I really want to pack everything i possibly can in 8 days. I want to see the city, the hills and the nature. But i am struck with troubles.

The itinerary:
Day 1 - Arrive in Zurich , Zurich and Luzern's bridges
Day 2 - Mt. Pilatus and blank
Day 3 - St. Gallen Cathedral , Stein Am Rhein and Rheinfall
Day 4 - Locarno , Bellinzona and maybe Valley Versazsca
Day 5 - Bern
Day 6 - Jungfraujoch and a hike in Mannlichen
Day 7 - Lake Leman
Day 8 - Geneva

4 nights in Luzern
1 night in Wengen / Grindelwald
2 nigths in Lausanne

Should I keep Zurich?
Should I keep or add onto the Italian zone?
Should I cut something else and focus more on Jungfrau?

Extra info : we're going in mid-August. There are 4 of us.

Hi W,

>I really want to pack everything i possibly can in 8 days.

That is the usual newbie mistake. That is why you are "struck with troubles".

You don't have 8 days.

Your first day, you will be jet lagged. You want to see Zurich and Luzern?

Your last day you have to pack up and get to the airport 3 hr before you are scheduled to leave.

In six days you can see 6 major and 3 minor things.

Decide what they are.

Switzerland will still be there when you return.

You just chosed a few of the many places worth a visit in Switzerland. But even for these few places, a decent visit would need more than 8 days.
I suppose you will arrive by overnight flight. In this case you may be too tired for serious visits at day 1. A Lake Lucerne cruise, may be combined with Pilatus, Stanserhorn or Rigi may be the best solution.
Otherwise visit Rhine Falls, Schaffhausen, Stein am Rhein and Lake Constance directly from Zurich airport; it's much closer from there than from Lucerne. But it wouldn't be a good idea to include St. Gallen because of lack of time.
A visit of these places could look light this:
Zurich main station dp 7.09 - Zurich airport dp 7.22 - Rheinfall (Laufen Castle) ar 8.02, visit of Rheine Falls, adventure Park, etc., move to Schaffhausen, short visit of the medieval city center of Schaffhausen and may be Munot castle, leave Schaffhausen by Rhine river boat at 11.10, Stein am Rhein ar 13.10, visit of the historic city center and of Hohenklingen castle, leave Stein by boat at 15.23 - arrive at Konstanz at 17.55. Visit the historic center, have dinner there or at a Lake restaurant, boatd the 20.03 train and arrive at Zurich airport at 21.08 and at Zurich main station at 21.20.

Another day could leave you to St. Gallen, Appenzell, Rapperswil castle and Einsiedeln abbey.

If you go from Zurich or Lucerne to Ticino, sleep there and continue then directly to Bern/Interlaken, may be like this:
Lucerne dp by historic (more than 100 years old) steamboat 9.12 up to Fluelen ar 11.55, dp by train 12.15 - Bellinzona ar 13.53, visit of the historic center and the 3 castles, dp 17.57 - Lugano ar 18.27. Sleep at Lugano.
Leave Lugano the following morning at 9.30 by boat (very scenic ride) up to Ponte Tresa ar 11.15, go on by bus dp 11.40 - Luino ar 12.10 and board a Lake Maggiore boat dp 12.50 to Locarno ar 14.30. Enjoy Locarno and leave at 17.47 by Centovalli Express to Domodossola and then to Interlaken ar 22.40 (Zermatt/Matterhorn would be the better choice, however)
etc. etc.
In this matter, you couls see something of Switzerland. If you rush only from 1 place to another, you will spend most of your time in trains instead of sites.

Sorry: I'laken ar 21.40

Well of course you're "struck with troubles" because your premise is downright impossible. You either need to add a few weeks onto the trip (and even then you couldn't see "everything" in an entire country, even a small one like Switzerland), or you need to come to grips with the fact that your time is very limited and you must choose a very few sights to see.

How are you planning to get around? By train? No matter how, you need to build in time to get from one place to another, locate your accommodations, check in, get your bearings, etc. If that part of the trip takes up the same or more time than the actual time seeing the sites, you're seriously struck with troubles.

I guess i would have to focus on some places and make some hard choices. Thanks.

Yes, you do.

I don't mean to hijack your thread, walter2000, but hope you don't mind that I follow up on something.

neckervd wrote: > Another day could leave you to St. Gallen, Appenzell, Rapperswil castle and Einsiedeln abbey.

Do you mean that these places can be meaningfully visited in a single day from Zurich? I had given up on trying to do that, and would like to know how you would fit them in. Thanks!

You are right, Kja: not "meaningfully", but in the manner people who uses this forum like to rush through Europe:

ZRH dp 6.22 - Appenzell ar 7.57, walk through the village center, dp 9.08 - St. Gallen ar 9.50 - Stiftsbibilothek/Cathedral/Multergasse - dp 13.02 (sandwich from minibar) - Rapperswil ar 13.57, castle, city center, dp 16.36 - Einsiedeln ar 17.13, short visit (without museums) dp 19.00 - Zurich HB ar 19.48

Like others I also think this is way too much for what is essentially 6 days. But assuming you're Super Tourist and have the energy, on day 2 after you've visited Mt. Pilatus, you could take a short lake cruise to take the cable car up to Mt. Rigi and take the pleasant walk down the mountain. Or just cruise around lake Luzern and hit all the cute little towns. If the weather is poor, you could visit some of Luzern's museums.

Honestly, I would just spend 2 nights in Luzern, 4 in the Jungfrau area, and the rest in Geneva. On a bad weather day in the mountains you can easily do a day trip to Bern.

I have decided to cut Zurich for an extra day for Jungfrau-Geneva because of the last day problem. However, I am struggling to choose between the Ticino area or the Northeastern areas. Can anyone help me with that?

To get from Ticino to Geneva, you are looking at 5-6 hours on a train. Would you rather spend that time on a train or explore Geneva? Consider that you could also spend the night in Lausanne (a great town) and take the train directly to the Geneva airport, less than 1 hour by train.

Well I am planning to go to either areas by train from Luzern, then probably stay in Luzern for a day or go to Interlaken afterwards. So the train journey would be equally long about 2 1/2 hours. BTW, i have left Geneva for 2 separate half days, since the plane departs at 7.I guess that's Ok. If ignoring the trains , which should I choose?