Experiencing our holidays through the eyes of our customers is one of the pleasures of our jobs, and helps us to understand where we can keep improving our tours. Our Head of Product & Contracting, Katie Waddington, recently joined a group of customers on an early autumn trip to Italy and Switzerland on our Discoveries tour - Lake Maggiore, Lake Orta and the Alps.
Katie had a fabulous few days and said: "It was a great opportunity to see how our tours are run. We had an excellent Tour Manager and the group was lovely."
A night in captivating Strasbourg
Travelling by Eurostar from London to Paris, the tour group took the train to Strasbourg in the French Alsace, where they spent the first night of the tour.
"Strasbourg was beautiful. I took a couple of hours to walk around and downloaded a self-guided audio tour of the city which was really interesting (topping up my trivia knowledge!).
"This picturesque medieval city has a unique French and German heritage, and I was glad I checked out the historic quarter of La Petite France, where half-timbered houses with colourful window boxes overlook the canals.
"The Gothic cathedral is also impressive. There's a spiral staircase inside and at the top the viewing platform has amazing views over the old city."
First views of the Swiss Alps and breathtaking Lake Maggiore
Leaving Strasbourg by rail on Day 2, the tour group headed south to Stresa on Lake Maggiore.
"Enroute, we had our first glimpse of Switzerland's snow-capped Bernese Oberland mountains. I loved this part of the journey - as did all the customers - and we had fantastic views from the upper deck of the train.
"The train route to Stresa passes through the Simplon Tunnel
(also used by the iconic Orient Express!) which emerges in northern
Italy. We then continued south to Lake Maggiore and our hotel,
overlooking the water in the lakeside town of Stresa."
A cruise on Lake Orta to the island of Isola San Guilio
"A cruise on tranquil Lake Orta to the tiny peaceful island of Isola San Giulio was a special day. Our first stop was Orta San Giulio on the lakeside, a pretty village with a lovely square and restaurants serving fresh lake fish (perch is a speciality) and risottos.
"We then sailed to Isola San Guilio, a fascinating place with remains from the Iron Age and a 12th-century basilica which became a Benedictine monastery as recently as 1976. When I say tiny, the island measures 902 feet by 459 feet! There's a pathway encircling the island known as the Way of Silence, which I walked around and loved. There are signs along the way, with messages like 'the wise man leans and smiles' and 'the island of silence welcomes you'.
"As the group explored Orta I took a ferry along the lake to a more remote area, Pettenasco, where we stay on our Italian Lakes: Como, Maggiore & Orta tour and sat on the terrace at the Hotel Giardinetto overlooking Lake Orta. It's incredibly peaceful there and I could have happily sat there all afternoon with a good book!"
Things to do in Stresa, our base for five nights
"One of the things I think our group appreciated is how the tour balances excursions with free days to look around at your own pace. The town itself has an impressive heritage, with lots of famous visitors in the past, and beautiful villas with gardens you can look around.
"It's also easy to get out to the Borromean islands, with a ferry stop just across from the hotel. So, on one of the free days, I decided to take an independent boat trip to Isola Bella - which is an included excursion in our Classic tour, Stresa & Lake Maggiore.
"Isola Bella is another miniature island, site of the amazing Palazzo Borromeo and its gardens. The grandeur here felt something like Versailles, with corridors of amazing tapestries lining the walls. There were plenty of interesting things to see, especially for art lovers. I liked the fact you can see the actual bed which Napoleon slept in, and I imagined him looking out at the view across the water.
"My favourite feature of the palace was unexpected. Underneath the building are intriguing grottoes decorated with fantastically ornate pebbles, stones and shells. I also loved the Mediterranean-style garden with its lemon trees, beautiful flowers and family of white peacocks.
"Stresa is a bustling, touristy town with plenty of good Italian restaurants offering fantastic pastas and freshly caught fish from the lake. I also had an incredibly tasty slice of pizza. There is a lovely promenade beside the lake, which I walked along after dinner on free evenings.
"I have to mention the café by the lake with exceptionally good coffee. In fact, the coffee was great from start to finish in Italy!"
To Switzerland on the 'One Hundred Valley Railway'
"The top highlight of the tour was the day I joined the group on the fabulous Centovalli Railway to Locarno at the northern end of Lake Maggiore - two hours of stunning scenery from Italy into Switzerland.
"Setting off from the town of Domodossola, there were great views from both sides of the train as we travelled over dozens of bridges over valleys before reaching the mountains of Switzerland. We passed waterfalls, meadows of wildflowers, and gorgeous forests.
"Once in Locarno we had a few hours free to explore, so I took the funicular up the mountain and had lunch with another amazing view, before heading back down for an unforgettable gelato and taking the boat back along Maggiore (Italy's longest lake) to Stresa.
"Overall, this was a great chance for me to experience one of our tours, meet some of our customers and get lots of useful feedback. I've travelled extensively in Europe, so it was also lovely to go somewhere new to me. I've come back with a better understanding of what we offer, and this will help me in my work developing new tours as well as improving our existing ones."
Discover the Italian lakes with Great Rail Journeys
Katie stayed at the 4-Star Milan Speranza Hotel au Lac which features on our Lake Maggiore, Lake Orta and the Alps tour.
Other tours that Katie sampled were:
- Stresa & Lake Maggiore which includes a boat trip and tour of the Borromeo Palace on Isola Bella, time to explore the fishing village of Isola Dei Pescatori and a wine tasting at Fontechiara winery.
- Italian Lakes: Como, Maggiore & Orta which features a trip to Switzerland's resort of Zermatt beneath the magnificent Matterhorn.
Experience this beautiful region for yourself with our Lake Maggiore holidays.
