Glide past grazing reindeer and pine-covered valleys — with hypnotising glimpses of the Northern Lights. Rosalyn Wikeley rounds up the most magical rail trips in the Evening Standard.
Glacier Express, Switzerland
A winter’s tale that winds through dramatic Alpine scenery between St Moritz’s turreted, frozen lake madcappery to the softer, Hans Christian Andersen-worthy ski resort of Zermatt. This eight-hour epic features snow-laden pine forests; lonely mountain huts puffing out coils of smoke; and nearly 300 bridges with the sorts of views that are printed on to Swiss chocolate tins as the train chugs upwards over 2,000 metres above sea level. Book with the Ultimate Travel Company for four nights of winter wonder, taking in the twinkling views over a three-course supper in the first-class cabin, and bookending the trip with a stay at spa-focused Engadin Valley at Waldhaus Sils and Zermatt’s Belle Epoque Parkhotel Beau Site. Alternatively, snow- seekers can hop on at St Pancras for Switzerland’s pretty Engadine region via Zurich – hissing into St Moritz to lay their heads at the turreted Suvretta House.