jgh1944

My husband and I are 70 and thinking about traveling to Switzerland during the last week in May and 1st week of June. There is so much to see and do I need some suggestions on where to start planning our trip and how much we could actually do while we are there. This may be our only trip to this beautiful country so we would like to take in as much as possible that is reasonable in this amount of time. I would appreciate any suggestions of itineraries. Thank you

marg

This is what we did on one holiday - a two week period. Flew into Zurich and got the train to Lausaunne for four nights. From there we went to Montreux, Vevey and Geneva.

On to Lauterbrunnen for five nights - took the cable car to Schilthorn, went into Interlaken and Grindelwald, and generally wandered around the area.

Next stop was Lucerne for three nights - took a day trip by boat/funicular/cable car to Mt Pilatus and generally wandered around the city.

Last stop was Zurich for two nights - took a boat trip across the lake and explored the city before flying home.

Switzerland is such a beautiful country - I'm sure that wherever you go, you will enjoy it.

china_cat

Hey Marg...did you find Mt Pilatus redundant at all after spending 5 nights in the mountains? Or was it sufficiently different kind of landscape?

kja

Hi, jgh1944 --

With those two weeks -- last of May, first of June -- you should be able to have a wonderful visit to magnificent Switzerland! You will have to be selective in what you visit, and your choices will probably be difficult ones (because there is so much that will appeal!), but you will almost certainly end up with a great experience no matter what you choose.

It would be helpful to know a bit more about your interests. One of the things that struck me most during my trip planning, and during my actual trip, was how diverse the country is, and that means that any one person's plan for an "ideal" two-week journey could be completely different than another person's "ideal" plan! So, do you want to hike? spend time in the mountains? spend time on the lakes or rivers? visit art museums? history museums? roam medieval streets connecting medieval squares with their fountains? see different parts of the country, even if you lose some time to travel? What are the things that most appeal to you? What are the things that make YOU want to visit Switzerland?

neckervd

There are hundreds of possible itineraries.

About a year ago, I answered a similar question concerning a Switzerland trip in early July. My suggestion can easily be adapted to your travel period.

I suggested:

Friday July 1st:
I suppose you will arrive at Zurich airport in the early afternoon. Get then a Swiss Pass or a Swiss Fexipass at the airport railway station and go directly to Bern (trains every 30 minutes, 75 min trip). Book a hotel in the medieval city center of Bern (or at least a hotel close to the railway station), like Hotels 4 stars: Baeren, Bristol, Belle Epoque, Bern, Savoy
3stars: Continental, Goldener Schluessel, Kreuz, Metropole
2stars: National, Nydeck
Hostels: Glocke, Landhaus, Ulrich & Stoessel & Wyss, Youth Hostel
http://www.berninfo.com/en/page.cfm/Unterkuenfte
Enjoy the medieval center of Bern

Saturday July 2nd - Tuesday 5th
daytrips from Bern (lakes and mountains if the weather is fine, towns and museums if the weather is bad), like:

Bern - Biel/Bienne - boat - Murten (entirely walled city, free walks on the city walls) - train - Avenches (Roman amphitheatre, Roman museum, open until 5 pm) - Fribourg (other medieval town) - Bern
Bern - Jungfraujoch - Kleine Scheidegg - hike - Maennlichen - cableway - Grindelwald - train - Interlaken Ost - bus (dp 19.08) - Beatenbucht ar 19.38, dp 1957 by historic steamboat (except Sunday) - Thun ar 21.21, back to Bern by train (every 30 minutes.

Bern - Brienz - Ballenberg (Swiss open air eco village museum) - boat Interlaken - train - Bern http://ballenberg.ch/en/Welcome

City trip Lucerne

Visit of Bern (Cathedral, House of Parliament, Zytglogge tower (inside), Historic Museum, Arts Museum, Paul Klee Museum, Swiss Alpine Museum, etc.)

Bern - Bulle - Broc (chocolate factory) - Gruyeres (cheese diary - castle - medieval city) - Montbovon - Montreux - Chillon castle -boat (dp 17.03) - Lausanne - train - Bern

City trip Neuchatel (castle, cathedral, celtic lake dweling museum and other museums) - La Chaux-de Fonds - Le Locle (watch museums, underground mills)

city trip Geneva and Lausanne with stamboat ride Geneva - Lausanne (3 1/2 hrs)

etc. etc.

