Every once in a while, train travel pops up, and it’s extraordinary. If celebrating the New Year in Switzerland on the highest railway in Europe isn’t remarkable, I don’t know what it is. The “Interlaken and Girls Peak Express New Year’s Tour” from Vacations By Rail is a week-long guided trip through five countries by train during the New Year holiday. Along the way, guests will enjoy a thrilling ride on the Jungfraujoch Railway, Europe’s highest train station, a cable car ride to the highest peak in the Bernese Alps, and a five-night stay in a small Swiss village. New Year’s Eve dinners with new friends in Interlaken, Switzerland, are the highlight.
This tour starts and ends in London, and visitors can enjoy seven days of train travel and mountain views. Accommodation in a four-star hotel and most meals are included.
The journey begins in London, where travelers will board the first train: the Eurostar to Brussels, Belgium. After a transfer in Brussels, the journey continues to Cologne, Germany, where guests will check into their first hotel and enjoy dinner.
The next morning, everyone jumps on a German railway line and heads to Switzerland along the scenic valley of the Rhine, famous for its steep gables, castles, and forts. The final destination is Interlaken, Switzerland, a city in the Bernese Highlands region of the Swiss Alps, under the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains.
Interlaken, a quaint Swiss village between mountains and lakes, will be home for the next five nights. From there, the group will embark on a shorter day trip that includes a train ride to the village of m ran, where a cable car takes visitors to the top of Hillthorne, which houses a revolving restaurant, The restaurant was featured in the James Bond movie “on Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
After a day in Interlaken, where visitors can explore the local 45 mountain railways and aerial cable cars on their own, the group will then head to Grindelwald, a snow-capped alpine village at the foot of the Eiger Mountain, before returning to Interlaken for a special New Year’s Eve dinner.
On New Year’s Day, the trip culminates with a ride on the Jungfrau Railway. This iconic route traverses Mount Eiger to the summit of Jungfrau, an observation deck 11,332 feet above the perennial snow line.
