dglo08

My husband and I will be hiking in Switzerland in very early September 2012 for a week before venturing back to Cinque Terre for another week. We will not be climbing the highest of altitudes but enjoy a daily climb of up to 800 meters max. 4-6 hours hiking a day.

1. What is the best airport to fly into from the US?

2. What are a few can't miss hikes, train trips, towns? We are more quaint town and country hotel people than bustling city people on vacation. We prefer trains and if needed buses to renting a car.

3. We are considering Austria as well but are focusing our early research on Switzerland.

Thank you.

PalenQ

IMO the Jungfrau Region by Interlaken is a Valhalla for hiking of all types from the really easy fabled ridge walk between the Mannlichen and Kleine Schiedegg - offering stupendous views the whole way of not only the awesome ice-girdled Jungfrau Massif but for miles around - to more strenuous hikes just like you outline

Interlaken is just about an hour by train or so from Zurich Airport.

For oodles of great train info on Swiss trains and various passes that may be of interest to you check out these fab IMO sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.swisstravelsystem.com and www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

As for passes investigate the Swiss Pass, Half-Fare Card, Swiss Transfer Ticket and Swiss Card (the same basically as Half-Fare Card but could be a better deal for some as it also includes a free trip from any border point or airport to any place in Switzerland and then out to any border point or airport - in your case perhaps out to the Italian or Austrian borders. And there is also the Jungfraubahn Pass and Berner Oberland Regional passes to add the the flummoxing mix. Some kind of pass is often the best deal over buying individual tickets but obviously depends on how many trains and conveyances you will take.

swandav2000

Hi dglo08,

I agree with PalQ above that the Jungfrau region is a great introduction to the country. There is great hiking there (as is everywhere in Switzerland), dramatic scenery, and a terrific tourist infrastructure that make it truly easy for visitors.

One of the best things about the Jungfrau region are the car-free villages where you can enjoy incredible views across the Alps and down into the valleys while breathing pristine-clean air. My favorite village is Wengen.

You can get all the train schedules and fares from the Swiss rail site

www.rail.ch

Interlaken is more like 2h15 from the Zürich airport --

More information on the area at

www.mywengen.ch

s

artsbabe

We spent a week in early June in Wengen, and it is an ideal location for hiking. After looking at the various pass options, we decided on the Jungfraubahn Pass because we knew that we would stay in this area. It more than paid for itself.

dglo08

These are awesome, thank you all. My research begins.. Will float more questions as they occur to me. Looking for boutique hotels, charming inns, quiet places to stay. Any recommendations? Dot Glodek

swandav2000

Hi again,

I adore the Alpenrose in Wengen (www.alpenrose.ch). The hotel has been in the same family for more than 100 years. The wife runs the front desk, and the husband is the chef. Their daughters were going to hotel school the last time I was there -- they have a nice little notebook with this information about the hotel.

s

Ingo

I'd say the Engadin is superior in regards to hiking compared to the Bernese Oberland/Jungfrau region. I know others here on this board disagree. The Engadin is also less expensive, especially when it comes to public transportation/mountain railway/cable car fares. Plus, you'll see less people there. And it's closer to Italy.

Quaint towns in the Engadin: Sils Maria, Pontresina, Zuoz in the Upper Engadin; Scuol, Sent, Ardez, Guarda (a tiny village) in the Lower Engadin.

Check these websites: www.engadin.stmoritz.ch and www.scuol.ch

I.

artsbabe

I'm going to agree with Swandav again: The Alpenrose is great. For our most recent trip, we rented this place for a week, which was very, very comfortable albeit with a few too many hearts for our taste. Owner was a dream to deal with.

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p93547

PalenQ

wengen is in a great place to base for hikes of all degrees of difficulties - like the famous ridge walk I mention above Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg or walking from Kl Schiedegg down to Wengen or from Wengen very much up to Mannlichen (though you can take the cable car as well).

Tentek

a bit off topic, but here is some info on Cinque Terre: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...bsteves15.html.

PalenQ

very very few people would be able to tolerate the Cinque Terre for a week - the towns in September will still be overrun by tourists negating IMO the romance they do inherently offer. But as a base I can see it - day trip to Santa Margharita Ligure (sp?) and Portofino and hotspots along the Riviera Levante.

Cowboy1968

I'd second Ingo's suggestion.
Unless you are willing to spend a LOT of money on everything (at least at the current exchange rate of the Swiss Franc), you should stay away from the overrun "BO" tourist hotspots.
It's a bit as if you asked where to ski in North America and everybody screamed "go to Aspen". Which would neither be wrong nor bad, but by far neither your only nor necessarily the best option.
Try the official Swiss tourism website for starters, and see how many wonderful areas there are to explore
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/interests/hiking1.html

tomseeley

Here's my opinion, based on my own experience in 2005 doing almost exactly what you're asking about.

I stayed in a lovely B&B in Lauterbrunnen, a short train ride from Interlaken, for 5 nights. Did some wonderful day hikes (I'm in my 60s and fit but I didn't overdo it) from Wengen down hill back to Lauterbrunnen after riding the train to the top of the Jungfraujoch. Also did a short visit to Trummelbach (sp?) Falls just outside of Lauterbrunnen by local bus. Fabulous falls that actually does most of its fall to the valley floor INSIDE hollowed out caverns IN the rocks that you can get to via walkways also hollowed out inside the rocks!

