Maggi123

Hello All,

My husband and I will be in Switzerland for 3 full days.

Could anyone please tell me where can I rent the bike from, a good website(in English) where I can look for it, and how much does it cost for a basic bike. Below is the itinerary.

Day 1: We are planning to rent a bike at Lucerne for a day( i will be in Lucerne on 9th September).
Is the route to Mount Rigi easily Bikable? Is it a lot of uphill ride? Can trains carry our bikes up mount Rigi?Or may be bike from Lucerne to Brunnen? How is the route like? Brunnen to Fluelen?

Day2: Train to Interlaken(or Murren area). Rent a bike, and bike around Gimmerwald, Schiltorn etc.

Day 3: Train to Montreux. Bike rental from there and bike to Geneva, and drop the bike there?

Thank you,

Ingo

Are you a professional mountainbiker? If not, forget days 1 and 2. The elevation difference from Lake Lucerne up to Mt. Rigi is almost 1,400 m. Steep.

Around the lake it's flat, though - yes, biking from Lucerne to Brunnen is doable, even farther to Flüelen, but it would be mostly on busy roads with a lot of car traffic.

Forget biking around Mürren, Gimmelwald, Schilthorn. It's really steep mountain terrain, even hiking is a challenge.

Montreux to Geneva is doable, but see my comments on Lucerne to Brunnen-Flüelen.

china_cat

it must be possible to bike in the Lavaux, the vineyards around Lake Geneva. Maybe swandav can help, or you can google it. I would think that would have some steep areas, but be really pretty.

PalenQ

Lake Geneva has bike paths along a lot of it - Montreux to Chateau Chillon is a short walk or bike ride and also to Vevey - Switzerland in its flatter parts is one of the bigger biking countries in Europe for locals but unfortunately many of the areas tourists want to see are let's say very hilly.

Murren to Gimmelwald is on a small footpath - only a few miles - I'd rather walk that than bike - I suppose the road there is not too crowded.I doubgt many folks rent bikes in Murren except for the rugged mountain biking crowd.

Mountain bikes in the Jungfrau Region are viable if in for a real workout - I walked from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen - a neat walk on a trail used by mountain bikers and say many going down - you could take your bike up on the train and cycle on the wide fairly smooth trail without pedaling.

But really biking in the area is rugged if not going downhill.

swandav2000

Hi Maggi123,

First, to answer your question, most train stations in Switzerland rent bikes. You can take a look at all their offers at this site:

http://www.rentabike.ch/en/home

But I would be very careful about the mountain routes you choose -- as Ingo notes, you'll spend most of your time ascending steeply.

As for the Lake Geneva area, yes, I've rented bikes and biked through the Lavaux a number of times. It can be aggravating, though, as you're on small tractor paths, which can suddenly end when the farmer's land ends. And, yes, the vineyard paths can be steep, too. So you can be climbing for 15 or 20 minutes, then find that you're at a dead-end, and have to go back again and try another route. But I still think it's a great place to bike -- it's beautiful, it's normally quiet and isolated, and you get a nice workout. Biking from, say, Villeneuve to Lutry or Lausanne through the vineyards will easily take up half a day, or more.

I really wouldn't cycle all the way to Geneva -- you'll be on the main roads and have to contend with traffic and vehicle emissions all around you.

Here is a website to help you find good routes:

http://www.veloland.ch/en/cycling-in-switzerland.html

Note that at the top middle of the page, you can change the page to hiking (far left button), cycling (next button), mountain biking (next button), in-line roller-blading (next to end on the right), or canoeing (far right button). I have it open to the "cycling" page, but you can change it to mountain biking.

Have fun as you plan!

s

MikeS

You can rent a bike on the main street in Lauterbrunnen and ride up the Lauterbrunnen Valley, which is an easy ride. I would not rent a bike in Murren of Wengen to ride down to Lauterbrunnen. It is a very steep in places. I rode down from Wengen but would not do it again.

I have seen, but have no detailed information, on a path that appears to follow the stream from Lauterbrunnen toward Interlaken. You could probably rent a bike in Lauterbrunnen and ride down to Interlaken and then take the train back.

PalenQ

I have seen, but have no detailed information, on a path that appears to follow the stream from Lauterbrunnen toward Interlaken.>

I've walked down that path and yes it is gently sloping down - great bike ride.

Maggi123

Thank you all. I will check the links provided. I guess the link swandav2000 provided, I went through this, but as soon as you click on reservation tab, it's no longer in English. But anyways. I guess I will figure out when I reach there. As you mentioned there should be bikes on train stations.

Thank you again for the inputs. Much appreciated.