In 1965, as a lad of 18, I went skiing in Grindelwald. It was my first trip to the mountains and, oh my, did I like it. I returned in 1968 to do some hiking. Now it's time for another visit. Do y'all think anything will have changed (other than my aging bones and joints)?

My wife and I are planning a three-leg trip to Switzerland in September 2019. The first leg will be about September 6 - 13, or up to a week later, and tentatively looks like this:

Day 1 - Arrive Zurich, set up in hotel near the hauptbahnhof
Day 2 - Zurich City, waterfront and shopping (it's our second visit)
Day 3 - Take train to Interlaken, explore Interlaken
Day 4 - Train to Grindelwald, hiking, be awed by the Eiger
Day 5 - Open / Day trip to Lucerne
Day 6 - Train to Wengen, then Jungfraujoch
Day 7 - Day trip to Bern and/or Beil/Bienne (Rolex factory)
Day 8 - Travel from Interlaken to Lausanne or Montreux by car

We'd like to use the Bernese Oberland rail pass while there, if I can figure out what it actually covers and how to buy one.
We plan to pick up a car in Interlaken and drive from there on, stopping in Gruyeres on the way to Montreux/Lausanne.
The open day is for bad weather. If it's clear we'll just go into the mountains again and visit Lucerne another time.
We're walkers and will be pretty happy as long as nobody breaks a leg.

So, here are my questions:
1) Do the TI's in these mountain towns have hiking maps? Can I get maps for the region in Interlaken?
2) Anybody have a link to an explanation of the B.O. rail pass?
3) Would it be better to stay higher up than in Interlaken?
4) Other advice?

And, for later, we spent a day in Saint Moritz once. Is there any reason to visit Davos?

Thanks again. The help is appreciated!

Here are some ideas from another thread:
Jungfraujoch>

I'd pick Wengen over Murren simply because of location - Murren is rather isolated - Wengen has trains and cables to several neat places. 6 nights in the hills may be too much.

Jungfraujoch - yes though it costs a ton - unique world of ice, snow and a glacier you can walk too. Things like Zip Lines, etc and ice grottos and neat view right down the Alps longest glacier, Be sure and get out and walk around.

Be sure to do the Mannlichen to Kl Schiedegg easy hike - most popular hike in the area.

I also think the Murren-Schilthorn cable car - one of longest in Alps is great. Piz Gloria is the building on the Schilthorn and famous for being the scene in James Bond's On Her Majesty's Secret Service - film being shot whilst the building was under construction. There is a great viewing platform to appreciate the remote setting admist snow-capped Alps. If you and kids are into real hiking hike down from the Schilthorn to Murren - can do half way by getting off cableway at Birg- halfway station where you change cables and then a much easier hike - going down from the Schilthorn seemed to me a bit rough at the start.

This is a great day out - from Wengen take train down to Lauterbrunnen and take cableway up cliff to Grutschalp and then hop on train that goes along the cliff to Murren (the Grutschalp-Murren few mile flat walk along cliff is a popular walk) - walk through this pleasant resort town to the cableway to The Schilthorn. From Schilthorn take the cable back down to Murren and then to Gimmelwald - famous farming hamlet out in the middle of awesome Alpine scenery and then take a thrilling cableway that plunges down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley at Stechelberg for postal buses back to Lauterbrunnen r do a nice flat few mile walk - Trummelbach Falls in on the way - stop by this neat water torrent that drains the Jungfrau Massif inside the cliff - bring rain gear or get a bit wet. And of course Staubbach Falls, the symbol of Lauterbrunnen is also on the edge of that town.

So there are many things to do in the area but I may suggest taking a day out and put in Lucerne.

Now the good thing is that for your teens everything transit-wise will be absolutely free if you get the free Family Pass at any Swiss train station and then anything you buy a ticket or have a pass for will be free to them. You may want to look into either a Swiss Pass or perhaps better a Berner Oberland Pass - sold locally and good for most things in Lucerne and Jungfrau areas. For lots on transports and things to do in this area check www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com and BETS-European Rail Experts(especially their free online European Planning & Rail Guide that has a lot on both Lucerne and Jungfrau areas

Well that's my take on the Swiss part that I am very very familiar with.

If looking for a cheap and interesting place to stay in the Jungfrau area consider staying in the Nature Friend's House in Grindelwald - an all ages place for hikers with communal kitchen and other kids that age: https://translate.google.com/transla...n/&prev=search

Now there are several other neat hikes all around the Grindelwald amphitheatre but there is a lot more to do in the area down in Interlaken - especially boat rides on either lake bookending Interlaken - Lake Thun or Lake Brienz - a full day on either one. Laken Brienz offers IMO the more awesome stuff- like Ballenberg Open-Air Museum; Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock Holmes and his evil adversary Prof Moriarity tangled on a belvedere overlooking the thunderous cascade into which the evil Professor fell into and presumably to his death. An antique funicular takes you up to the falls and nice towns like Brienz - famous for wood cuttings on its wooden dwellings and lots more.

Berner Oberland Pass best bought right at any train station - no need to pre-order:

https://www.regionalpass-berneroberland.ch/en/

Hotels and tinfo carry the free Jungfrau Magazine that has a large hiking maps noting which trails are easy, intermediate and demanding.

