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Switzerland, anyone? (1 Viewer)

jamny

jamny

Footballguy
We're planning a trip to Switzerland in August. Thinking 3 nights in Zurich and 3 nights in Lucerne. I keep reading how Lucerne is really the better of the 2 but think I should keep it like this and possibly plan day trips in Zurich. Probably to Basel and maybe to Bern.

In Lucerne, which of the mountains, if you only do one, would be recommended, Titlis, Pilatus or Rigi? Leaning towards Titlis because of the ride up and options while up there although Pilatus and Rigi have some plusses as well. Thinking a day trip by train to Interlaken, although wouldn't mind a different option if someone liked something more. I'd like to go to Zermatt and see the Matterhorn but that might be too far south. We will probably have a car.

I know it isn't as popular as other places in Europe but hopefully some people have experiences to share. 

 
Galileo said:
Geneva?  Personally, I'd want to go check out CERN and the Large Hadron Collider!
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Probably won't be near Geneva but that would be cool to see. But I do plan to go to the Einstein House in Bern and see the clock that inspired him from his patent office window.

 
I have been to Switzerland 4 times (3 times with a car, 1 by train).  It is a small country which makes it rather easy to visit many cantons.  Due to borders we have 4 main regions... an italian, a german, a french, and a romansh (but also borders austria and lichtenstein)  I have visited all but have spent most of my time in the german regions.

My favorites:

lauterbrunnen/interlaken

lucerne

Gruyere

Bellinzona

st moritz

Laussane

I enjoyed the bigger cities, just prefer getting out into the country, lakes, mountains, rivers, waterfalls.  very easy to do day trips to burgundy, italian lakes, Salzburg is about 5 1/2 hrs by train from zurich (faster drive is leaving from other towns).

 
3 days in Lucerne is probably fine but there isn't a ton to do there.  Its nice to look at but you can cover the main part in about a day. I'm sure you'll be able to fill days if you want and will still enjoy but considering you can get to a lot of places in Switzerland within a 2-4 hour train ride, maybe not stay in Lucerne or even Zurich for 3 days each. You can probably fit something else in there.  Didn't go to Bern but heard it was cool, so maybe that's one idea.

We went all over the place over the course of about 8 days.  We were in Lake Geneva, the Alps and down on the Swiss Italian border in Lugano.

Everyone tells you how expensive Switzerland is and they are right.  Just be prepared for that and you'll be fine.

 
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jamny said:
We're planning a trip to Switzerland in August. . 
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Lucerne > Zurich. Pilatus IMO. I've never been to Basel so I can't comment. Bern is nice and worth a day but probably not more. There's a tour of Einstein's apartment that I enjoyed. It's not much but it gives real context to how he lived. 

Interlaken is further than you think. It's a couple of hours IIRC by train from Lucerne. We really enjoyed Meiringen which is about halfway there if you are looking for an easier day trip. The Matterhorn is probably not realistic from where you will be staying. 

Geneva is probably too distant as well. You take the train through Interlaken to get there so agree with you that unless you go to that side of the country it's too far. But Geneva/Montreaux (esp in Summer) are worth a visit to anyone interested. Honestly if you added a night in Lausanne or Geneva, you could spend the day in Interlaken and travel there for the night (we did exactly this on one trip and kept our bags in the train station).  

And finally, I wouldn't get a car. The trains are excellent and efficient. The cities themselves are not that large, at least by American standards, so you won't need a car to get around town really. Zurich has excellent public transport. Lucerne is so small I'm not sure anything isn't walkable. 

Oh and Rheinfalls is worth a trip from Zurich. 

 
Switzerland is awesome.  We spent five days there last April and would love to go back and spend more time.  It should be even better in August.  My advice:

Skip Zurich (other than the airport).  We did (at suggestion of almost everyone) and didn't feel like we missed anything.

Luzern is really nice and very walkable.  Hotel overlooked river and had great view of mountain right behind buildings on the other side.

I can't compare it to the other mountains, but day trip Luzern->ferry->Vitznau->funicular train->Rigi->cable car->other small town->ferry->Luzern was great.  Hike up Rigi in summer would be great too.

