Hotel Bernina, St Moritz

Advantages: Good itinerary - would have been fun with a good guide.
Disadvantages: Inexperienced, untrained travel "guide" who knew nothing about the places we visited.

...My wife and I recently returned from the Cosmos "Scenic Europe and Bernina Express" tour (number 4550). The entire trip was a disaster because of the untrained, incompetent "travel guide" supplied by Cosmos. Our guide had just been hired by Cosmos. During our tour, she never provided any information on any of the countries, cities, or buildings we visited. We were never given information about local restaurants and shops. When asked a question regarding anything, she responded, "I don't know". She had never even been to some of the cities included in our tour. She and the bus driver were constantly lost, and routinely stopped to ask for directions. In St. Moritz, I had to give the bus driver a city map I had downloaded off the Internet and provided him with directions to our hotel. The only thing our "guide" was ever concerned... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: being St,. Moritz
Disadvantages: slopes severly overcrowded

...We skied in St. Moritz for a day while staying in the much cheaper Livigno in Italy, from where you can book day excursions to St. Moritz. Be careful to purchase the right lift pass in Livigno, which will allow you a discount on the expensive day pass in St. Moritz. I would recommend skiing in St. Moritz just for the experience and the sake of having been there. There is a good variety of runs, mainly suited to the upper intermeidate skier (and above). The red runs are more challenging than in Livigno on the whole, but the skiing experience is severely marred by the fact that most slopes in St. Moritz are totally over-crowded, and therefore very accident-prone. You can see some skiers in expensive outfits taking private lessons in order to progress from their snowplough turns. Be sure to stock up on your Swiss chocolates... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good fun
Disadvantages: Not suitable for everyone

...Preda is a tiny village on the Albula Pass high in the Swiss Alps. It is the sort of place that has inspired visitors for centuries with its breathtaking scenery but nowadays it is most famous as being the starting point of Switzerland's longest toboggan ride, the Preda-Bergün Schlittelabenteuer. The journey to Preda is somewhat of an adventure in itself. Almost all of the visitors arrive here via the Swiss rail network, the Rhätische Bahn. I travelled Preda on the Bernina Express, a glass roofed train that runs just twice a day. There is an additional cost to travel on this glass train compared with the standard trains, which depart every hour and travel between Chur and St Moritz but for me this was well worth the extra couple of quid as I considered it to be one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. Preda sits at the peak... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful