13 nights in switzerland
 

hi, we are a couple with a 4 year old child looking to experience switzerland in all its beauty and plan to spend 13 nights there. Flying in and out of Zurich. We are not looking for a touristy busy schedule but one where we can see a lot / all/ the best of switzerland.
the rough plan i am thinking basis reading up on this is to take a circular route that doesnt have us repeat anything so we would do as follows : Zurich 2 nights - Lucern - 3 nights - Murren/Wengen 1 night including Jungfrau- Montreux 2 nights - Zermatt 2 nights - Geneva - 2 nights - Zurich - 1 night.

Interested in a nice swiss village living experience where our daughter can play with the farm animals, we can visit the mountains and lakes, neat and convenient local experiences as much as possible vs. being in sterile hotels which are the same all over the world. like wine and cheese too. planning to travel by trains as much as possible. balance between adult and child experiences would be great.

love to hear on advised route and places to stay. can spend but would rather not as the best experiences tend not to be the most expensive ones. however, if anything is highly recommended can look at that too. thanks in advance for your help

sorry - forgot to mention dates of travel are 22nd july to 4th aug

IMO Wengen should be the highlight of your trip -small car-less quiet village with public swimming pool - so many easy excursions from there- scratch Zermatt -similar to Jungfrau area around Wengen -no need to see all of Switzerland in 13 days IMO -one less relocation.

Anyway trains are great and best for those areas IMO and IME - for lots on Swiss trains and passes (a Swiss Pass will be a good deal for you I think -good for trains, boats, city transports) -www.sbb.ch; www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

You gotta figure most of a day relocating -you could also drop Zurich a large modern nice city but time better spent elsewhere - go right to Lucerne from airport IMO and add days on to other places.

http://www.ballenberg.ch/en/ - This is a popular family attraction near Interlaken - great for kids -take a boat from Interlaken to Brienz then bus. Kid will love boat ride and the park.

Is that your order of travel?

Why is Zermatt in between Montreux and Geneva?

Geneva is another stop that could be done away with - Montreux is very close. The lure of Switzerland is not its large cities nice as they may be. Take a day trip to Geneva from Montreux if you want to see Geneva which would be low on most peoples' lists. Again relocating is a pain and takes a lot of time - especially with a 4-yr old.

Skip Geneva and put 4 nights in Vevey/Montreux instead.

>>> Interested in a nice swiss village living experience where our daughter can play with the farm animals

I don't know where you are coming from, but this activity can have an implication on your return trip:

under "visiting a farm"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/smarte...b_3989257.html

the rough plan i am thinking basis reading up on this is to take a circular route that doesnt have us repeat anything so we would do as follows : Zurich 2 nights - Lucern - 3 nights - Murren/Wengen 1 night including Jungfrau- Montreux 2 nights - Zermatt 2 nights - Geneva - 2 nights - Zurich - 1 night.>>

for me this would be too much even for a couple, let alone a couple travelling with a small child. A two night stay gives you only one whole day in a place and one night gives you less than half a day, when you factor in the time taken to travel to your next destination.

in fact in August we are doing a trip of similar length to Switzerland, landing and leaving from Geneva and we have 4 nights in Interlaken, 3 in Wengen, and 4 in Luzern. This is the maximum amount of moving around I would want to do with a small child and probably, I would amalgamate Wengen and Interlaken and rent an apartment for 7 nights in one or the other. with a night or two in Zurich and perhaps 3 nights in Luzern, that would be quite enough moving around for me.

BTW if you can amalgamate your nights in Zurich, preferably at the end of the trip, that would be good too. That depends of course on what time you land in Zurich.

I must admit that this plan does not sound reasonable to me.

• If at all possible, move on from Zurich ASAP upon your arrival. If you want to visit Zurich – and I’m glad I did – put that time at the end of your trip so you can cut one change of hotels from your itinerary. Frequent trains from the Zurich airport to Lucerne take only a bit more than an hour. See
https://www.sbb.ch/en/timetable.html

• The Jungfrau might be enshrouded in clouds, so if you want to see it, you should give Murren / Wengen more than one night – at least 3, IMO. And perhaps more, because (as others are noting) it is the area that seems to most match your interests.

