Ooops - that should be "Good possibilities?".

Hi kenav,

There are always some hiking paths that are cleared for hiking in the winter. There may be some snow & ice on the trails, but they'll be passable, so, yes, hiking will be fine. Just ask at the TI or your hotel to make sure the path you want to take is one designated for winter hiking.

Not sure what you mean by a flower garden near Lake Geneva. There are tons of flowers at various places along the lake. Montreux has a flowered lakeside promenade that always has flowers in bloom, and Morges plants tulips in its big park next to the lake at about that time.

Hope that's what you meant!

s

You cannot do hikes at Kleine Scheidegg in winter. The problem with mid April is that since skiing season is almost over, and the number of visitors considerably thins out, the hiking paths at high elevations in the mountains that are usually groomed in winter are not maintained thoroughly anymore. It's just off-season and services slow down. Best chance for hiking paths open in the Jungfrau area are IMO around Mürren (to Winteregg/Grütschalp, Allmendhubel or Gimmeln) or above Grindelwald - gondola to First or bus Bussalp, from there up to Faulhorn. I did not check if they're open in mid April, though, and I must say I doubt it.

Pilatus is more rewarding than Titlis IMO as you can see the Alps as well as city and Lake Lucerne. No hiking up there, either, sorry.

However, you can of course try Titlis - the cable car is open until end of May. Hiking would only be at Trübsee or Gerschnialp, though, and it's not too exciting there IMO. Too bad both Brunni and Fürenalp will be closed when you're there.

Rigi would be an option, there should be hikes possible up there as it has some hamlets inhabited all year round. See this link:
http://www.rigi.ch/en/navpage.cfm?category=HikeRIGI&subcat=PanoramaHikeWVR&id=53527&

While in Bern I suggest to spend some time at Lake Thun. There are castles with gardens around the lake (Oberhofen, Schadau, Spiez e.g.) where you will most likely see blooming spring flowers.

We spent two weeks hiking in Switzerland in April 2009. Details of all the hikes we took can be found in my trip report, link posted below. It might give you a few ideas.

We've also hiked off season in/around Engelberg & Titlis.

You're at the mercy of the weather and the conditon of the trails as mentioned above, but you might be surprised at how much you can still do.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/april-in-the-alps-a-swiss-walkabout.cfm

Ingo - I know the cable cars from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg (and vice versa) are closed at that time, but just barely. I looked it up and they stop the day before we get there. So, I wondering if perhaps the trails may still be in decent condition at Kleine Schedegg.

Thun will be on the list.

We've been to Rigi and loved it. Won't need to go back though.

Swandav - Yes, Morges!!!

Melnq8 - Started to read your trip report. Clicked on a few of your links and unfortunately the pages are no longer there. I haven't finished your report yet, so hopefully onward there will be links that still work.

NOTE: We are not mighty hikers. A short one will do. An hour would be fine.

Also thought of going to Stein am Rhein. Any thoughts? Other towns?

Worth it to go to the Jungfraujoch? Amazingly we've never done it. Seems so much traveling for one day.

I don't think Jungfraujoch is a *must* in April - really expensive and you can gaze at the mountains and have snow elsewhere at that time of year.

Stein am Rhein is very picturesque but also quite a distance from Lucerne or Bern. Other towns worth to see: Rapperswil, Solothurn e.g. What about Benedictine monastery Einsiedeln?

Kenav, there is no cable car from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. You probably mean the cable car from Wengen to Männlichen (or the gondola from Grindelwald to Männlichen). However, the summer hiking path from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg is closed in winter. They do groom a hiking path during ski season from Männlichen to the base station of Arven chair-lift. From there the hiking path goes up to Kleine Scheidegg but it is really steep and exhausting. Or you take the chair-lift - but as neither cable car nor the chair-lift will be in operation anymore you cannot do that hike. There are no hiking paths from Kleine Scheidegg except along the cog-train down toward Wengen and Grindelwald. These would be your only option for hikes up there. You can hike down part of the trail and hop on the cog-train somewhere (Wengernalp in direction Wengen or Alpiglen in direction Grindelwald).

Just found this great website. I would really partially on our hotel for advice, however, I doubt that the hotel in Bern will know much about hiking opportunities when we are there.

http://www.myswissalps.com/berneseoberland/berneseoberland-hiking.asp?lang=EN

Yes, Stein am Rhein is a bit of a trip, but we thought to divide the day between there and Schauffhausen.

Will look into Rapperswil, etc.

check out these rail-oriented sites for not only lots on Swiss trains but answers to question you pose - things to do from those bases - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com and www.swisstravelsystem.com - and compare Swiss Pass prices both in dollars and those same passes sold in Switzerland in Swiss francs - often even typically the past few years the same pass has been cheaper if bought in the States for some reason (but this is not always true so check each and figure in any % surcharge your credit card may impose for foreign transactions.

PalenQ - Compared some site: Interesting that RailEurope's price is much higher than the one I can buy directly from sbb.ch.

kenav -

I tried out some of the links, some don't work, some do, like everthing else, links change. You can probably find the info by doing a search. For instance, when I search Hotel Adler, I'm taken to this page:

http://www.chalethotel.ch/

Regarding walks from Kleine Scheidegg...

If you cross the tracks, you'll see a sign that marks the trail to the Eigergletscher (50 minutes one way). We walked it once in the snow in Nov/Dec but it was a challenge due to the deep snow drifts and not a hike I'd go out of my way for, especially in April.

We also walked the winter path to KS that Ingo refers to - it was a wet, icy mess and not much fun.

Just found this site which I think might be of help to us:

http://www.myswissalps.com/berneseoberland/berneseoberland-hiking.asp?lang=EN

A daytrip to Rapperswil is heartily recommended.
There is the Capuchin monastery, lakeside promenade, rose gardens (?some blooms by mid-April) the 'castle' above town with its deer park and polish museum.
Check the town's website at www.wrj.ch and click right for the english option.
On a nice sunny day, you could even take a ship from Zurich the spring schedule begins April 1st and can be viewed at www.zsg.ch/en_timetable-prices.html
I stayed in Rapperswil for a week in November 2010 and just loved the strategically located and scenic town.

OOps! sorry bad link!
Meant www.vvrj.ch/

PalenQ - Compared some site: Interesting that RailEurope's price is much higher than the one I can buy directly from sbb.ch.>

Well as I said that can always be the case - has not much in past several years I've been tracking it - perhaps because Switzerland devalued their franc recently - the case is that RailEurope (part owned by the Swiss Railways!) often later also reduces the price - just compare before buying and also the past few years there have been specials from RailEurope on Swiss Passes - sometimes a free day - sometimes free trips to mountain tops like Pilatus and in Engelberg so it pays to always compare - but yes it could well be cheaper now in Switzerland due to the devaluation - I will suspect if pattern followed a drop in RailEurope pricing - again Swiss Railways a prominent stakeholder in RailEurope.

mokka4 - Thanks for the information. It sounds like something we would like to do.

PalenQ - I called BET (Budget European Travel) and got a price from them. They said that they got an email that the price will be going down on Monday. The rep I spoke with said that a couple of months ago the price was raised by 20%!! Now they're going to lower it. He gave me the price it will be, but I found that on the sbb.ch website, it was still a bit lower, even with the mailing charge and 1% exchange rate charge that sbb would charge.