| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
How does my itinerary sound?Country forums / Western Europe / Switzerland | ||
Hi Swiss experts! I just wanted to run through my Swiss itinerary with you all to see if you think its 1: doable and sensible and realistic, 2: good and 3: to see if you think I should change anything or add somewhere special. There are 2 of us going and we both have the Swiss Pass 22 days. Itinerary = 2 nights = Geneva Spend the travel day btw Montreux and Bern stopping in Gruyeres, Fribourg and Murten 2 nights = Bern - is 1.5 days enough to see Bern properly? There will be quite a few museums we can go to on the pass. However, we are not shoppers - we will just be walking the arcaded streets to see the sights - not to shop. Do Parliament house, Einsteins House, etc. On the day we travel to Lauterbrunnen - stop in Interlaken for a few hours and walk around the old town and appreciate its position between the 2 lakes 2 - 3 nights = Lauterbrunnen. Spend 1 day going to Grindelwald and perhaps hiking back. Spend 1 of the days in this region doing Jungfrau. Can someone tell me - roughly how much will this cost us? We could depart from Murren, Wengen or Grindelwald (as we can get to all these places free on the Pass). Also - we want to hike back down from Kleine Scheidegg. So it would be return from KS - Jungfraujoch and then 1 way from one of the other places. How hard would the hike from Murren/ Grindelwald/ Wengen be to KS if we did that? 2 nights = Zermatt. Take the Glacier Express from Z - St M. We were going to take the Bernina Express to Tirano and then the bus to Lugano. However, after spending AUD$402 each on a pass and knowing we will have to spend extra money on Jungfrau and the seat reservation on the Glacier Express and on trains from Rhinefall - Zurich because the pass will have expired we were thinking of not taking the BE. Instead we were thinking of taking regional trains to Tirano and then the bus to Lugano. Do you think this will be just as good? or is it worth the reservation fees for the BE? 1 night = Belladonia - beautiful castles, etc Any comments would be much appreciated! Lindsay | ||
I suppose you will travel in July/August, otherwise boat rides wouldn't make much sense. 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: 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): 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. 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. 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: | 1 | |
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, | 2 | |
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. | 3 | |
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 | 4 | |
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. As you plan to pass through Lugano, I just add the official Lugano site | 5 | |
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! | 6 | |