Then I moved to Chur because I wanted to ride the Bernina Express. Fabulous train ride through two corkscrew tunnels that do 360 degree turns INSIDE the mountains! And another above ground 360 turn just down the street from a village where you can get off and wait on the grass inside the circle made by the tracks till another train comes by, for some to-die-for pics!

But to get back to your query re hikes: You can get on and off the Bernina anywhere en route. It's just a local train that runs hourly from Chur to Logano/Lucarno. And there are established, well-marked hiking trails that run right along much of the train route, making it duck soup to stop and wait for the little red train to chug by into or out of one of those tunnels as you take picture after picture. And just near a small town called Filisur you can also hike to a wonderful viewpoint through the forest to a fantastic huge viaduct and, again, wait for the train to come by before taking pictures! And if that's not enough, you can find a different path DOWN the hill from Filisur to the streambed that goes under the viaduct and take more pictures of the train way, way up there above your head! Send me a pvt msg if you'd like to see some of the pics I took.

Friendship_Bay

We have done Cinque Terre, Wengen/Jungfrau, and the Engadine. All different. And hope Cinque Terre recovers from current inundation in time for your trip. If it does, would be good to return and support the area. There are a couple of short steep bits, but it's mostly a stroll, and good for a couple of days unless you really want to hunker down in one of the small towns (which would be ok too, but not a hike!)

We found the Engadine hiking to be more aggressive...but that's probably because we were doing an inn-to-inn hike, so we had to catch up with our luggage everyday, instead of noodling around a base hotel and training back and forth as we did in Wengen (we stayed at the Regina, probably others that are as good in the area). In Engadine, we especially enjoyed Sils Maria and Soglio. Could dig out names of hotels if they are of interest.

And, just to complicate your planning, our FAVORITE for this kind of trip is the Dolomites, just north of Bolzano.

PalenQ

For the average first-time tourist to Switzerland the Jungfrau Region IS the one to head for - Engadine may be fab but nothing is as fab in Switzerland as the Jungfrau Region - this is the dreamy glacier-strewn sheer Alpine peeks girdled by glaciers that you just do not see in the Engadine save in a few places. In the Jungfrau Region every place has dreamy views - you need not get off your hotel balcony usually to be intoxicated by the fantastic panoramas - and hiking trails everywhere - nope for the first time tourist it should be, strongly IMO, the Jungfrau Region.

is it too crowded? Well for good reasons - people flock to places for a reason - and that may be why the Engadine is so sleepy compared to the Jungfrau Region.

swandav2000

I do have to pip in to disagree with some of PalenQ's post.

No, the Jungfrau is not the most fab region in Switzerland. In fact, "fab" is in the eyes of the beholder, and for lots and lots of folks the Jungfrau region is 2d, 3d, or even 4th down the list! It really is just personal and subjective. For instance, my favorite area in Switzerland is Gstaad, followed by Montreux. Lots of Germans and Swiss people I know favor the Engadin.

I would never describe the Engadin as sleepy. It has fewer English-speaking tourists and far (FAR) fewer souviner shops. What I saw were lots of German-speaking folks out for a serious hike.

You do actually see glaciers & peaks in the Upper Engadin; not sure what part of the valley PalQ was in that he missed those --

Anyway, have fun as you decide.

s

PalenQ

Ok Engadine was maligned by moi - but it is also quite a bit out of the way for the average traveler but I guess not for someone just wanting to fly into say Zurich and take the train to St Moritz or any train station in the Engadine and base there - and take the fantastic Bernina Pass rail route, which I have been on several times and yes it is the Swiss Alpine fantasy picture etched in our minds' eyes - and then go onto Milan from Tirano, Italy, terminus of the Bernina Pass Railway, which I consider the most dramatically scenic in all of Europe.

But in many ways I still think the average first-time, not veteran traveler perhaps who gets a bit jaded IMO, traveler will find the Jungfrau Region to best match the visual idea of Switzerland in their brains.

Friendship_Bay

I don't disagree...Jungfrau/Wengen was our first Swiss hiking adventure, and I won't ever forget coming down from the ridge through the mist, hearing soft cowbells down the valley and then walking through the herd on the path. Pretty sweet, Heidi!

Ingo

Since someone mentioned Heidi - the Heidi movies were actually filmed in the Engadine (e.g. Grevasalvas above Sils), not in the Bernese Oberland.

I'll refrain from listing the differences and similarities of the Engadine and the Bernese Oberland (and Pal talks exclusively about the Jungfrau region here, which is only a small part of the Bernese Oberland). Have done that too many times before ;-) One major difference, however, that might matter to many tourists (at least in the current situation) is that the side costs (like public transportation/cable cars etc.) are considerably less in the Engadine than in the Jungfrau region.

swandav2000

Hi Pal,

Yes, you and I do agree on a lot. I do think that the Jungfrau region is great for first-time visitors, too -- because it has great tourist infrastructure in addition to its dramatic views. For non-German-speakers, that could be a significant plus.

The Jungfrau region is also nicely located for one of my favorite itineraries -- one that follows the route of the Golden Pass.

And, yes, the Engadin *is* located at the far eastern side of the country and so is inconvenient for folks who want to see other things in central or western Switzerland.

But please don't make the simple statement that nowhere else is as fabulous as the Jungfrau region because it simply ain't so!

s