Food is really expensive and just decent (not even decent if you don't like heavy stuff)

Train from Luzern to Montreaux was awesome, even on a foggy/snowy day.  Make sure you take the scenic train route (about 5 hours) at least one way...the faster route (3 hours) is pretty ugly most of the way.

Montreaux ("the Swiss Riviera") is also great.  

Luzern is in the German part of the country, Montreaux is in the French part.  We were told by a relative who lives in Geneva that people in Switzerland mostly don't speak English but that was completely untrue.  Everyone we dealt with spoke some English.  Maybe less true in smaller towns.

One of the train changes on the route we took was in Interlaken.  There's a mountain with a nice viewing station just outside of town.  It was still closed for winter when we went, but look it up...definitely worth going to based on the pictures.

Lauterbrunnen (mentioned in others' posts) is just a short detour from Interlaken.  Unfortunately, it was completely fogged in the day we went, so we spent about five minutes there.

There are a ton of nice mountainous regions that we didn't get to...some because we didn't have enough time and some because they're only accessible in summer.

PM me if you have questions.

 
Been once years ago to ski. Didn't do much sight seeing, but did get to Montreaux and thought it was great. Say hi to Freddie  if you're there.

Other than that, I'd say the chocolate and cheese is superior to what we typically get in the states.

 
Interlachen and the gondola ride up the nearby mountain where that Bond film was made. The Mountain View was great but the beautiful lake by Interlachen made that visit for me. Forget the big cities imo. 

 
Wow, some great info here. I appreciate you all taking the time to write about it. That's why I like asking here more than tripadvisor, where locals will always hype their own area over others. My wife and I had a great discussion this morning about what we really want from the trip and this has helped shape it. So far, we'll land in Zurich, spend the rest of the day there, day trip to Basel the next day, come back to Zurich and leave the following day. That saves us 2 days to expand to other places. Time for more research! :thumbup:  

 
Just planting a seed, but, Munich is not far.... pending time, may be worthwhile flying in/out from there..... A bigger city that I really enjoy.

 
Drunken knight said:
Just planting a seed, but, Munich is not far.... pending time, may be worthwhile flying in/out from there..... A bigger city that I really enjoy.
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:thumbup:  We've been to Munich but thanks.  Right now, I'm trying to decide what to do after Interlaken. Head southwest, ending in Geneva or southeast, ending in Lugano and flying out of Milan. We've been to Milan a couple of times, so don't need to go into the city. Might leave in the morning from Lugano to catch a flight home. Leaning more towards southwest to see Montreaux and Laussane, flying out of Geneva.

 
higgins said:
Interlachen and the gondola ride up the nearby mountain where that Bond film was made. The Mountain View was great but the beautiful lake by Interlachen made that visit for me. Forget the big cities imo. 
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We spent 3-4 days in the Interlachen and surrounding regions when we visited. Loved it. 

Definitely second Schlithorn over Matterhorn. Harder to get to, and tickets to get up to Matterhorn were a lot more expensive for pretty much the same view.

 
nysfl2 said:
We spent 3-4 days in the Interlachen and surrounding regions when we visited. Loved it. 

Definitely second Schlithorn over Matterhorn. Harder to get to, and tickets to get up to Matterhorn were a lot more expensive for pretty much the same view.
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Yeah, I don't know if I need to go up the Matterhorn but I would like to see it. Not sure if it'll happen though. I did watch a video the other day of a similar round trip in Lucerne that zoobird mentioned, so that might be our only trip up into the mountains.

 
jamny said:
:thumbup:  We've been to Munich but thanks.  Right now, I'm trying to decide what to do after Interlaken. Head southwest, ending in Geneva or southeast, ending in Lugano and flying out of Milan. We've been to Milan a couple of times, so don't need to go into the city. Might leave in the morning from Lugano to catch a flight home. Leaning more towards southwest to see Montreaux and Laussane, flying out of Geneva.
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Just a point on this. Lugano is like a super rich Italy. If you enjoy Italy, it's up your alley. It's definitely different from the other regions and we enjoyed it a lot. But it's out of the way of most things worth seeing. I don't think it makes sense to go there from interlaken honestly as I'm pretty sure you have to go back through Lucerne because there is only one rail to it. Of the two, I'd suggest lake Geneva area. There's a ton to do and it's gawdawful beautiful in the summer. 

