New Delhi, Sept. 26 -- Most trips begin with a spreadsheet. Which city first, which sight after that, how long the drive, where to change, what to skip. We plan our holidays the way we plan our work weeks - carefully, defensively, afraid of wasting a day.

Switzerland quietly offers a different idea. Here, memorable days come from doing almost no planning at all. Travellers walk to a station, look up at the board, and get on a train. The route has already been designed to show them the finest of the country. They just have to sit by the window.

In Switzerland, the train is not the boring bit between the good bits. The train is the good bit.

The country has spent more than a century turning its railways into something close to an art for...