How does my itinerary sound?

I suppose you will travel in July/August, otherwise boat rides wouldn't make much sense.
Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux are just 30 resp 20 minutes by train from each other; may be it would be easier to choose just 1 place for your stay in the Lake Geneva area.
You can go by boat from Geneva up to Lausanne and Montreux:
Geneva dp 10.15 - Lausanne 13.50/14.15 - Montreux 15.40 - Chillon castle ar 15.50
Geneva dp 12.20 - Hermance 13.05/13.10 - Nyon 13.40/13.45 - Yvoire 14.05/15.12 - Thonon 16.00/16.10 - Lausanne ar 16.50
Geneva dp 14.50 - Lausanne 18.25/18.40 - Montreux ar 19.25

The Rochers de Naye railway is NOT included in the Swiss Pass. You will have to pay half fare from Haut ce Caux up to the top and back (CHF 12.50/pax).

Montreux - Gruyeres - Murten/Fribourg:
May be you will need the whole day for the Gruyeres area. Left luggage at Bulle railway station. Train from Bulle to Broc Fabrique where you may visit the Cailler chocolate factory: http://www.cailler.ch/en/Chocolaterie/Information.aspx
From Broc you can walk (hiking trail) to the medieval town and castle of Gruyeres or you can take a bus from Broc Village (dp 11.05, 12.05, 12.57, not daily, have a look at the timetable) up to Epagny Village, just below the castle and go up to the city gate on foot. Or take the train via Bulle. Castle in the old town, cheese diary at the Gruyeres railway station.
The whole area can also be visited in a day trip from Montreux (chocolate train): http://www.goldenpass.ch/CMS/default.asp?ID=414

Murten can also be reached by boat, from either Yverdon (20 min by train from Lausanne) or Biel/Bienne (25 min by train from Bern):
Yverdon dp 10.50 - Murten ar 15.50, change boat at Neuchatel
Biel/Bienne dp 9.45 and 14.40 - Murten ar 13.00 and 18.30

Just 1 full day for Bern is fine, unless you spend hours and hours in museums.

Thun (less than 20 min by train from Bern, 4 trains every hour) can be visited in a few hours. The boat ride over the lake is fine. You may stop over at Oberhofen castle (museum) and Beatus caves.

There is absolutely nothng to see at Interlaken but tourists from overseas: just 2 railway stations and 2 boat stations, many hotels and souvenir shops, 2 supermarkets and some restaurants; the best you can do there is to change from one train/boat/bus to another.

Neither Lauterbrunnen nor Gimmelwald are real gems, although they are very popular with people from overseas. Wengen would be the better choice.

The Jungfrau railway is very expensive and they give only 25 per cent discount to Swiss Pass holders. A return ticket from Wengen will cost 117 CHF (with Swiss Pass). Up to Jungfraujoch and back to Kleine Scheidegg costs 100 CHF.

BTW: a ticket from Zermatt to Gornergrat and back costs 39 CHF with the Swiss Pass and the panorama from there to uncountable glaciers is as breathtaking as from Jungfraujoch.

There are different trails from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen, all nice and well signmarked. Kleine Scheidegg - Grindelwald is feasible too, the trails are good, but it's much longer.
Kleine Scheidegg - Murren would be a strenous full day hike: you must first go down from Kleine Scheidegg (2160m) to Trummelbach (810m), then along the Lutschine to Stechelberg and finally to Gimmelwald and Murren (1640m).

In my eyes, Zermatt and surroundings are more attractive than the Jungfrau area. I would stay less days in the Bernese Oberland and spend much more time around Zermatt and St. Moritz. 2 nights are just not enough for these places.