Wednesday July 6th
train to Zermatt (2 hrs). train or cable way rides to Gornergrat or Kleinmatterhorn, some hikes

Thursday July 7th
Glacier-Express ride Zermatt - St. Moritz

Friday July 8th
Mountain railway rides and hikes around St. Moritz

Saturday July 9th
Bernina-Express to Tirano and bus to Lugano. Enjoy Lugano

Sunday July 10th
Lugano dp 9.25 by boat to Ponte Tresa ar 11.06, dp by bus 11.40 - Luino ar 12.10, dp by boat 12.50 - Locarno ar 14.30; enjoy Locarno, Ascona and the Brissago Islands

Monday July 11th
Visit Bellinzona and the 3 medieval castles in the morning. Leave Locarno at 14.12 by panoramic train through the Centovalli to Domodossola and continue by bus over the Simplon Pass to Brig ar 17.41. Put your luggage in the hotel and go by train (dp 18.23 and cableway to Riederalp West, do a 1 hr hike to Riederfurka and enjoy the views over Aletsch Glacier, the longest galcier of Western Europe. Go down to Riederalp Mitte, dp by cableway 21.05, 22.05 or 23.05 back to Brig

Tuesday July 12th
Morning train from Brig to Winterthur, deposit your luggage in the hotel, go on by train to Stein am Rhein, visit this scenic small town, go on by Rhine river boat to Schaffhausen, visit the town and the castle, proceed then (by citybus or train) to nearby Rheinfall, the biggest waterfall of Europe and go back from there to Winterthur by train.

Wednesday 13th
Visit Zurich in the morning and fly home
Zurich
Zurich is really neither the most scenic nor the most intereating town of Switzerland. Bahnhofstrasse is excellent, if you want to buy luxury Swiss watches and jewels (from 1000 USD upwards), therefore it's popular with Government members of poor developing countries. If you don't belong to this category of human beings, I don't think that Bahnhofstrasse will bring you much. Zurich has some outstanding museums, however. The Swiss National Museum (3 minutes from the main railway station) gives you an excellent overview over Swiss Hystory and culture in the last 800 years. The Rietberg Museum of non European Art will present an exhibition of 800 years of Indian painting, about 200 masterpieces by more than 40 artists – and all this at a glance. Never before has it been possible in the West to acquaint oneself with the entire history of Indian painting at a single exhibition.
Otherwise there is not much to see in Zurich, in any case much less than in other Swiss towns.
July 6th to 13th
As a_p told you, it is not completely impossible, but certainly not advisable, to vistit Southern and Eastern Switzerland in day trips from Bern. You would spend more time in trains (and not all train routes are scenic) than at the places you would visit.
Therefore I recommend:
July 6th: sleep at Zermatt, Tesch, Randa, St. Niklaus, Stalden, Visp or Brig.
July 7th and 8th: sleep at St. Moritz, Champfer, Silvaplauna, Segl, Celerina, Samedan, Chamues-ch, Bever, La Punt, Muottas Muragl or Pontresina
July 9th and 10th: sleep at Lugano
July 11th: sleep at Brig
July 12th: sleep at Winterthur

Luggage problems:
Hand luggage locker at Zermatt in the case you sleep in another village
Lugano: sleep 2 night at the hotel Montarina, very close to the railway station. Day trip Lugano - boat - pte Tresa - bus - Luino - boat - Locarno - train - Lugano without luggage
luggage lockers at Bellinzona railway station
In Swiss trains and buses, you can store as much luggage as you can bear with 2 hands (trains: under or over the seats, bus: special compartment), Hand luggage transport is free.July 11th may be overcharged. May be you do either the Sinplonpass bus ride or the Riederfurka excursion, but not both:
Locarno dp 41.12 - Domodossola 15.55/16.10 - TRAIN -Brig ar 16.39, dp 17.23 - Riederalp ar 17.50

Swiss border crossings at Piattamala (Bernina Express), Gandria (Tirano - Lugano bus), Fornaseette (Ponte Tresa - Luino bus), Ribellasca (Centovalli train), Iselle (Simplon bus or train): ther isn't any control, trains and buses don't even stop at the border. Boths, Switzerland and Italy are in the Schengen zone.

Accommodation: accommodation close to Bern railway station will probably not be cheaper than the cheapest hotels in the Zermatt, St. Moritz, Lugano, Brig and Winterthur area. you may have a look at:
http://www.bnb.ch/
http://www.swissbackpackers.ch/
http://www.youthhostel.ch/home.html?&L=1

http://www.booking.com offers (prices for double rooms/2 pax):
Zermatt
Matterhorn Hostel: CHF 92
Petit Hotel CHF 110
Tannenhof CHF 110
Zuoz
Convict 180 CHF

Titlis: small glacier in a rather rocky mountain chain. Not even 3000m above sea level and not amidst other high mountains and glaciers like Zermatt-Gornergrat. Titlis is handy for people looking for a glacier and viewpoint close to Zurich airport. People who stay several days in Switzerland can go to better places, however.
Jungfraujoch: the almost 100 year old cog railway line is really impressioning and the panorama from Jungfraujoch is fine (if there are neither clouds nor fog). Trains and the restaurant will be rather crowded in July (very popular with Japanese and Chinese as well as many other oversea's tourists and VERY EXPENSIVE EVEN WITH THE SWISS PASS (120 CHF/pax).
The mountain and glacier panorama from Gornergrat is as good as from Jungfraujoch, but with a Swiss Pass you pay only 39 CHF/pax for the railway ticket.

