A lot has been written about it, but nothing can prepare you for how it really feels: the silence, the snow, and the train slowly making its way through the heart of Switzerland. The Glacier Express in winter is an experience full of contrasts — white and grey, sunshine and mist, speed and breathtaking silence. In the quiet off-season, that leisurely pace really comes into its own. A journey that isn’t about rushing, but about everything you see along the way. And sometimes, what you don’t see.

If you take the train from Spiez in Switzerland into the Simmental, you are not just travelling through a valley, but through a small chapter of Swiss railway history. First, the line takes you through the green Simmental to Zweisimmen, where you change to a charming narrow-gauge railway. This takes you further every hour past cosy wooden chalets, cows with bells and the babbling Simme, towards the final station Lenk, below the imposing Wildstrubel.

From the Swiss Bundesstadt Bern, a train journey of about three hours takes you to the Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest train station at a whopping 3,454 metres above sea level. Along the way, you’ll pass medieval towns, shimmering mountain lakes, fairytale castles and panoramas that will leave you speechless. No wonder this route is among our absolute favourites. At the top, an eternally white world awaits – even in the middle of summer – overlooking a sea of snow stretching to the horizon.

The tiny red and white trains of the narrow-gauge Pinzgaubahn make their way slowly through Austria’s Pinzgau Valley for 53 km. Villages and picturesque churches dot the landscape as you head towards one of the highlights at either end of the line – the Zeller See and the famous Krimml Waterfalls, the highest in central Europe.

Let yourself be enchanted by thick forests and winding valleys, mountaintop castles and riverbank vineyards on this adventurous rail journey across central Europe.

Many believe the Bernina line to be one of the finest stretches of railway in all of Europe and even the world. Winding its way slowly through the Swiss Alps, the route dazzles passengers with views of glaciers and streams, crystalline lakes and snow-capped mountains.