There is absolutely no need to take the Bernina Express. The local trains offer fine views too. The reservation fee for the Tirano - Lugano bus is 12 CHF. As an alternative, you could take a Italian train up to Lake Como (every 2 hours). An ordinary train ticket from Tirano to Bellano costs EUR 6.25/CHF 7.60 and a boat ticket from there up to Como EUR 9.30/CHF 11.30. The Como citybus goes from there to the Swiss railway station of Chiasso.
So your trip could look like this:
St. Moritz dp 9.45 - Tirano ar 12.21, dp 13.10 by train to Bellano ar 14.32, dp by Lake Como boat 15.16 - Como ar 18.00.
It would also be possible to leave St. Moritz at 7.45 by train to Bernina - Tirano - Varenna, to cross the lake by ferry and to go on by bus from Menaggio to Porlezza, where you could board the 16.30 hours Lake Lugano boat (included in Swiss Pass) and ride up to Lugano.

Bellinzona is a nice small town, but Lugano and Locarno are more attracive. As the trains between these 3 places run at least every 30 minutes, you don't need to sleep at Bellinzona. There are hand luggage lockers at the railway station.

some links:
Have a look at http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html and the many links you will find there
http://www.rhb.ch/Video-Glacier-eng.784.0.html?&L=4
http://www.rhb.ch/Video-Bernina-eng.782.0.html?&L=4
http://www.rhb.ch/UNESCO-Clip-eng.1061.0.html?&L=4
http://ballenberg.ch/en/Welcome
http://www.cgn.ch/horaires/pdf/AffA2-ete-10.pdf
http://www.cgn.ch/eng/flotte
http://www.blonay-chamby.ch/index-en.php
http://www.chillon.ch/en/
http://www.chateau-gruyeres.ch/e/multimedia/spectacle.html
http://www.la-gruyere.ch/en/navpage-ExcursionsFR-HistSitesFR-120085.html
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=56
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=56
http://www.chatelard.net/english/pages/descr_e.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emosson
http://www.emosson.ch/PublicEN/default-en.htm
http://www.gornergrat.ch/home/index.php
http://www.klein-matterhorn.ch/photos/
http://www.zermatt.ch/en/index.cfm
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/navpage-DestinationsFR-MurtenFR-99305.html
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/welcome.cfm?
http://www.avenches.ch/en/page.cfm/siteetmuseeromain
http://www.maggiore.ch/?lang=en
http://www.illagomaggiore.com/?set_language=en&cl=en
http://www.lagomaggioreturismo.it/ing_home.html
http://www.lagomaggiore.net/uk/
http://www.lagomaggioreonline.com/?newlingua=UK&
http://www.ascona-locarno.com/

Hi N,

Thank you so much for such a speedy and detailed reply. I have been having a think and was wondering what you would think about these changes and wondering if you could give me a little more advice. And anyone else reading this - please feel free to add your advice!

We have already booked 2 nights starting accommodation in Geneva and are happy to do that as we will not be using the Swiss Pass there. It will activate the first day we leave Geneva.

Instead of having 2 nights in Lausanne and 1 in Montreux, I agree with you - 1 base sounds good. I was wondering where you would recommend. We will have just been in the city of Geneva and would probably enjoy something smaller and relaxing. Somewhere where we could stay in a little bungalow or private room relatively cheaply (I chose Lausanne because the camping grounds have cheap bungalows). However, it will be over a saturday night - our first saturday night away and we would like to go somewhere probably and dance and party (we like house music). I picked Lausanne because I saw it has quite a few good nightclubs as well. However, I am now wondering - is Lausanne the best place? I want it to be somewhere pretty that we enjoy and relaxing. Would you prefer Lausanne or Montreux or Vevey or somewhere else on the lake?

I was thinking that maybe 4 nights in whatever town would be good. We could use 1 day to go to Gruyeres for the whole day (I think we would just negotiate the trains ourselves instead of the extra reservation fees due to our pass being 2nd class). Another day to do Montreux and Chateau de Chillon and perhaps Vevey and another day for Lausanne. and the 4th day could be spent on the lake/ relaxing.

