kara and this is my husband Nate. We've been traveling full time since the beginning of 2016 and we are currently in our 92nd country of Switzerland. Over the last few years we've spent quite a bit of time on trains, like 144 hours on the Trans Siberian and railway in Russia. This is my first time being outside in 36 hours. Several overnight trains across India.

And one especially nerve wracking sleeper train to cross the border between Georgia and Armenia. Most of the time we're using trains to get from point A to point B, but today's ride is all about the journey.

It is currently 9am and this morning we have two first class tickets for this train behind me, the Glacier Express. And it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the entire world.

The coolest part about the Glacier Express are these panoramic train cars. So hopefully for the next eight hours we are going to be able to see the most magnificent views of the Swiss Alps as we ride west from St. Maurice to Zermatt.

So before we get on the train, I thought I'd give you a little tour from the outside because this will be a lot less awkward than inside where it's really quiet.

We're starting at the very back of the train right now and to my right, this is second class, so it's a 2:2 configuration. This is going to be the car that has the most people in it. But even with that it looks really nice. We have some nice branding. This is the panoramic bar. Moving further up we have first class. This is where Kara and I are going to be sitting today. It's a 2:1 configuration so it's really good for couples. If you don't want to be like sharing a four person seat with random strangers, you can sit just the two of you by far window then. Unfortunately, first class isn't actually the nicest class on this train. They have what they call excellence class.

Nate just told me to come peak in excellence class. I wish I wouldn't have now. So fancy.

I thought I was going to get smokished.

Good start to the trip. We should be in first class. They shouldn't allow people like us here.

We don't belong here.

We have these giant menus and a waitress. We can order from anytime and they'll bring food and drinks straight to your seat. Naturally if you're starting the trip with Swiss hot chocolate, we haven't had it since we've been here.

So Good.

As usual. I'm going to give you a quick bathroom tour. It's super nice in here. Look at all this space. Pretty sure this is the biggest bathroom I've ever been in on a moving vehicle. It's very clean. Smells nice. Luscious. There's soap, paper towels. Thumbs up for me.

So the Glacier Express is marketed as the sleep lowest express train in the world. And we've been on here for an hour and I can already see why. We've stopped at least six times in any kind of like something port that you're supposed to see, like a cool bridge or something like that. The train slows down so everybody can see it. It's really nice as a tourist, but if you wanted to get somewhere fast, this is not the train that you.

Want to be on.

Also, according to this brochure, today we're going to be passing over 291 bridges through 91 huts. Each time you hear the sound of.

A gong, you experience something new. We wish you an enjoy journey on the Glacier Express.

I got up to do a little exploring on the train and I found a car where you can write and mail a postcard and write in a guest book. How cool.

Okay, we are a few hours into the train journey now, which means that it is lunchtime. And as Kara showed you before, there is a very large amenity with tons of different options, all cooked here on the train. There's even a three course lunch meal that you can order for $45.

By having already paid $50 for these.

Tickets and learning that you could bring food onto the train.

We trip to the grocery store last time and got our own special Swiss picnic set supply. I'm actually really excited about the food that we bought.

They have these fancy and like real silverware plates and glasses. And here we are with our plastic plates.

Really strange, but we brought cheese that we bought straight from the family that makes the cheese in the mountains.

So after getting a glimpse of everyone's little hunch, I'm so happy for a decision to bring our own picnic. A little awkward at first, but after a little bit it really didn't film weird at all. And I don't feel like we missed out on any.

So here's what happened. We filmed with this camera with this microphone. The microphone plugs into this jack. This jack quit working and we didn't know which means the microphone wasn't working and it was using the camera's internal microphone. Here's why this is bad.

So this is a directional microphone, which means we're filming with it, it's just capturing the sound whichever way we're pointing, which is typically us.

And it sounds really good, but when we're just using the camera's internal microphone, it's capturing audio. This way, this way. And also this way, this way, this way, this way, this way, this way, this way. Which is why it can be hard to hear us if things are happening back here. And this thing that looks like a dead animal on top of our camera stops the wind noise. So that's what happened, and we're really sorry.

