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.

Agree with Sue81

To my mind, Interlaken is not a destination in itself; it's a jumping off point (so to speak) for the Bernese Alps, for Wengen and Murren and Kleine Scheidegg and Jungfraujoch and Grindelwald and more and for the lakes of Brienz and Thun. Interlaken makes a great base for daytrips to these places.

Note that if you have a short time to see a city, detouring to a hotel to drop off your bags takes time out of your sightseeing.

Note that if you have a short time to see a city, detouring to a hotel to drop off your bags takes time out of your sightseeing.>

Not as much as having to come back to check in and though you may not be able to stay in the room until noon or so you can often check-in in the morning when leave bags.

YOu will be very glad if you do this. Sue

sorry didn;t read all of thread, leave bags at trusted hotel/train station locker if going to be gone for days/week, makes life much easier.

And you can send bags ahead to any large train station and retrieve them any time.

As mentioned multiple times already, I would take the train on day 1 to Wengen or Mürren and spend 2 nights. My last night I would spend it in Lucerne and on departure day train early in the morning to the airport (50 min direct).

Yes TVoyager has it right IMO too - experience the high Alps and beautifully situated Wengen (would be my choiceen as Murren is neat too but rather isolated as with just a day many would I think want to take the Jungfraubahn to the highest train station in Europe and a sea of ice and glaciers and ice caves:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...HbBrD30QsAQIKA

And again Wengen is your quintessential Alpine village with traditional chaleet-style hotels and rooms with a view to kill:

https://www.google.com/search?q=weng...w=1536&bih=758

If doing that Junfraujoch train a Half-Fare Card will nearly pay for itself on that train trip alone.

Hi, When I mentioned Murren, I meant to comment on it as a walk thru, with the loop to the lift, not necessarily to stay there. It is isolated, with walls of mountain on one side, at least I saw that from my cabin, high walls, but a nice little village. Wengen would be a nicer spot to stay with lovely vistas.

Yes that loop from Lauterbrunnen-Murren-Schilthorn-Gimmelwald-Stechelberg-Lauterbrunnen is fantastic as is a walk thru Murren is my favorite thing to do in Jungfrau Region.

Now we are leaning towards that. We may need to drop Tiitlis . Which hotel did you stay in Wengen?
PalenQ, Sue, et al, thanks for your opinions/suggestions.
What would you suggest for mobile SIM card? Thinking of buying. Lycamobiile SIM at airport.

I sincerely hope that you are conducting some independent research into what options suit YOUR needs and interests! A few Fodorites are known for their repeated and ardent endorsement of very specific options that THEY think best, and while I would agree that their choices have merit, I would suggest that they are not necessarily best for everyone or under every circumstance.

Good luck with your plans!

Hi MJJoe,

I've stayed at the Hotel Alpenrose in Wengen two times and loved it there. It's a lovely 3-star hotel that's been in the same family for about 100 years -- the husband was the chef, and the wife managed the front desk. The last time I was there, the daughters were attending a hospitality school, so I guess they plan to continue the tradition. The hotel has a binder showing the history of the hotel. It's just charming.

Hotel Alpenrose Wengen Berner Oberland Schweiz - Willkommen in Wengen

I also think that staying in Wengen will be closer to what you might imagine Switzerland is like -- it's all mountains and valleys and beautiful scenery. If you had less time, I would say you can find that in Luzern, but since you have three nights, you can get to and enjoy Wengen easily.

Have fun as you plan!

s

You have a short trip with plans that depend very strongly on good weather. It might be worth building in one or two options for uncooperative weather.

HI, I can suggest a hotel in Wengen, the Schonegg Hotel and KJA is right I've mentioned it several times as it is the only place I've stayed there. Right in town, about 1 blk form lift up to Mannlichen. Get view of Jungfrau and Monch. Typical Swiss rooms/wood paneling, very good meals with full or half fare. Might not be the fanciest, but very nice, well run, convenient.

SIM card, might be worth a separate thread for this....mention where you fly into.....I got mine in Amsterdam, from Vodaphone, and used some APP i put into my phone...I usually use Verizon which was quite expensive for calls from Euope to US, got Sim card over internet/before I left, Amazon I think, and activated in Amsterdam, made calls daily to US with no charge from 5 countries........Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland........... Paid $4. I think for Sim card over Internet. a little complicated/ send separate thread to get more info

Thank you! this hotel looks nice!.

Flying into ZRH. We also use Verizon in USA now which is very expensive to use in EU. We want to use maps and need to connect to whatsApp to communicate with family. We bought Lycamobile sim cards during our Spain trip, swapped sim in our phones & used.. Before that we had Sprint, which didn't allow sim card swap then, so we bought some cheap phones with sim card in London (Vodaphone, I think) to use in UK, France and Italy.

HI, OK I have an apple I phone and used the Vodaphone Sim card, flew into Amsterdam out of Zurich. i have forgotten the App that I downloaded into my phone that somehow facilitated the free calls to the US. Seems to me that you can use the SIM all over Europe now. Again if you have more questions on this run a separate thread stating SIM Cards Europe and I got many responses that helped.

Also it might have been Ebay where I got my SIM card over Internet, but you can buy in ZRH I am sure.