Swiss Tour Day 1 - Glacier 3000, Saanen - Gstaad

Our day 1 at Switzerland was planned for places around Gstaad. One of the most expensive places of Swiss, often the favorite holiday destination of cricketer Virat Kohli and Anushka, and Bollywood stars Saif and Kareena and more. When we planned for Swiss, we knew we wanted to explore as many versatile things the country had to offer. Glacier 3000, apart from the beautiful glacier, offers the Dog Sled ride, and Saanen in Gstaad was the place where Bollywood movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and many other Bollywood movies were shot. 

We had booked our Swiss Travel Pass on SBB website long before our travel dates and that covered all our travels around Swiss by trains, ferries, buses, most cable cars(others with 30% to 50% discount). So we need not book our tickets on every ride which saved most of our time. We often hopped on and off trains and buses with jiffy. Glacier 3000 dog sled was offered on discount which included glacier ticket too. I will have a separate post for different passes offered by Swiss.

Husky rides/dog sled at Glacier 3000 is fixed for a window of half an hour and you need to plan your visit accordingly. Since we were travelling from Interlaken, a train ride from Interlaken to Gstaad, bus from Gstaad to Col-du-Pillon, 2 connecting cable cars from Col-du-Pillon to glacier top, Ice express chairlift to get down and finally walk to the husky ride point, that's how we had to reach our days activity. 

We started from Interlaken by 7:30 in the morning, we had packed our theplas from India and had picked hummus, salads, yogurts from Coops previous evening at airport. Had our thepla wraps on our train journey. Interlaken to Gstaad train ride has 3 transfers - Interlaken West to Spiez, Spiez to Zweisimmen - Zweisimmen to Gstaad. The train runs once in an hour with travel time around 2 hours. So we couldn't miss our train we had planned, ran to catch the connecting bus next to Gstaad railway station. Gstaad railway station to Col-du-Pillon bus stand of glacier 3000 is half an hour ride. Col-du-pillon - Cabane - Scex Rouge cable car travel time 15min operating every 20minutes. Like they say the journey in itself is so beautiful, taking a Golden Pass Panoramic route from Interlaken to Gstaad(which goes further till Montreux) gives you the spectacular views of mountains, wooden chalets, the green meadows, Swiss cows.  

Two things to do at Glacier 3000 are Dog Sled and Peak walk by Tissot depending on the weather. Weather can be too unpredictive at times, while it was sunny when we reached the top, it started snowing in few minutes. Most peaks have live webcams which you can watch out for, and plan your trip to the peaks accordingly, if you don't have any prior bookings. But most activities like dog sled get sold out days before, so we didn't have option but to book in advance. 

Dog Sled is limited to winters till the snow lasts. While for summers from June to September Glacier offers Alpine coaster along with Peak walk. Alpine coaster shot in Ranbir Kapoor starrer song Aahista Aahista from Bachna Ae Haseeno movie. There is cafe and souvenir shop on the peak, if you plan to have a cup of steaming hot coffee on the peak and to take home memorabilia.  

By 2 we were back to Col-du-pillon, and took our bus to Saanen. Saanen is around 20km and takes around 30 mins. There is a dedicated display board which covers all the shooting spots of Bollywood movies around Saanen and Gstaad. Since we visited in shoulder season, whole of the village was just for us, not even a single person around. We walked around the narrow lanes, enjoying the magnificent views of the chalets and snow capped peaks.

DDLJ Saanen Bridge

DDLJ church where Kajol goes to pray

Saanen Railway station

We took the train back to Gstaad, wandered around for an hour till our next train to Interlaken. Interlaken is quite touristry, while most shops close by 8PM during shoulder season, you can wander around feeling the vibes of the Alpine Town till late night.