I know that train travel in Switzerland is supposed to be the best way to travel in that country.
But we are two seniors with back problems and as a result have difficulty lifting a suitcase
on and off trains. So we think it would be much easier for us to rent a car and drive to
our various destinations. Is this a big mistake or is it doable?

We have done several road trips in and throgh Switz and really enjoyed it. You just need to be sure which towns in the foothills can;t be reached by train and stay in other places and visit them by day on train.

We always found hotels that had free parking and never had a problem finding a place to park while touring. (Caveat: we are New Yorkers and used to searching for a parking spot and parallel parking the car in spots barley larger than it is - on either side of the street.)

Which are your destinations?

There is no one "best way" to travel. It depends on goals and constraints: where you are going and the limitations.

Driving car is not necessarily carte blanche "easier" in all circumstance. Packing heavily, because you are driving, negates advantages you might have had in the mobility area. You still have to carry luggage in/out of car, move from wherever you are parking to the accommodations.

Go through your trip mentally. Identify each instance you have to deal with luggage. Are your assumptions about "easier" realistic? Are you staying is rustic mountain places where you can count on someone to pick you and your luggage up from your car?

There are places like Zermatt, Wengen, Mürren, etc. with breathtaking views with no way to get there except by trains/cable cars. If your itinerary includes such destinations, your strategy would work poorly.

Driving in Switzerland is a mixed blessing. Some itineraries are nice, but some mountain itineraries may be tiring or difficult to drive - if possible at all, as half of the mountain passes are closed in winter. The Gotthard motorway tunnel has a capacity problem and has long queues on busy days. The S. Bernardino highway is very twisty. Some railway itineraries have no road, like the Lötschberg tunnel, or a very difficult road like the Albula. Parking in the cities may get expensive. Some destinations like Zermatt cannot be reached by car.

Generally speaking trains are much easier. SBB/FFS (the main railway company, but there are a lot of places that are not on the SBB network) has a registered baggage service, with different levels of speed and convenience: you can even arrange a door-to-door service to/from all Swiss street addresses. Maybe if you have two pieces of baggare, one small travelling with you and one large travelling on its own, this could be the easiest way.

http://www.sbb.ch/en/station-service...s/baggage.html

Hi mavip,

In addition to the terrific luggage service (that I use on every trip!), you can get assistance with boarding or departing the trains. Here is the website:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/station-service...-impaired.html

All you have to do is let them know which train you're on, and they will meet & assist you.

There are a myriad of reasons why train travel is better in Switzerland -- I really hope you get to experience it yourself!

s

"So we think it would be much easier for us to rent a car and drive to our various destinations. Is this a big mistake or is it doable?"
It's not a mistake as long as you don't want to visit just the places with no road acces."

It's perfectly possible to visit tons of gems in Switzerland by car, without boarding any train (between June and October, when all mountain roads are open).

But if you want to visit Switzerland by car, don’t choose just the places that can NOT be reached by car (like Muerren, Wengen,
Schynige Platte, Schilthorn, First, Kleine Scheidegg, Maennlichen, Rigi, Zermatt, Riederalp etc). Otherwise you will have to pay for both: car rental, fuel (about 8 USD per US gallon/3,85 litres) AND mountain railways.

There are tons of beautiful places in the Swiss Alps which can be reached by car. Some suggestions:

Drive from Martigny to Col de la Gueulaz on Lake Emosson (2000m/6600ft). You are then just in front of the Northern side of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain chain of Western Europe. The glaciers of Trient, Tour, Argentiere as well as the peaks of Aiguille d'Argentiere (3900m/13000fr), Aiguille Verte (4120m/13500ft), Grandes Jorasse (4210m/13800ft), Mont Blanc (4810m/15800ft) ar jus a few miles away.

Drive from Martigny to Grand St Bernard Pass (2470m/8100ft) and hike in 1/2 hr to La Chenalette (2800m/9200ft). From there, you have a stupendous view to the Southern side of Mont Blanc (A Neuve Glacier, Dolent Glacier, Pre de Bar Glacier, Triolet Glacier as well as a lot of 3800 to 4800m / 13000 to 15800ft high peaks). In the South, but farther away, you see the glaciers and peaks of the Gran Paradiso chain.
A easy, but very scenic 6hrs circular hike goes from Col du Gd St-Bernard via Col des Chevaux - Lake Petit Le - Col de Bastillon to the 3 blue mountain lakes of Fenetre and then over the Col de Fenetre de Ferret back to Col du Gd St-Bernard.

Drive from Sion to Col du Sanetsch (2250m/7400ft) and hike in about 2 hrs to Refuge/Restaurant La Quille du Diable on Tsanfleuron Glacier (2900m/9500ft). You are there on the top of a perpendicular cliff and can look down to Lake Derborence, just 1500m/5000ft below your feet. Stupendous view to Mont Blanc chain, Grand Combin, Mont Collon and tons of other peaks.

Drive from Sierre to Grimentz and then up to the end of the road on Lake Moiry (2250m/7400ft) and hike then in aobut 1 hr to Moiry hut (Swiss Alpine club) and Moiry Glacier.

Drive from Brig to Ried-Moerel, go by gondola to Riederalp (5 CHF/one way), hike in 1/2 hr to Riederfurka (2070m/6800ft), visit the visitor's centre/museum of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Nature reserve, walk through the Aletsch Forest and have a look at the Aletsch Glacier (longest glacier of Europe) just below and in front of you.

