Spiez Transportation

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When you are on vacation in Spiez, it makes sense to leave the cruises of Thuner See and Brienzer See for a monday, because every MONDAY throughout the summer-season you may get a day-ticket for all ships of both lakes for just 25 euros !
It might make sense to think about buying a ticket for the 1st class :
25 sfr for the 2nd class - that is all of the lower deck of the ships
35 sfr for 1st class - all of the upper decks with better views and mostly also less crowded than 2nd class.
Both classes have their own restaurants !
This ticket will include all of the cruises, BUT NO trains ! So you would have to pay a seperate fee of 2,20 sfr for the train between Interlaken Ost and Interlaken West ( the conductor will NOT check the tickets for that ride of just 3 minutes !! )

Travel Between: Mon May 07, 2007 - Mon October 08, 2007

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The Cisalpino company is an Italian-Swiss joint venture with the Italian and Swiss railway systems as equal partners. Cisaplino tilting trains have been running through the Alps between Switzerland and Italy since 1996.

The advantage of the tilting trains is that they can lean into the curves and thus go faster through mountainous routes than conventional trains.

However, since 2005 the Cisalpino company has also taken over all the conventional (non-tilting) international passenger trains on transalpine routes between Italy and Switzerland, so just because it says CIS on the timetable no longer means automatically that it is a tilting train.

Update: The Cisalpino company ceased operations in December 2009 because of numerous problems with maintenance and punctuality, and because people complained about feeling nauseous on the tilting trains. (I didn't have any of these problems, but a lot of other travelers did.)

Now the trains between Switzerland and Italy are again operated directly by the Swiss and Italian railways, mainly under the name "EuroCity", so in the timetable they are called EC instead of CIS. I haven't traveled this route since the change took place, so I can't say what effect it has had, if any, on punctuality and comfort.

Second photo: In one of the second class coaches of a Cisalpino tilting train on the way to Italy.

Third photo: Going through the new Lötschberg Basis-Tunnel under the Swiss Alps.

Fourth photo: View from a Cisalpino train after leaving Spiez.

When you get off the train at Spiez, as at all other Swiss railroad stations that I know of, you will soon find signs pointing the way along the national and regional cycling routes.

Note that there are two different bicycle symbols on the signs, one for normal bicycles and one for mountain bikes.

Spiez is on the Swiss national cycling route number 8, called the "Aare Route" because it follows along the Aare River from its source to the Rhine, and number 9, the "Montreux–Rorschach" route. And there is a mountain bike route going to Leissingen, Krattigen and Aeschi.

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Within Germany there is one ICE train per hour on most routes, including the route through the Rhine Valley between Frankfurt am Main and Basel.

Five of these ICE trains per day also continue beyond Basel into Switzerland, stopping at Olten, Bern, Thun, Spiez and Interlaken. For connections to Italy, you have to change trains at Spiez, at the latest.

The journey from Frankfurt to Spiez takes four hours and forty-one minutes.

Second and third photos: Views of Lake Thun from the ICE train approaching Spiez.

When going to Spiez in your private car, it makes a lot of sense to buy a highway-sticker, even though it costs 40 sfr for the whole year. When driving from Bern to Spiez or from Luzern via the Bruenig-pass and Interlaken, the highway saves you a lot of time. Driving with your own car in Interlaken and its surrounding is quite tricky, because the road along the southern bank of Brienzersee is ment to be a highway, although it does not look that way and you will have only one single track in each direction for several km. For using the AUTOBAHN / highway in Switzerland - you will have to pay a " vignette " - a sticker or ticket to be attached behind your windscreen.
There are only 1-year-tickets available for the price of 40 sfr / 32 Euros and be aware, that there are high penalties, when they catch you without such a sticker on your windscreen.
Buy them at newspaper stands or directely at the border.
When arriving in Switzerland ON the Autobahn from another country, there will be an exit for all those NOT WILLING to buy a vignette...
I may highly recommend to buy this sticker, simply because many of the fast roads like the road along the southern shore of Lake Brienz are included in the highway-system, although there is only 1 track in each direction and only a very few places, where you may overtake others. And still you save 30 minutes driving-time between Brienz and Interlaken. Also in other parts of Switzerland you may get on a highway without realizing immediately !!
On my picture : Bugatti Coach 64 of 1939
a lovely car that I saw in the "Schlumpf Collection"
of the Museum of Automobiles in Mulhouse/France

Spiez has its own train-station and almost all trains will stop there on their way from Interlaken to Bern. Something that you have to calculate, when taking the train to Spiez in order to explore the Schloss or the old chapel of St. Columban is that fact, that walking from the station to the castle and / or to the ship-station of Spiez takes about 30 minutes one way.
There is a bus as well, but I prefered to take a walk.
Like in any other train-station in Switzerland you may also store your luggage in Spiez into automatic lockers.

There are various pre-paid train-passes for the area around Spiez and in my personal opinion the so-called Regional-Pass Berner Oberland is certainly the best when you have at least 3 days and want to go also to the most spectacular mountain-tops of the Jungfrau-Region :
Regional-Pass berner Oberland is valid 7 days (224,-sfr) or 15 days (270,-sfr) and during 3 of these 7 or 5 of these 15 days you may use that ticket for unlimited travels, only for a tour to Jungfraujoch you pay 50 sfr extra and for Schilthorn 30 sfr extra - the Brienz Rothorn is totally included !!
The tickets are for 7/15 consecutive days, BUT you may choose any 3 (or 5) days of unlimited travels by yourself - you simply stamp your ticket at any trainstation into a machine on these days.
During the rest of the days you pay half of the ordinary prices.
This ticket includes also all trains and ships around Brienzersee and Thunersee, trains till Brig, Lenk i.S., Adelboden, Meiringen, Gstaad and halfprice all days to Zermatt, Luzern, Bern etc...
I had such a ticket with 7 days and could save a lot of money, although I had only 3 days with excellent weather-conditions !!.
See more details about that ticket on my link below !!
Click here for a map of the area showing all train-tracks that are included in this offer !
Click again at the map that you get and it will enlarge once more !!

Spiez is a major transportation hub. Two important rail routes meet her: the Lötschberg-Simplon route from Germany through Switzerland (Basel - Bern - Brig) to Italy and the Golden Pass trains from Montreux via Gstaad and Interlaken to Lucerne (continues to Zurich).

By the way, the railway station of Spiez is excellent. Very convenient, clearly signposted, good restaurant, tourist information nearby and also a B&B ...

Or you hop on a ferry and enjoy a cruise on the lake ...