Yes stay up in dem hills - Wengen is a favorite of many here - I prefer Grindelwald because it is more lively or whatever. But definitely stay up in one of those towns.

Bernese Oberland Pass: as above
valid between Wengen/Grindelwalde and
Berne, Lucerne, Brig (via Kandersteg), Montreux (half fare from Saanen to Montreux), Pillon Pass, Glaubenbielen Pass, Susten Pass, Grimsel Pass (half fare for the other Passes of Central Switzerland), Kleine Scheidegg, Maennlichen, First, Alpen Tower, Brienzer Rothorn, Niederhorn, Niesen, Sunnbuel (Gemmi), Lauchernalo (Loetschental) and other cableways. Half Fare for Glacier3000, Schilthorn, Grosse Scheidegg, Glacier Express leg Brig - Andermatt.
Interlaken - Gstaad -Saanen - Montreux is one of the most scenic train rides in Switzerland (Golden Pass).

IMO the Engadin Valley is nicer than Davos.

Hiking maps:
you can just load down and printthe best map of Switzerland (all scales, with hiking trails, bus stoipos, etc.)
https://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en

1) Do the TI's in these mountain towns have hiking maps?

YES - they're detailed and in several languages

Can I get maps for the region in Interlaken?

YES

3) Would it be better to stay higher up than in Interlaken?

YES

4) Other advice?

Is there any reason to visit Davos?

With so little time, absolutely not IMO. We've been a few times as day trips from the Lower Engadine; not much character and certainly not worth trying to fit into an already ambitious trip.

We were happy we chose to stay in Interlaken, thinking that if the weather was less than crystal clear that September (happily, it was not), we'd go over to Bern and spend the day. We easily connected to Wengen to one side up to Mannlichen (sp?) , and to Gimmelwald on the other side on the following day, thru Lautbrunnen?? . Interlaken provided lots of choices, and our hotel was very close to the train station (don't ask me which one tho!) We never got to Bern, but so loved our days on Lake Geneva in Montreux, exploring Lausanne. Weather was supreme that Fall. No, we didnt buy any watches, but are there any more than what we saw in Lucerne??

To add what little i can to the excellent advice you've got from the much more expert than me people here, do download the SBB App for Swiss trains, boats and buses. It's an amazing app with a touch screen swipe option for accessing train times plus a real time map to show you where you are AND it covers most if not all of Europe from wherever you are.

I'm sure it will be a great trip! Some thoughts:

I’m not sure that it makes much sense to plan to spend a part of a day in Interlaken. I didn’t spend any time there, so maybe I shouldn’t comment, but I don’t have a sense of it as a “destination”—more a location that some people use as a base for other places in the region, particularly during times of precarious weather. For my purposes, even if the weather is uncertain, I was glad to stay in the mountains – if the weather is bad, you can always take a train out, but I didn’t want to waste a single moment of good weather in the mountains. Like PalenQ, I’d recommend staying in Wengen.

I also don’t understand why you are planning on using a car to go to either Lausanne or Montreux. You can easily include a stop in Gruyeres, if that's your goal, when traveling by public transportation. Check the sbb website. (Nor do I understand why you didn’t post your inquiries about the entire section of your Switzerland itinerary in this one post – for some plans, knowing the full itinerary can be extremely useful. Something to keep in mind next time. )

Re: Davos (and everything else) – I agree with Melnq8.

Hi MichGuy,

I also don't understand why you are switching to a car for the French-Swiss part of your trip? Yes, it's quite easy to take the train from the Jungfrau area to Montreux with a stop in Gruyeres (on the Golden Pass route), and you can send your bags on separately from your departure station to your destination station so that you travel freely (for a fee, of course!).

https://www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/services/luggage/luggage/station-to-station.html

If you stay in Montreux, you will get a Riviera Card from your hosts that make the busses, trains, and funiculars free in the region between Villenuve, Montreux, Vevey, and up into the vineyards of the Lavaux. The busses run every 10 minutes, and there are stops at just about every other corner. Traffic is miserable around the lake (and the smog hovers above the waters, yuck), and parking is expensive and hard to find. Just for comparison, at the 3-star hotel I like in the outskirts of Montreux, parking costs 20 chf/day.

Have fun as you plan!

s

<<I’m not sure that it makes much sense to plan to spend a part of a day in Interlaken. I didn’t spend any time there, so maybe I shouldn’t comment, but I don’t have a sense of it as a “destination”—more a location that some people use as a base for other places in the region, particularly during times of precarious weather.>>

kja - I know that our situation was a little different at the time as we didn't know what Bill's state of health would be, but we picked Interlaken as it was very level and offered myriad travel opportunities, from boats, to trains, to buses, whatever the weather. It worked out well for us as we were about to take boat rides on both lakes, and the train to Bern on the rainy day we had. And it was an easy hop up the mountain to our next destination which was Wengen.

And we were not alone in finding it a good base - one couple we met in our hotel said that spent 3 weeks there every year, and claimed that they had never run out of things to do.

annhig is giving a great example of a set of circumstances in which staying in Interlaken might make a lot of sense.

Interlaken is a utilitarian base if not spending most of time in the hills and is also a cute town when you get off the tourist schlocked main drag. But staying right up in the hills is great being practically eyeball to eyeball with glacier-girdled soaring peaks.