This 7-day Train Journey Passes Through 5 European Countries — and Includes a Ride on Europe’s Highest Railway

Every once in a while, a train trip pops up that is exceptional — and if riding Europe’s highest railway and celebrating the New Year in Switzerland isn’t exceptional, I don’t know what is. The “Interlaken and the Jungfrau Express at New Year” from train tour company Vacations By Rail is a guided week-long tour — by train — through five countries over the New Year holiday. Along the way, guests will be treated to a breathtaking ride on the Jungfrau Railway, the highest train station in Europe, a cable-car journey to the highest peak in the Bernese Alps, and five nights in a small Swiss village. The cherry on top is a New Year’s Eve gala dinner with newfound friends in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The trip starts and ends in London and promises travelers seven days of train travel and mountain views. Lodging at four-star properties is included, as are most meals.

The journey kicks off in London, where travelers will hop aboard their first train of the journey: the Eurostar to Brussels, Belgium. After a train change in Brussels, the journey continues to Cologne, Germany where guests will check into their first hotel and enjoy dinner.

The next morning, everyone hops aboard a German railway line for the journey into Switzerland along the scenic Rhine Gorge, which is known for its steep mountain walls punctuated by castles and fortresses. The final destination is Interlaken, Switzerland, a city set in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps under the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains.

Interlaken, a quaint Swiss village set between mountains and lakes, will be home for the next five nights. From there, the group will head out on smaller, day trips, including a train trip to the mountain village of Mürren where a cable car whisks travelers to the top of Schilthorn Mountain, a peak with a rotating restaurant that was featured in the James Bond film, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

After a down-day in Interlaken — where travelers can explore the area’s 45 mountain railways and aerial gondolas on their own — the group will make their way to Grindelwald, a snowy Alpine village set at the base of the Eiger, before returning to Interlaken for a special New Year’s Eve dinner.

On New Year’s Day, the trip will culminate with an excursion on the Jungfrau Railway, an iconic route that tunnels through the Eiger mountain and tops out at Jungfraujoch, a lookout platform at 11,332 feet in elevation — well above the perennial snowline.

From the heights of Jungfraujoch, the tour continues via train to Basel and then Paris, where travelers will hop aboard their final train: the Eurostar back to London.

The trip runs Dec. 27 or 28, 2023 through Jan. 2 or 3, 2024. The week-long adventure is currently on sale for $2,595 a person and includes all rail travel, six nights of hotel accommodation, a professional tour escort and local guides, and 11 meals. Guests are responsible for purchasing their flights to and from London and arranging airport transfers.