Drive to Breuil-Cervinia (Italian neighbourhood, 2000m/6500ft) and go by cableway to Plateau Rosa (28 EUR/35 USD roundtrip). Plateau Rosa (3500m/11500ft) is close to Matterhorn Paradise/Kleinmatterhorn (1 mile away, same panorama). The roundtrip ticket from Taesch Parking to Matterhorn Paradise costs 107 CHF/112 USD

Drive to Grimsel Pass (2200m/7200ft) and hike in about 1 1/2 hr to Sidelhorn (2800m/9200ft). Panoramic views to Unteraar Glacier, Oberaar Glacier, 6 mountain lakes around Grimsel Pass, Finsteraarhorn (4300m/14100ft) and dozens of other peaks. You may also hike from Grimsel Pass to Lake Oberaar (1 hr) and along this lake to Oberaar Glacier (another hr).
Drive then from Grimsel Pass to Furka Belvedere and visit the Ice cave in the Rhone Glacier.
Another road in the same area goes to Nufenenpass/Griessee. The hike from the end of the road to Lake Griessee - Gries Pass - Gries Glacier takes about 1 1/2 hrs.

Drive from Davos or St. Moritz to Stelvio Pass (2800m/9200ft). Hike to the glaciers (1 hr or so) or enjoy the view to them from Piz da las Trais Linguas (3 languages peak; 2850m/9400ft).

etc. etc.

But if you prefer to ride with Glacier Express, Bernina Express, Golden Pass Panoramic, etc. and if you want to visit Gornergrat and Jungfraujoch, you better look after rail passes.

You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/
http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en

I have a conference in Zurich- so we will be staying there for 5 days at the end of our trip.
And in fact, I'd be most grateful for sugestions as to things to do in Zurich - in between meetings.

Thanks so much for the great suggestions. Unfortunately this trip is parly business but we are trying to combine a few highlights also - i.e. - the Alps, the castle in Montraux,tc.

Our tentative itinerary:
Fly in to Zurich then rent a car and drive to Lucerne the same day,
4 days in Lucerne
3 days in Lauterbrunnen( taking the train to Wengen 1 day w/o luggage which will be left in
hotel in Lauterbrunnen
Drive from Lauterbrunnen to Montraux
2 days in Montraux
Drive back to Zurich-drop off car
5 days in Zurich -attend conference
Fly home

Does this itinerary sound doable by car? Are these drives on highways or narrow, mountain roads? Is there anything we should change or not miss?

You may have a look at a map.
ZRH - Lucerne: motorway
Lucerne - Interlaken: highway through alpine landscape (not free of curves!)
Interlaken - Montreux: you can all do by motorway via Berne - Bulle or take a more scenic but slower road via Zweisimmen - Gstaad - Pillon Pass - Aigle (highway up to Wimmis and from Aigle).

Does this itinerary sound doable by car? Are these drives on highways or narrow, mountain roads? Is there anything we should change or not miss?>

Yes to me.

I have driven in Switzerland several times and to me the autoroutes (freeways) are like those anywhere - you can cover a lot of ground quickly but the alternative or side roads tend to bve sinuously twistings and full of trucks (avoiding high autorout tolls perhaps) and slow and tedious. The driver gets to see nothing as his/her eyes must be peeled to the narrow twisting roads!

I would try to stick to autoroutes.

Reminder: speed cameras are ubiquitous and even my road-savvy, cautious Swiss colleagues get caught on occasion.

My husband and I travel to Switzerland twice a year. We always rent a car upon arrival in Zurich. Parking is certainly not always free. We pay roughly $30-50 per day, depending on where we are. Lucerne is a good example of this, roughly $40 per day.

Yes, do be aware that the Swiss WILL send you a ticket if their cameras catch you speeding! My husband has had a couple (or more) in the past couple of years. I keep reminding him to slow down when he gets more than 5 mph over the speed limit! Cameras are everywhere! We were entering a small town south of Zurich, on a 2-lane road, in a hurry to find a loo, and BINGO! Speeding! And it isn't cheap.

For the most part, you can stick to motorways. Mountains do tend to get in the way of straight paths from place to place, but no distances in Switzerland are too great when you compare the distances we drive in the USA and think nothing of it! Switzerland is, after all, a pretty small country. We can get from Zurich airport to Lucerne (via the Nordring and Westring highways) in about one hour. From Zurich airport to Lausanne is closer to 3 hours.

At this point, my hubby and I could not imagine a Europe trip, no matter what country, without a car!

Well we have driven in Switz several times (not through the upper mountain passes that are closed half the year) and have had no trouble either on highways or on local roads. Some of the latter are very curving and do have drop offs with only small shoulders, but we never met with heavy truck traffic and none of the roads were frightening.

We did drive between Lucerne and Interlaken, stopping at several small villages on the way - no problems. Another trip drove from Geneva to Monteux to Gruyere and onto Interlaken on almost all local raods, again no problems.

Also visited Berne, Thun, Neuchatel and a bunch of other places, again mostly on local roads, with no problems at all.

Naturally to get higher into the mountains we used trains or cable cars - but didn't stay in places that couldn't be reached by roads.

As for luggage in a car being complicated - one pulls up at the hotel, gathers the things from the inside and opens the trunk and, in my experience, a bellman has arrived at that point and just takes the luggage away. And vice versa on leaving.

All across europe, even staying in a gasthaus or a castle, there always seems to be someone to deal with the larger luggage when you arrive.

"At this point, my hubby and I could not imagine a Europe trip, no matter what country, without a car!"

Just as a counterpoint, we have not driven a car in more than 5 years. We have zero need for one here in Basel and we've been able to see a lot of Switzerland with the train/boat/bus etc combinations.

So if you wish to drive, enjoy, but if for some reason you have to shelve your driving plans, you will still be able to take in an awful lot of Switzerland without a car.

WeisserTee, I do see the railroad tracks running everywhere in Switzerland. I understand that one can go just about anywhere. We are typically on a business trip (pleasure mixed in) and are visiting customers and friends who are not necessarily close to those tracks. A car just really makes much more sense for us.