Bernina-Express:
The fastest access from Bern is the boring line via Zurich. As you will go to Zermatt anyway, the access from there by Glacier Express is the much better solution.

More accommodation links (be careful, some prices are quoted PER PERSON, and not per room:

Lugano
http://www.montarina.com/prenotazion...g=prenotazioni

Naters, close to Brig railway station:
http://www.beiderlinde.ch/page2.php
http://www.guestroom.ch/594.html

Brig:
http://www.hotel-europe-brig.ch/preise.html
http://www.brig-wallis.com/familienzimmer.html

St. Niklaus, Zermatt Valley:
http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&lng=e&part=1&id=91
http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&id=577

Zermatt:
http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&id=683
http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&id=250
http://www.youthhostel.ch/de/hostels/zermatt

St. Moritz:
http://www.swissbackpackers.ch/en-ho...ckpackers.html
http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&id=1113
http://www.youthhostel.ch/de/hostels/st-moritz

Winterhtur:
http://www.winterthur-tourismus.ch/e.../Bed_Breakfast
http://www.winterthur-tourismus.ch/e...thur_city.html
http://www.winterthur-tourismus.ch/e...nana_city.html
http://www.winterthur-tourismus.ch/e...ls/albani.html
check these hotels with www.booking too, sometims cheaper

Christina

I only had a week there or so, but what I did was fly into Zurich, then took the train from the airport to Lucerne. Spent a few days there and then took that scenic train to Montreux. I think it's called the Golden Pass. I loved that.

Was in Montreux about 4 days, visited Vevey and some other areas from there. Actually, I went to Verbier for 2 days but because I really wanted to attend the Verbier festival, which is quite well known in the classical music world. Martha Argerich was playing, I'm a big fan of hers. Then I left by train from Montreux to go to France. I didn't have time to see Lausanne which I wanted to do.

In any case, Switzerland is a nice country to visit, and I would recommend you take one of those scenic rail trips. Here is some info on some of those http://www.raileurope.com/blog/9168-...in-switzerland

jgh1944

Thank you all for your responses. kja 1 or 2 museums are fine but would rather take in the scenery and get a feel for the area. With only 10 days I know we can't see all the beautiful sights so we will have to either just choose 2 or 3 regions and explore them. We always enjoy going to the top of the highest peak (no hiking). We have been to Mt. Cook in New Zealand, Zutspitz in Germany and have seen the NZ glaciers as well as the ones in Alaska, so just to see a glacier isn't as important unless there is something special to see or do. We really like to see & do things that are unique to a country. I am in such the beginning stages of thinking this trip through so I can't narrow it much more than this at this time.

Dukey1

The big problem with the Matterhorn is this: the peak itself is often obscured in clouds. You do get a view over the Monet Rosa Massif however.

Titlis..the trip UP from Luzern is picturesque and the peak which you can actually go up to on the three-stage lift system is at about 10,000 feet. You can do the whole thing in 1/2 day by rail.

I would definitely make time for the Berner Oberland and the Jungfrau region which affords spectacular views. if you can only go to one alpine region in Switzerland that would be the one I would recommend.

marg

Hi china cat
We still enjoyed our trip to Pilatus even though we had been wandering around the Bernese Oberland. On another holiday, we did the trip to Mt Rigi and enjoyed it immensely. The views from both are superb. I think part of the pleasure of the trip was the boat ride across the lake to get to the starting point on the funicular/cog railway - about 1 1/2 hours sitting comfortably, watching the scenery and enjoying our morning cup of coffee.

kja

"1 or 2 museums are fine but would rather take in the scenery and get a feel for the area. With only 10 days I know we can't see all the beautiful sights so we will have to either just choose 2 or 3 regions and explore them. We always enjoy going to the top of the highest peak (no hiking)."

I'm not an expert, just someone who had a GREAT time on a month-long trip to Switzerland last June. Given your interests, you might want to give particular attention to Luzern and the Bernese Oberland. (When you say "no hiking," do you also mean no long walks? The Bernese Oberland has some wonderful trails that are really more like walks than "hikes." If your answer is "no walks, either," you might want to look at Interlaken or Thun rather than Lauterbrunnen / Wengen / Murren, with a plan to go into the Bernese Oberland for a few day trips to get to mountain tops or other high vantage points.) You also might want to look into options for spending a few days on one of the lakes in the Ticino (Locarno / Ascona / Lugano), or perhaps somewhere on/near the eastern edge of Lake Geneva (e.g., Montreux / Vevey).

I trust you have a good guide book or two and encourage you to read not only the trip reports on this board, but also some planning threads as they can give you an idea of what people considered and why they did / did not pursue specific options.

Switzerland offers some stunning scenery - enjoy!