 
prefontaine said:
Just a point on this. Lugano is like a super rich Italy. If you enjoy Italy, it's up your alley. It's definitely different from the other regions and we enjoyed it a lot. But it's out of the way of most things worth seeing. I don't think it makes sense to go there from interlaken honestly as I'm pretty sure you have to go back through Lucerne because there is only one rail to it. Of the two, I'd suggest lake Geneva area. There's a ton to do and it's gawdawful beautiful in the summer. 
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Thanks for that. It looks like we'll probably head towards Geneva. We love Italy and have been many times. Lugano would probably be better if we ever go back to Milan and the Lake Como region.

 
I enjoy northern itlay, but feel like Mlian can be done in a half of a day (and would not feel a need to see it again unless using it as a hub for air travel)..... would spend more time around lugano/lakes

 
You really can’t go wrong with Zurich, Luzern  and Geneva. You’ll get the German and French influence plus the mountains with Luzern. Interlaken is great, too, if you have time. Never have been to Lugano for the Italian influence, so can’t opine there.

Even flying out of Zurich is breathtaking as you elevate up above the Alps.

 
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Drunken knight said:
I enjoy northern itlay, but feel like Mlian can be done in a half of a day (and would not feel a need to see it again unless using it as a hub for air travel)..... would spend more time around lugano/lakes
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We're rare in that we both really like Milan but we also really like big cities. It is a great hub though. We only did the Como region for a day trip so there is definitely more to see.

 
zamboni said:
You really can’t go wrong with Zurich, Luzern  and Geneva. You’ll get the German and French influence plus the mountains with Luzern. Interlaken is great, too, if you have time.

Even flying out of Zurich is breathtaking as you elevate up above the Alps.
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We'll fly in to Zurich. Looking forward to the view as we land.

 
We've extended the trip for one more day.

Here's a rough outline. Definitely sounds better and not too ambitious, imo.

Day 1: Land in Zurich, probably midday. See the city.

Day 2: Day trip to Basel. Still flexible on that but we'll stay in Zurich, probably won't need the full day. Like I said, we love cities and I love art museums so there should be plenty to do between Zurich and Basel

Day 3: Leave Zurich early for Lucerne. See the city

Day 4: See the surrounding lakes, mountains and towns around Lucerne.

Day 5: Day trip to Interlaken and surrounding area, coming back late.

Day 6: Leave Lucern, have lunch in Bern, end in Montreaux

Day 7: Montreaux and surrounding area

Day 8: Leave Montreaux for Geneva. See the city.

Day 9: Fly out of Geneva early.

Could possibly combine Day 3&4 to leave more time towards the end and obviously fill in the "surrounding areas" more but that's a better outline so far

 
if i recall, lucerne is pretty close to zurich.  I enjoyed my time more in lucerne... more blend of old world and modern.  interlaken connects two lakes (thun and brienz) quiet but charming.  not far from lauterbrunnen.  i would devote a little more time to that core personally.

 
jamny said:
:thumbup:  We've been to Munich but thanks.  Right now, I'm trying to decide what to do after Interlaken. Head southwest, ending in Geneva or southeast, ending in Lugano and flying out of Milan. We've been to Milan a couple of times, so don't need to go into the city. Might leave in the morning from Lugano to catch a flight home. Leaning more towards southwest to see Montreaux and Laussane, flying out of Geneva.
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I liked Lugano a little more than Montreux but both are very nice.  Lugano is a little more out of the way so may not make the most sense for this trip but it is pretty awesome.