So we just passed over the overall pass, which was the highest point on the entire Railway at 2,223. I don't think that's what you told me earlier. And I believe we just stopped in Andermatt.

No.

Yes. It is currently 1:30, and this is the first stop we've made. I actually didn't know we made any stops. So this is a lovely surprise.

Yes. And it feels amaz.

Okay, this is going to sound super cheesy, but one of the things that has really added to this journey has been these audio pads. They just plug into your seat, and then there's a little chime over the loudspeaker, you know, to put them in your ear. And we've learned so many interesting facts. Like that little tow that's just passed it back there was the home of Cesar Ritz. And his dad actually took him out of school because he thought he was too lazy. And then he went on flight, found one of the greatest hotel chains in the world. So all of them just learned a bunch of really interesting facts like that.

All right, eight hours later, we have made it to Zermatt. And there are two things that I will always remember about this trip. Number one, the beautiful views. And number two, how hot it was.

Nate does not like being hot.

I think the sun being out doesn't help. But I'm cooking lunch right now and, like, going in and out of these doors, I think I'll be safe.

Don't do it. Don't do it.

It's been like being in a greenhouse for the last eight hours.

I really hate to complain because it was a lovely train ride, but for seven of those eight hours, I was sweating, like, just a little bit. Like, just enough to think about how warm I am for a really long time.

I think that's the trade off that you make with the good weather, though. Like, it was sunny for seven hours.

Like, we were so excited that it was sunny today, but I think that's the reason it was so hot. I feel like it's probably a problem that doesn't happen often to people.

I'd say nine out of ten times, you're either riding in the snow or like there's some clouds or it's raining because you're in the mountains.

There were no clouds all day, just a heat box.

One super cool thing about this city is that there are no cars here. So the only way to get around is either by foot, by bike, apparently by horse carriage, or they have these tiny electric fans that you can ride around in.

This. This is like exactly what I pictured when I pictured a Swiss mountain town. This is crazy. This is more people than we've seen in all of Switzerland put together on one road. When I went to book our hotel yesterday, it said that the hotels here were 91% full on booking.com, and I can see why.

Yep, it feels weird seeing so many people in such a tiny little village.

But it's very easy to see why so many people would want to come here. It's really cool. It's incredible.

Wow.

Not bad.

All right, once again, this is what $150 in Switzerland gets you. I'm actually really impressed. We like right in the heart of Zermatt.

Yeah, good find, Natan.

And it includes breakfast.

I don't even eat breakfast, really, but I love it when it's included.

Switzerland is expensive. As we said earlier today, we paid over $350 for those train tickets, but they should have been way more. And we found a way to save some money on these tickets that we wanted to share with you. This might kind of sound like an ad, but it's not. We just thought if any of you are planning your trip on the Glacier Express, this could be helpful. Okay, so once we arrived here in Switzerland, we bought what's called the Swiss half fare card. This card costs $120, but it gives us 50% off all Swiss trains. Next, you have to understand how the pricing works for the Glacier Express. There's actually two different fees you have to pay. First, you have to pay the ticket fee, and then you have to pay a seat reservation fee. A first class ticket on the Glacier Express costs$268. So with the Swiss Half Fare card, we got 50% off. So instead, it only cost us$134, but then you have to add the 43. $3 seat reservation fee. So in total, we paid $177 per person to ride on that train today. However, had we not had the half fare card, we would have had to pay $311. But if you add in the 120 for the half fare card, then that plus the train tickets that we bought ticket today cost $297. So really, we only saved $14 in the end by buying the Swiss half fair card. After all said and done, we now get 50% off all of our trains the rest of the time in Switzerland. So in the end, we should save a lot of money. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, if you're gonna ride the Glacier Express, the half fare card is worth buying because you save money on the ticket. Okay. I hope that helps somebody.

It's time to go get some real food.

I think. I think the reason I felt like I needed to explain that is because there are, like, several different ways you can get discounts on train tickets traveling around Europe. And I spent so much time, so.

Hopefully that saves somebody some time.

I found two bikes. I did.

This is a drone shot of our.

Train.

Not a drone. And there's a kissbot.

Classic bang in the world.

I would have gone into it.

Tons of it.

Dang it. I'm supposed to save myself.