trehan

Hi,

I plan to start from Interlaken in the morning and plan to catch a train to Paris on the same evening around 6pm. Now I have 2 itineraries in ind and need your suggestions on if it's doable or which is better.

1) Catch GoldenPass train 9am from Interlaken and go to Montreux. Keep the Lugage in the Station luggage room and explore the castle Chillon and lakeside promenade in Montreux and catch an 6:30pm train to Paris from Lausanne.

2) Start from Interlaken in the morning and go to Bern or Basel or both and explore the city. After that catch the evening train from Basel to Paris.

I was more interested in option 1 but was concerned about where will I keep the luggage and if it's doable. I will reach Paris around 10:30pm in both the cases above. I hope it will not be a problem getting a taxi and reaching the hotel at that hour?

Thanks for your inputs.
Taru.

swandav2000

Hi trehan,

I would definitely do the first because it'll give you more of a contrast with your time spent in the mountains in the German part of Switzerland.

Yes, there are luggage lockers in the train station at Montreux. After you put up your bags, you just cross the street, go down the stairs, and cross the street again. Find the bus stop (bus #201 direction Villeneuve) and stand with your back to the lake. Busses come along every 10 minutes, and the journey takes about 8 minutes. The fare will be around 2,80 chf per person. You enter at the middle or back of the bus and go to the machines at the back of the bus to buy a ticket. Don't even think about not buying a ticket, lol, as there are always controllers who enter and check all passengers' tickets.

After seeing Chillon, walk back to Montreux along the lakeside. The walk back takes about 45 minutes. I think the walk to Montreux is prettier than the walk to Chillon, so that's why I recommended you take the bus to Chillon first.

If you have time, grab a snack at one of the cafes at the lakeside - it'll be expensive, but the views make it worthwhile.

s

trehan

Thanks for the reply.
It was detailed and very helpful.

Few more things regarding my Swiss trip.

1) Which should I opt for. Pilatus Golden round trip (In May) or Titlis or Jungfrau. I am planning any 2 of there.

2) If I choose Titlis then how different will be Jungfrau from Titlis. Since it's very expensive so I want to pick it only if it's very different from Titlis. I am not looking for skiing or anything. Just see and feel the snow .

3) Will there be snow on Pilatus In Mid May?

Thanks a ton for your help.

swandav2000

Hi again,

I'm sorry, but I'll be NO help at all about the mountaintops. I have only asceneded the Jungfraujoch, and that was in 1995 or so. I mostly go to the mountains to ski.

So sorry!!

s

Ingo

I think I answered some of those questions in your earlier thread, no?

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ris-in-may.cfm

1) The Pilatus Golden round trip is not doable in May, the cog-train is not running. You'd have to take the gondola + cable car from Kriens, a short bus ride from Lucerne's centre.

Decide depending on weather. If the weather is fine, go to Mt. Titlis if you want to feel the snow. But that means no lake cruise or only a short one in the afternoon. If the weather is not good, wait until later and try Jungfraujoch. I would NOT do both.

3) Yes, most likely.

I.

trehan

Hi Ingo,

yes you answered most of my queries that helped a lot.
Still I had some confusion so opened a separate thread.

This link says that Pilatus golden round trip opens from May to October. http://www.pilatus.ch/en/railway-cab...en-round-trip/

Thanks again for all the help.

Ingo

Yeah, but did you also see this?

"Important: The cogweel railway from early/mid May to 18 November 2012"

This year the Northern Alps got tons of snow, I doubt the season will start even in mid May for the cog-train. There are about 3 m snow on top of Pilatus at the moment.

I.

nytraveler

The Jungfraujoch is by far the best/most impressive - but many days the top is socked in and there is nothing to see. You have to check first thing in the AM to see if the top is socked in by clouds and then decide to ascend ot not. We didn;t get a good day until out 3rd day in Interlaken, On the other days we took a steamer on Lake Thun and explored the town and caste. Or take a boat on Lake Frienz and visit the carver's village (we got some fantstic hand carved Chtistmas ornaments and visit the nearby Swiss Village (houses from all of Switz with docents showing traditional farm life and skills). Jung fraujoch always has snow at the top.

We took a trip up Pilatus from Lucerne on a different trip and it was interesting - but there was much less to do and little snow - since it it much lower - only about 7500 ft versus 12,000+ for Jungfraujoch.

