“Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed this holiday despite not being able to complete the Bernina Express journey due to rockfall/avalanche (we didn't get to Poschiavo). GRJ compensated for this by paying for our tour to go on the Gornergrat train in Zermatt. We thought this was a great gesture for something that they had no control over and definitely worth doing.
Switzerland is beautiful and GRJ certainly look after you.
Pros: Family run 4 star hotels: The Hotel Stern (Chur) and Hotel Ambassador (Brig) Clean, central, good breakfast and dinners, friendly staff.
Day 5 - our luggage was collected at 7.30 a.m. to be taken by road to Brig.
Cons: We were not informed that the private tour of Spietz Castle starts in May. (I spoke to customer services). Instead we spent day 8 visiting Grindelwald for 1 hour and then the River Cruise for 2 hours. This was in fact the ferry boat that went around Lake Thun (bit of a scramble to find a seat but you could upgrade to 1st class for around 16 swiss francs). 7 trains in total. I would have preferred a free day.
Strasbourg - beautiful but you do not get the morning at leisure, unless you have 7 a.m. breakfast, as our train departed at 11.51 a.m.
“The train tour itself was amazing and memorable. I just wish our tour manager used any of the languages in their bio that would’ve helped the group or people that didn’t speak that language. I also wish we were informed if sending your luggage ahead was an option. Lastly, I would’ve preferred the hotel in some places to have been closer to the train station if we didn’t have a shuttle. But the trains were lovely.
“The experience was very good but the main food courses and waitress service in the 4* hotel was not what we expected.
Katie Leigh our tour guide made up for that disappointment.