• I loved Switzerland’s cities, including Zurich and Geneva, but they don’t seem to match your interests very well.

You would, I think, do well to get a decent guidebook. The cost will be nugatory in comparison to the cost of your trip.

And as greg has noted, be careful about what, exactly, your contact with animals involves.

Good luck!

Yes by all means add a few days to Wengen - drop Geneva unless wanting to see cities over the awesome high Alps.

Take the train from ZRH to somewhere in the Berner Oberland (Wengen would be my choice) and spend 5 nights there. You have to allow for bad weather days in the mountains, so if you get a rainy day, you can daytrip some place like Bern, Lake Thun, or Lake Brienz (and the Ballenburg Open Air Museum, which has the farm animals you are looking for).

Then, take the Golden Pass route (not necessarily the panoramic trains) to Montreux via Zweisimmen, and stay four nights somewhere on the East end of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), probably Montreux, Vevey, or somewhere similar (we stayed in Grandvaux in the Lavaux vineyard region). From there, you can take trains or boats to Geneva, Montreux, Lausanne, Gruyere, and Broc (the Cailler chocolate tour is good for kids, and the Broc/Gruyere day trip combo is excellent).

Next, you proceed to Lucerne. You could spend all four nights there (you can easily get to ZRH on departure day from Lucerne), or you can split your time between Lucerne and Zurich, but I would lean toward Lucerne.

You can check out my trip report from last year: https://tinyurl.com/zudqgtj

We had 15 nights and covered a lot of the same ground that you are interested in.

I think a few small adjustments could make this a lot smoother, and eliminate a few of the extra hotels required (because 7 different hotels in 13 nights is an awful lot of checking in & out!).

Upon arrival go directly to Lucern (as already suggested put all days of Zurich at the end of the trip). Skip Geveva. You still need 5 different hotels:

3 nights Lucern
2 nights Murren/Wengen
3 nights Montreux/Vevey
2 nights Zermatt
3 nights Zurich

I like suze's itin but would put 3 nights in Wengen and 2 in Montreux or 1 night in Zurich and 3 in Montreux.

Sure, fine, whatever. There are lots of ways they can tweak this. If it were my trip, I would eliminate even one more stop, just because the time is so tight.

snootyb,

I like the itinerary given by twk because it has much less hopping around and more time settling into places. Believe me, you have plenty of options for activities and day-trips from any one of these places.

But you really do need more nights on the ground in mountain destinations; spending just one or two nights in the mountains gives you little chance for clear skies that you need in the mountains.

Have fun as you plan!

s

can i just say i love you all. these are great suggestions and really do help my thinking process. I was going crazy trying to decide and the trip is just one week away. to answer some of the questions- we are travelling from Mumbai, India. Based on what I hear, I will cut out a few places as I am not keen on hopping too much, maybe skip the farm as I dont want to get stuck at immigration : ). Someone suggested after i posted this, that this is too many days in Switzerland and that we also cover Munich and Frankfurt and so we should fly in to Zurich and fly out of Munich or Frankfurt. Is that a crazy idea ? Should I just stick to Switzerland.

Should I just stick to Switzerland.>

Well yes and no -certainly Munich is not that far away and IMO is a much more pleasant city than Frankfurt for tourists.

Yes that's a "crazy idea" because of your short time frame.
Yes stick with Switzerland this trip!

I would say stick to Switzerland. There's plenty to see in that country for 13 nights. I see so many posts from folks who are just planning to spend a few days in Switzerland as part of a larger trip. There's nothing wrong with that, but it seems that a lot of folks think that you can "do" Switzerland in five days, which is wrong. We spent 2 weeks and still didn't get to see the Engadine, Valais, or Ticnino.