I too would do Montreaux versus Bern/Basel. The latter IMHO - are mildly interesting - but with much less to see/do than Montreaux.

trehan

Does the excursions for both Pilatus and Titlis start from the same place in Lucern. I mean that can we see the weather at both the mountain tops from one place and decide which one to choose or we need to go to different place for other excursion.

Also if the weather is bad at Pilatus then is it necessary that Titlis will also be bad? And do we frequently run out of tickets for both the excursions or we have sufficient capacity to take every one on board.

Ingo

You can see Mt. Pilatus from Lucerne, you can NOT see Mt. Titlis from Lucerne. BUT - if the top of Mt. Pilatus is in clouds then Mt. Titlis is definitely the same.

You do not need to book any of those excursions in advance. Tickets do not sell out.

I do not understand your question "Does the excursions for both Pilatus and Titlis start from the same place in Lucern." Both excursions start from where you stay overnight. ;-) To Mt. Pilatus you take a bus to Kriens first (about 15 minutes), then gondola and cable car to the top. To Mt. Titlis you go to the train station in Lucerne, hop on a train to Engelberg, then take gondola and cable car to the top.

trehan

Hi Ingo,

I will be staying overnight in Lucern. What I mean was that from where I can get the information regarding the weather on the top. Suppose I decide to go to Pilatus. Then where will I get the information about weather on the top and the tickets. And if the weather is bad on the top then will I need to go to some other base to see the weather on the top of other peak that is Titlis or I get that information from the same place so that it saves me the time and disappointment of going to other base and seeing I cannot go to top.

Thanks for the information.
Trehan.

Ingo

Hi Trehan,

Ok, understood. Your best option is to either check the webcams and weather forecast on the internet - you would need a computer with internet access. Will your accommodation provide that?

www.swisswebcams.ch
www.meteoschweiz.ch
www.titlis.ch
www.pilatus.ch

Another option is the tourist office. Their office is at Bahnhofstrasse 3 in Luzern. See www.luzern.com
Opens 8.30 am, on weekends 9 am.

FoFoBT

Trehan (and Ingo), you can catch the webcams with weather forecasts in the morning on the Swiss tv station (SF 1), usually between 7:30 am and 9 am (it takes about 20 minutes or so to go through the whole roster, then it repeats). I watch it most weekdays before heading out to work and sometimes on Sundays, I don't think it's on Saturday (kid's programming).

Rastaguytoday

If you have time, either take the slow train along the lake shore from Montreux to Geneva. The train conductors will try to get you to go to a faster train, but the view and beauty is outstanding.

If the season and timing is right, take a ferry across Lac Leman. Similar view, but from the center of the lake.

Personally, I like Basel a lot. I've also stayed in Bern 2-3 times, but Basel a lovely city.

Ingo

FoFoBT, oops, I totally forgot TV - used to watch TW1 (Austrian channel) at home in Germany in the mornings (weekends only, of course) but they stopped broadcasting Swiss webcams two years ago or so.

Yep, watching the webcams on SF1 in the morning is what I use to do when in Switzerland.

FoFoBT

I'm bummed though, the Swiss TV channels have been redone - there are more HD channels (maybe they're all HD, I haven't checked) but they got rid of the specific Swiss HD channel (it was channel 70 on our cable service). So they're no longer showing those wonderful Swiss View programs early in the morning - the HD films made by low-flying helicopters. You got a view of the mountains, the lakes, the countryside, the villages, even the cities (they flew over our street in the Basel segment) that you can't get otherwise. Usually shown late at night (3 am to 6 am or thereabouts), it was our "go to" viewing whenever we had insomnia. You can watch them on YouTube (example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otya_BGfMwo ) but it's not the same

trehan

Thanks a lot for all the valuable information.

I also have another query.
I was looking at the ticket prices at www.raileurope.com and found that the prices are more then that offered by sites like www.sbb.ch or www.goldenpass.ch.

Can you please clarify if this is correct and is there a difference in the trains run under both or what.

For example I saw a difference in the reservation charge from Interlaken Ost to Lucern by golden pass line. Similar difference was seen in point to point tickets between Lucern to Zurich. Can you please help me understand if there is a difference booking from the 2 places.

Thank.
Taru.