 
Days 5-7 look a bit flawed.  Bern is along the ugly Luzern-Montreaux train route.  Interlaken is along the beautiful Luzern-Montreaux train route.  Lauterbrunnen is 25 minutes (by a different train) from the Interlaken train station.  I'd probably skip Bern and gain a day in one of the other locations...maybe stay a night in Interlaken so you can get a bit further up into the mountains from there as a day trip.

 
Jefferson the Caregiver said:
The best food I found in Switzerland was Italian.  Got tired of the German influence pretty quickly after just a couple of meals.  
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Yeah, my parents were both German and my wife's parents are Polish. We're used to the cooking but even at home we eat mostly Italian and intend on doing that there.

 
zoobird said:
Days 5-7 look a bit flawed.  Bern is along the ugly Luzern-Montreaux train route.  Interlaken is along the beautiful Luzern-Montreaux train route.  Lauterbrunnen is 25 minutes (by a different train) from the Interlaken train station.  I'd probably skip Bern and gain a day in one of the other locations...maybe stay a night in Interlaken so you can get a bit further up into the mountains from there as a day trip.
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I'm a bit hung up on Bern because of my interest in Einstein but I might need to get over it. The city itself doesn't look particularly interesting outside of its medieval architecture, that's why I downgraded it to a stopover for lunch. I'm still not giving up on renting a car because I love scenic driving but that may change as I look into it more. I didn't expect this much moving around. I've already gone from 2 hotels to 4. Not sure if I want to add a 5th but will consider it. Thanks! 

 
How's this?

Day 1: Land in Zurich, probably midday. See the city.

Day 2: Day trip to Basel. Still flexible on that but we'll stay in Zurich, probably won't need the full day. Like I said, we love cities and I love art museums so there should be plenty to do between Zurich and Basel

Day 3: Leave Zurich early for Lucerne. See the city

Day 4: See the surrounding lakes, mountains and towns around Lucerne.

Day 5: Leave Lucerne, train to Interlaken, on to overnight in Murren or Lauterbrunnen.

Day 6: Spend the day in Jungfrau region

Day 7: Train to Montreux, spend half day there, stay overnight

Day 8: Leave Montreaux for Geneva. See the city.

Day 9: Fly out of Geneva early.

 
Ah....  i consider lauterbrunnen part of the jungfrau.  I would do about a day in lucerne, but stay near either Murren, Wengen, Grindelwald, interlaken and use that as a base to explore those mountains.

 
jamny said:
How's this?

Day 1: Land in Zurich, probably midday. See the city.

Day 2: Day trip to Basel. Still flexible on that but we'll stay in Zurich, probably won't need the full day. Like I said, we love cities and I love art museums so there should be plenty to do between Zurich and Basel

Day 3: Leave Zurich early for Lucerne. See the city

Day 4: See the surrounding lakes, mountains and towns around Lucerne.

Day 5: Leave Lucerne, train to Interlaken, on to overnight in Murren or Lauterbrunnen.

Day 6: Spend the day in Jungfrau region

Day 7: Train to Montreux, spend half day there, stay overnight

Day 8: Leave Montreaux for Geneva. See the city.

Day 9: Fly out of Geneva early.
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I like Geneva much better than Zurich. Basel is ok but I’d probably recommend going to Lichtenstein over some of this other stuff. 

 
Doctor Detroit said:
I like Geneva much better than Zurich. Basel is ok but I’d probably recommend going to Lichtenstein over some of this other stuff. 
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Thanks! I was actually going to ask if Lichtenstein was a better option for a day trip. I'll look into it.

 
Updated itinerary:

Decided to drop the day in Zurich with the day trip. It really opened up the trip and gave us a lot of flexibility for travel between areas.

Day 1: Land in Zurich around 9am, see the city

Day 2: Leave Zurich for Lucerne. After breakfast or after lunch up to maybe 3pm. Get to Lucerne anywhere from 10am to 5pm

Day 3: Spend the day in Lucerne and surrounding areas.

Day 4: Leave Lucerne for Murren, again flexible from after breakfast until afternoon. Get to Murren anywhere from noon to 5pm (staying here)

Day 5: Spend the day in Murren and surrounding areas

Day 6: Leave Murren, probably after lunch, get to Montreux around 6pm

Day 7: Spend the day in Montreux and surrounding areas

Day 8: Leave Montreaux early for Geneva. Get there around 10 or 11am. See the city.

