jschwarz

My wife and I are planning a 2 week trip to Switzerland in June 2013. We are to be centered in Brienz near family. I know they will help a lot, but was open to some ideas of short trips, maybe even overnight or two. We would use a Swiss Pass for travel. Planning to fly from US to Zurich, but would be open to other airports. Thoughts please?

Toucan

Check out the Trift suspension bridge if you don't mind heights.

Ballenberg outdoor museum is a nice (and tame) place to visit.

Also very close-by are Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Gimmelwald, Grindelwald, Jungfraujoch. All very beatiful places and worth a visit.

You are also centrally located to Lucerne and many sights to see in and around that city including the new Stanserhorn open air cable car.

jschwarz

Thanks. We had heard of the museum. Sounds fun. We saw Wengen and Grindelwald last year and did love these areas. Will likely revisit them. Any idea of a one or two day trip from there by train or bus?

Toucan

Consider a train to Locarno/Ascona on Lake Maggiore or Lugano all of which have typically warmer weather and the Italian influence. From there you could bus up to Sonogno which is a pedestrian town with unique rock built homes and great scenery along the way. Or take a funiculur or chair lift into the mountains. So many options available for a day or two trip.

PalenQ

Well for lots of great stuff on Swiss trains, boats, buses, etc (Swiss Pass valid on all plus free entry to 400+ Swiss museums) I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sites - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.ricksteves.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id3.html. And IME compare Swiss pass prices both for those sold at just about any train station in Switzerland and ones sold in your home country - if USA I have been buying Swiss passes for years and always compare and more often than not the price for the exact same pass is cheaper here than there - but not always true so compare prices in francs, figuring in any foreign purchase fees if applicable, etc. If not much difference just wait until Switzerland - the easiest way is cost is about the same.

PalenQ

short trips from Brienz - there are oodles an oodles of them - you can hop the train to go over the scenic Brunig Pass rail line to Lucerne - part of the fabled Golden Pass route - Lucerne being one of the prettiest cities in Europe IMO - lovingly set on gorgeous Lake Lucerne.

and boats serve Brienz regularly - Swiss Pass 100% valid on them - just putz around the lake - get off at Geissbach Falls and take the antique funicular up to the famous falls and hotel there.

Ballenberg Open-Air Museum is a short postal bus ride from Brienz (railpasses again valid and also get free admission to this famous oopen-air museum where a Switzerland of old has been re-created.

Lots of great day trips from Brienz.

PalenQ

for an overnight destination in Switzerland consider taking the Golden Pass specialty scenic train from Interlaken to Montreux, on the shores of lovely Lake LeMan a k a Lake Geneva and spend a few days there - you can take boats around this part of the lake to place like Chateau Chillon - a lakeside castle made famous by links with Lord Byron and to places like Vevey or Lausanne (Olympics Museum a top sight there - home of IOC)- trains go between these places as well. Or you can even include a wee bit of France in your trip by taking a boat to Evian-les-Bains in France - a spiffy thermal resort town famous of course for being the home of Evian bottled mineral water. Boats on Lake Geneva also 100% free with a railpass.

PalenQ

Any idea of a one or two day trip from there by train or bus?>

Well Zermatt is an obvious choice - along with the Jungfrau Switzerland's most famous Alpine resort with the iconic Matterhorn backdropping it so so majestically. Takes about 4 hours now from Interlaken area one way.

Or you could take a train from the Lucerne area to St Moritz and experience the totally awesome Bernina Express rail route, to me the top scenic rail route in all of Europe.

stay in either two nights and then return to your base.

PalenQ

a note about lake boats such as those that serve Brienz and go to Interlaken-Ost train station and stop at several nice places en route - Swiss Passes are 100% valid but the boats, last I rode them, were divided into a first-class section and a 2nd-class section - the first-class is the desirable IME open-air top deck - so nice plopping down their in a lounge chair and watching the scintillating scenery float by - so if you have a 2nd class pass - which IMO is completely adequate in Switzerland - well with a 2nd class pass you can sit in first class up top and then when the conductor comes by you just pay the difference between the ordinary first- and second-class fare - not all that much for such a treat.

And if I were basing in Brienz and had a pass I would just take relaxing floats say on a nice afternoon - several stops have train stations so you can quickly go back to Brienz.

ronkala

ttt

PalenQ

To me the finest day excursion in the whole Jungfrau Region goes via Interlaken-Ost train station to Lauterbrunnen and then straight up the cliff some few thousand feet via aerial cable car to Grutschalp to hop on a train that rolls along the cliff, with scintillating views of the deep Lauterbrunnen Valley and the majestic glacier-girdled Jungfrau Massif across the valley to Murren

Murren is a venerable watering hole once favored by wealthy Brits - from this picture postcard village in an awesome setting hop the longest cableway in the Alps, I read, to the Schilthorn and the Piz Gloria, made famous in James Bond flick On Her Majesty's Serive (which was filmed as the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant was being built - in part I think for the movie) -the Schilthorn is an icy outpost in the middle of a sea of ice with views for many many miles around.

a unique place for sure - with the famous revolving restaurant and ice caves, etc. and a viewing platform outside.

Return by cable to Murren and then hop the cable way down to Gimmelwald, a lost-in-time farming hamlet that has gained some fame in recent years due to its stunning surroundings - isolated in the midst of rugged Alpine scenery.

From Gimmelwald another aerial gondola seems to plunge back down to the valley floor at Stechelberg - nervous Nellies should stand in the middle of this large gondola to avoid being freaked out at the prodigious rate of descent!

From Stechelberg postal buses take you back to Lauterbrunnen for trains to Interlaken and onto Brienz.

A Swiss Pass is valid 100% the whole way except for the Murren to Schithorn which is 50% off - but the rest including the aerial gondolas from the valley and back down are 100% covered by a Swiss Pass as are all trains - only 50% for Murren to Schilthorn and back - a great deal with a Swiss Pass and to me with all its varied aspects the finest single day out in the whole Jungfrau Region!