Milan to St. Moritz Day Trip: How Much Time You Get in Town

A St. Moritz day trip from Milan gives you between about one and two and a half hours in town, depending on the tour, plus a ride on the Bernina line and five or six hours on a coach. TaoTravel’s From Milan: Bernina Train, Swiss Alps & St. Moritz Day Trip, from $131 per person, gives you about 100 minutes in St. Moritz (our review). The lowest-priced day trip on this site is the City Wonders red train day, from $121, which rides the Bernina or Albula line depending on the option and stops about an hour in town. If you want more time in town, take the train on your own: on a winter weekday you can have about three and a half hours there and still get back to Milan the same night.

Time in St. Moritz on each tour

Every guided day spends most of its hours on the road. These are the stops each listing’s itinerary gives for St. Moritz, with the train each tour rides.

Two notes on that table. The tours can run the day in reverse, and traffic on the Maloja Pass road can shorten your stop. And only the Frigerio panoramic option puts you in the glass-roofed Bernina Express; the rest ride the regional red train, as our Bernina Express from Milan page explains.

How the TaoTravel day runs

The coach leaves Piazza Duca d’Aosta, beside Milano Centrale, in the morning. It follows Lake Como north, stops for 20 minutes at Colico, then climbs through Chiavenna and over the Maloja Pass into the Engadine. In St. Moritz you get about 100 minutes for photos, a walk and a coffee, with an English-speaking tour leader to point you in the right direction.

In the early afternoon you board a 2nd-class regional train, not the panoramic Bernina Express. The ride takes about 2 hours 20 minutes over the Bernina Pass, past Poschiavo and down to Tirano, with commentary on board. After a 10-minute break in Tirano, the coach drives about 2.5 hours back to Milan. On certain dates the train section runs on the Albula line from St. Moritz to Thusis instead, so check the option when you book.

Rated 4.8 from 1,650+ reviews, the tour lasts about 12 hours and has free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. The listing rules it out for wheelchair users and people with altitude sickness, and warns that luggage storage on the coach is not guaranteed. The same tour is sold on Viator as Bernina Red Train, Swiss Alps & St Moritz From Milan, from $157.

Doing it by train instead

By rail you change trains at Tirano. You take a Trenord regional train from Milano Centrale to Tirano, about 2.5 hours along the east shore of Lake Como and up the Valtellina, then cross the square to the RhB station for the red train up to St. Moritz. Our guide to the Milan to Tirano train covers the first leg.

Here is a winter weekday plan, using the 2025/26 Trenord times and RhB’s winter timetable. Check both before you travel, because Trenord’s 2026/27 times may differ.

That gives you about three and a half hours in St. Moritz. The latest same-day return leaves St. Moritz at 16:48 and reaches Milan at 22:43, which stretches your stop to about four and a half hours on the same morning train. You pay about €12.50 each way on Trenord and about CHF 33 to 35 each way for the red train in 2nd class. The Tirano to St. Moritz red train return day ticket sells the Swiss part from $121 (our review). Our tickets page lists every fare and where to buy it, and the Bernina train from Milan on your own has the full plan.

The trade-off is the hours. You leave Milan at dawn, sit on trains for more than nine hours and plan every connection yourself. A tour suits you if you want someone else to handle the border and the timing; the train suits you if St. Moritz is the point of the day.

What to do in St. Moritz in two or three hours

St. Moritz sits at about 1,800 m on the lake of the same name, and prices are in Swiss francs. With 100 minutes, choose one thing and do it well.

• Walk by the lake below the town. In winter the frozen lake hosts events such as the White Turf horse races and snow polo.
• See the leaning tower. The bell tower of the old St. Mauritius church, about 33 m tall, leans about 5.5 degrees; the church itself was demolished in 1893.
• Sit down in a pastry shop for coffee and cake, as several tour listings suggest.
• Browse the shopping streets around Via Maistra. Some shops and restaurants keep reduced hours in spring and autumn, and many close on Sundays and public holidays.

Dress for the altitude. From December to February St. Moritz is usually well below freezing, and it is colder still at Ospizio Bernina (2,253 m), which the train crosses. If the town matters less than the mountains, the Bernina Train & Diavolezza Glacier Lunch from Milan (our review) skips St. Moritz free time for a cable car to 2,978 m and lunch at the top.

Picking your St. Moritz day

Book TaoTravel if you are happy with about 100 minutes in town, or the City Wonders red train day if you want the lowest price and an hour there is enough (our review). Pay $34 more than TaoTravel for the Zani Viaggi guided tour if you want about two hours there (our review), or choose the Milano Art Discovery red train day for a guided walk (our review). For a lake cruise in the same day, see the Lake Como Bernina train tour; for your own schedule with a driver, the private Bernina train tours. The day trip itinerary guide shows how a day runs hour by hour, and where to stay in Milan for the Bernina train covers hotels near Centrale for an early start.

When you have a date in mind, check dates for the TaoTravel day trip and confirm which train option is on sale.