Hello!

My mother and I will be arriving in Zurich mid-July after a Rhine River cruise. She has some minor health issues and cannot walk too far (whereas I am ready to hike at a moment's notice!).

We will be staying in Zurich for four nights. We plan to do some sightseeing in the city, and greatly appreciate the wonderful insights and info that Cicerone has posted previously. We also plan to take a train to Lucerne one day.

She'd also like to try to see some of the more mountainous regions by train, but I'm not sure if this is doable as a one-day trip from Zurich. Any advice?

Many thanks!

Well a trip to engleberg should be easy enough - take train to Lucerne and then get the Engleberg train from there - Mount titlis and all - from train station area there are lifts in case she wants to effortlessly go up to near the titlis summit - assuming she can enter and sit in cable cars.

Otherwise a train from Zurich to Interlaken direct is easy and then at Interlaken_ost station take from an adjoining platform the trains to Grindelwald - which to me has the most incredible panorama in the Alps and you can see it all right from the train station area - or again take mountain trains and lifts higher. Effortlessly practically IME.

I did a one-day trip to Wengen from Basel (and back).
Take a train to Interlaken, then switch to the local train to Lauterbrunnen (on the next track, minimal walking), and another little train up to Wengen. The ride from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen is beautiful and the main street in Wengen is flat and very close to the train stop. Shops for your mother to browse through at her leisure and cafes/restaurants for a sit-down break.

Unlike other countries, most Swiss trains have their platforms at train floor level so you just walk right on instead of having to climb up/down steep steps.

It is VERY worth it to make the trip to Interlaken and then up to Wengen and Grindlewald. It might be worth spending a night in that area. It's a few hours from Zurich but most people would tell you it's the best scenery in Switzerland.

Hi vmsilva,

Unfortunately, I do think that going to the Oberland area (Interlaken, Wengen, etc) will be too far to go for a day-trip. It is 2h45 on the train just to get to Wengen, so that means six hours inside a moving train in a single day. When I took my mother to Switzerland, she was in her 70s, and I was pretty surprised at how quickly my active and vibrant mom got tired. I would really hesitate to put your mother through six hours of travel in a day.

This is especially true because you'll have some great mountains much closer by. Palenque notes the Titlis mountain, which will be in your neighborhood, but there are also the Rigi and the Pilatus. You can take a look at these mountains at their own sites,

www.titlis.ch
www.pilatus.ch
www.rigi.ch

In addition, you'll have lake cruises to take at Luzern --

www.lakelucerne.ch

and lakeside villages to visit.

I also really enjoy the town of Rapperswil farther down Lake Zurich.

I just think that there is so much to do and see where you'll actually be staying that it would be a shame to waste an entire day by spending it "inside."

But now, if you wanted to spend an overnight in the Oberland, as Connie says, that might be worthwhile (although lots of people will say that the Oberland doesn't have the best mountains, just the best PR, lol).

Have fun planning!

s

You might consider staying in Lucerne or elsewhere in Switzerland, to be more in the mountains. Zurich airport has easy access by train; it's only about an hour from Lucerne.

There's a standard trip from Lucerne: lake steamer to Alpnachstad, steep cogwheel train to the summit of Mt. Pilatus, gondola back down into the outskirts of Lucerne. Or vice versa. This trip encapsulates Switzerland in one day.

Also the Swiss postal buses do a wonderful job penetrating into the mountains. And they're very comfortable.

Many thanks to all of you! I had been looking at some train rides, and concluded what swandav2000 had shared - that, while it is something my husband and I would venture to do in a heartbeat, it may be too tiring for my mom. Nonetheless, it sounds like the Titlis, Rigi and Pilatus might be doable! We wish we could stay in Lucerne, but are using hotel points to stay in Zurich for free Thanks to Connie for the practical info about the trains in Switzerland... I've been on many a train throughout Europe, and know that at times they can be like an obstacle course to get on and off. My mom might be able to climb on, but climbing off might be a problem (though I once saw a quite elderly Italian nun effortlessly leap from a train right to the platform to avoid a particularly treacherous gap!).