3 days in Switzerland in August 2018
 

My husband I plan to have a 3-day stopover in Switzerland, August 5-7, 2018. Below is our plan. Please advise if this will work or not and give your suggestions. This is our 1st time in Switzerland.

• Day 1, Aug 5: Arrive ZRH airport by 8:30 am. Buy 4-day Swiss Travel Passes. Take train to Luzern, go to hotel and keep luggage. Take train to visit Interlaken, reach back hotel in Luzern at night.
• Day 2, Aug 6: Take train to Engelberg. Buy Mt. Titlis cable car tickets at cable car station and visit Mt. Titlis. Reach back hotel in Luzern at night.
• Day 3, Aug 7: Explore Luzern, do Golden/Silver Round Trip to Pilatus. Plan to get ticket at train station there.
• Day 4, Aug 8: Take train to go to ZRH airport. Departure flight is at 10:30am.

Questions:

1. Is it better to stay in Zurich and do day trips from there? Or staying in Luzern is better? We haven’t booked hotel yet.
2. Is it better to buy Swiss pass and Mt.Titlis tickets after we reach ZRH? Or purchasing online is better/cheaper?
3. Any suggestions for hotel in Luzern? Is Airbnb reliable? We speak only English. Will that be a problem to deal with Airbnb hosts?

Thank you!

Interlaken is nothing special itself but a gateway to the awesome Jungfrau Region which you do not have time to do on a day trip. Personally I'd head to Interlaken area and take train to mountain village like Wengen or Grindelwald and base there - maybe stop in Lucerne night before flight. The Alps around Lucerne just are not as impressive as up from Interlaken:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...iw=824&bih=884

Anyway Swiss Travel Pass is overkill - Berner Oberland Pass better if any - Half-Fare Card could be best option. Buy those locally. For lots on Swiss trains and transports and passes check www.sbb.ch; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Hi I agree with Palen, I've been to Engelburg, Mt Titlis and Pilatus and Luzern.....Head to the Jungfrau Region, and esp Wengen with the Jungfrau, and Monch over the village andlift up to the Mannlichen. Gorgeous area. Much more so than Luzern too. Accessible by the excellent Swiss Train system. I happen to also like Zurich, but a larger city and I do like the villages like WEngen. Depends on if you like cities or the majesty of the gorgeous mountains, and you will see them in Wengen or Grindelwald, no cars in Wengen, but lovely spot.

I agree -- no reason to visit Interlaken per se. You would, I think, do well to decide whether you want to see the Bernese Oberland -- in which case you should spend ALL your time there (perhaps basing in Wengen) -- OR whether you prefer to see the sites in and around Lucerne. IMO, they each have advantages and neither would be a bad choice.

All you plan to do (except the leg Zurich airport - Zug and back) is fully covered by Tell Pass https://www.tellpass.ch/en/
But I agree with the posters above that there exist better ways to spend 4 days in Switzerland

spend all your limited time in the Interlaken area and you'll be happy.

But, if going to Interlaken as OP says it is not covered by Tell Pass? Could not find on site map - and, really with just 4 travel days Half-Fare Card may well be best- definately that but probably not passes.

Thank you for the suggestions.
Looks like Half Fare Card may be the best option for us. Looking into Tell Pass too. May spend more time in Jungfrau region. Will revise the itinerary.

The Tell Pass is by far the best solution if you do what you told us in your first post:
tons of side trips around Lucerne/Central Switzerland and UP TO Interlaken AND BACK.

Things would change completely if you would go BEYOND Interlaken (Bernese Jungfrau area, Western Bernese Oberland, Valais, or so).

1/2 fare card costs about $130 then you still must pay 50% - the pass is all told not much more and gives you full coverage on those routes.

We are still working on our itinerary with different options. Found a spreadsheet on MySwissAlps website to calculate the cost for different rail passes to choose the best.
Are there lockers in train stations to keep our carry-on luggage in Luzern, Engelberg and Interlaken?
If so, we want to keep luggage in lockers in the morning of our trip rather than going to hotel. Hotel check-in times are in the afternoon.

Yes there are lockers in those stations and just about every Swiss train station. Carry some franc coins for lockers. You can also send bags ahead by Swiss Rail and have them waiting for you and retrieve when want.

You can see the exact number, size, and cost of lockers on sbb. And you can find out which stations have manned luggage desks, along with their hours. And which stations participate in luggage forwarding.

If all lockers full there is also at larger stations like those a manual luggage check.

Most hotels I think will let you leave luggage until check-in if you arrive before 10 or so and in those towns the hotel can't be too fr from the train station and you can set out for the day without having to come back for mid-afternoon check in.

Thanks for this info. We wondered if the hotels there allow that.

IME, most hotels anywhere do that, but you can always contact the hotel to ask. And again, IME, most hotels appreciate having an idea when their guests will be arriving -- and that can include initial pre-check-in times and actual (estimated) check-in times.

ok I tally, do the footwork. I wrote to every hotel, via email and asked if they had a room to drop the bags to be able to go out without luggage and only a gratuity. We even left our bags a a good hotel in Zurich for a week and traveled with carry on bags around Switzerland, if you might be going back somewhere. Sue i would only do this in nicer hotels, where I trusted all would be safe for a week. YOu will love Wengen. Sue

Thanks for this info. Since we are on another long trip, we have 2 big suitcases too. We have relatives in Zurich and Bern. We may drop off big suitcases with relative n in Zurich and around with carry-on.

Personally I would forget Engelburg and go to Wengen, It is vastly superior in mountains/vistas, etc.