Then first thing the check out day, head to Bern and use that day to see Bern comprehensively (we are not major museum buffs - just will use the pass to go into some). Then only stay in Bern for 1 night before catching the 20 min train to Thun the next morning. In Thun we would then rent bikes and ride around parts of the lake and use the day to ferry around the lake seeing castles, etc. Stay in Thun 1 night.

Then head from Thun the next day - Lauterbrunnen. I have been to Lauterbrunnen and Gimmelwald before and I just thought it was magnificent (guess im one of those international tourists!!) So I do want to spend my nights there. But I thought Id reduce Lauterbrunnen to 2 nights - use 1 to explore the valley and the waterfalls, 1 to go to Grindelwald/ Wengen and see them and then 3 nights in Gimmelwald. Those nights will recharge us and we'll do some hikes/ etc. Skip Jungfraujoch and go to Gornergrat instead

Then I was thinking 3 nights in Zermatt to allow us to explore it more, then 3 nights in St Moritz. That gives the region 6 nights instead of 4. The 1st of August would still be in St Moritz. If I was only to spend 5 nights in the region - would you suggest the extra night be in Zermatt or St Moritz? I was thinking Zermatt.

Would you prefer Lucarno or Lugano as a base? We could then stay there for 2 nights and just day trip to Belladonia - or even just go to Belladonia on the day we leave Lucarno/ Lugano and are heading to Lucerne. And just hire lockers in Belladonia to store our bags for a few hours whilst wondering around the castles, etc.

Then 2 nights in Lucerne where we would probably go to Mt Pilateus. Then a night at the Rhinefall and perhaps one in Schaffhausen and then onto Zurich.

How does that sound? I really want to see all the beauty Switzerland has to offer. I am sure everywhere will be just as magical to me as the brief time I was able to spend in Zurich, Gimmelwald, Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne years ago.

Thanks so much,
Lindsay

I suppose you know that Zermatt and St. Moritz are 2 completely different areas, separated by a 8 hrs train ride. Both are worth a longer stay. I prefer both by far to Gimmelwald, but that's my personal opinion and you are of course free to do what YOU like.
Swiss map (any scale, click into the map): http://www.mapplus.ch/
The 3 main towns in Ticino are called Lugano, Locarno and Bellinzona. Check the spelling, otherwise you will get no result with google or the railway timetable.
Lugano or Locarno? Both places are fine. Lake Lugano boats are included in the Swiss Pass, Lake Maggiore (Locarno) boats aren't. Locarno has the bigger camping grounds (Tenero and Ascona), Lugano has a good centrally located but quiet hostel: http://www.montarina.com/

Hi N,

Yes I know that Zermatt and St Moritz are separated - we are catching the Glacier Express to get from one to the other. I only put them together because you mentioned those were the 2 standouts to you over everything else. My apologies.

I have discovered I need to be very careful with my spelling - otherwise ill end up somewhere in Italy instead of Tirano. lol.

Could anyone comment on the Lake Geneva towns/ cities/ villages?

Thanks,

Lindsay

Tirano IS in Italy; the Italian Finance Minister of tht still ruling Berlusconi Government comes from this area. But only 150 years ago, it belonged to Austria, 200 years ago it was French (Napoleon) and 250 years ago it belonged to the Swiss Canton of Grischun/Grigioni/Grisons/Graubünden. The best wineyards of the area (Veltliner Staegafaessli wine) are still in Swiss hands.
Lake Geneva: there are no ugly places, neither in the Swiss Cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Valais, nor in the (since less than 200 years) French Department of Upper Savoia. The most scenic areas are between Lausanne and Villeneuve, especially places overlooking the whole lake, like Caux, Glion, Sonloup (closed), Pleyades, Blonay, Chexbres, Jongny.

As you plan to pass through Lugano, I just add the official Lugano site
http://www.lugano-tourism.ch/en/32/tourist-information.aspx

Hi, I just got back from a 8 day trip to Switzerland. Here is a lot of my trip information:

http://shruti-k.blogspot.com/2011/05/switzerland.html

Feel free to send me any questions that you have. Have a great trip!