Day 9: Fly out of Geneva early.

I like how it hits cities to mountains to lake front and ending in a city again. It also allows us to decide while there what time to move on, not worrying about getting to sleep early to get up early. Also leaves us a chance to go up Schilthorn on the morning of Day 6 if Day 5 weather isn't good for it.

 
Got back last night from the trip. So amazing! Stuck to the plan from the post above.

As many pointed out, it IS expensive in most places. Manhattan prices. Incredibly efficient and clean train system. We bought the 1st Class Swiss Travel Pass and although it might not have saved us money, it was nice to just get on any kind of transportation without having to buy individual tickets for everything. We actually had great food throughout. I did some research beforehand on recommended places to eat but even found good restaurants off the beaten path. Mostly Italian and Swiss/German...lots of pizza! Zurich seems to get a bad rap but I liked it a lot. Probably helped that it was a Sunday and was relatively quiet and the weather was great. Ran into some rain in Lucerne that wiped out our trip up Mt. Pilatus but it didn't stop us from getting a bottle of wine and cruising around the lake for a few hours on their equally impressive boat system. Lucerne was way too touristy for us but still a pretty town.

But the highlight was clearly our stop in Murren, in the Bernese Oberland. Incredible views all around. Here was the view from our balcony Had some clouds the first day when we got there but our full day there was perfectly clear as we made our way up the Schilthorn. We did a bunch of other hikes in the area but never made it down to Lauterbrunnen and possible Wengen as hoped.

We travelled to Montreux on the Golden Pass Panoramic train, where we checked out the Queen museum and hiked around the Lavaux wine region before ending in Geneva, which we liked much more than expected. I thought it would be more of a business city but there were tons of people out around the lake having a great time. Again helped by being Sunday.

Thanks for the help in this thread to put together an incredible vacation. Makes me laugh to think I originally planned to only do 3 days in Zurich and 3 days in Lucerne and to rent a car!

 
Doing at least 10 days next summer. Have the Philly zurich leg done. Just waiting on return.

Was likely doing Lucerne->Interlaken->Zernatt->TBD. Could go lake como and out thru Milan or turn towards Austria for a few nights, or Geneva.  

 
culdeus said:
Doing at least 10 days next summer. Have the Philly zurich leg done. Just waiting on return.

Was likely doing Lucerne->Interlaken->Zernatt->TBD. Could go lake como and out thru Milan or turn towards Austria for a few nights, or Geneva.  
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American Airlines used to go direct from JFK to Zurich but that changed when they bought US Air. We had a NY to Philly flight booked and they dropped it and put us on a flight that got in later than our connection...lol wtf! We wound up having to take a flight from NY to DC and then DC to Philly. PITA. Coming home, we went through London.

We've been to Lake Como and Milan so didn't go that way but Lugano looks really nice.

 
I have to find the right redemption flight to get back is the main driver heading out.   Can be tricky. 

 
Lucern has a pretty awesome transport museum. We went there about 10 years ago when my son was 5 and had a blast. There are multiple buildings placed around a square. To get from building to building, you can walk, pick up a scooter and scoot or hop on a bike and ride over to the other buildings. 

 
Lucerne has the advantage that you can get there easily from the zurich airport.  

I don't see a huge reason to stay in Zurich and flights from US land at like 10am ish so you have 3+ hours minimum before a hotel would let you in most likely. 

 
culdeus said:
Lucerne has the advantage that you can get there easily from the zurich airport.  

I don't see a huge reason to stay in Zurich and flights from US land at like 10am ish so you have 3+ hours minimum before a hotel would let you in most likely. 
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We landed around 10am and our room was ready when we got to the hotel. We dropped our bags and had a great breakfast at Sprungli, walked around town, slept in the room from about 2-4pm and got back out again until night time. We even walked around a bit the next morning before heading to Lucerne. I'm glad we spent some time there. Great view from Lindenhof!

 
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