We'll be leaving soon for 2 days in Paris, 2 in Geneva, 5 in Lauterbrunnen, one in Lucern, Stein Am Rhone, and 2 in the Black Forest. I'm travelling with my 14 and 16 year old and my husband most of the time. I've been reading the posts here and have found them to be really helpful. I've got a couple questions before we finalize all of our plans.

We arrive in Geneva one afternoon and will visit St Peter's as my son is interested in history and the archeological site looked interesting. For Saturday, I'm thinking of getting to Gruyere. We've read about the chocolate train but wondered if it was difficult to get there by ourselves. Or are there other options for daytrips? We prefer to visit smaller towns as opposed to larger cities.

We're interested in so many activities in our time in the Berner Oberland - Jungfroujoch, Trummelbach Falls, hiking, mountain biking, summer luge, and Ballenbach. We'll just have to watch the weather to see what we do when. I thought I had read about motorized bikes in this area but I can't seem to find that post. Does anyone have information on where they are available?

Finally, we've purchased a three day flex pass and will activate it to go from Montreaux to Lauterbrunnen. Do we need to make a reservation on the Golden Pass panoramic train on a Sunday? We'll use the 2nd day to ascend the Jungfraujoch, which we've already purchased tickets for. We're trying to decide what to use the 3rd day of our train pass. Would a daytrip to Brig and then Glacier Express between Brig and Andermatt an good option? (We'll be renting a car to drive from Interlaken to Lucerne and for the remainder of our trip.)

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Hi famtraveller,

You can make the trip to Gruyeres by yourselves very easily. Use the Swiss rail site at

www.rail.ch

for the schedulels. Your destination to get to Grueyres will simply be "Gruyeres." The medieval village is on a hill that is about a five-ten minute walk from the train station, but you can't miss it. Just follow all the folks walking up! The cheese dairy is right next to the train station.

Your destination for the chocolate factory is "Broc Fabrique." You can get information about opening hours, cost, and tours at

www.cailler.ch

You do not *need* reservations on the Golden Pass at all, but if you want to sit at one of the larger panoramic windows, you may want to go ahead and make them. If you are travelling during peak tourist season of July and August, you may find some trouble getting a seat at all, not just finding a seat at a panoramic window. If you want to make reservations in advance, you can do it online at

www.goldenpass.ch

You may find that you'll be repeating some of your journey to Gruyeres on the Golden Pass, as Gruyeres is just off that line. If you want to save some time and do the trip only once, you can do it enroute. Just send your luggage ahead as "Fast Baggage," then go from Geneva to Montreux, Montreux to Gruyeres, Gruyeres to Broc, and Broc to Lauterbrunnen. Just a thought!

You may find that having a car in Luzern is quite a headache. Luzern is a city, and the best bits are the pedestrian areas and the old-town areas, not very car-friendly. Also, parking might be a hassle to find and expensive to pay for. And really not all that useful to my mind -- more fun to get around by lake ferry, bus, or train.

Anyway, have fun!

s

>We'll use the 2nd day to ascend the Jungfraujoch, which we've already purchased tickets for.

Too late now, but for the record: a very bad idea to pre-purchase the tickets. there is absolutely no advantage in it and the disadvantage is, if the weather doesn't paly along you have spent a few hundred franks to look at dense fog.

>We're trying to decide what to use the 3rd day of our train pass. Would a daytrip to Brig and then Glacier Express between Brig and Andermatt an good option?

In my opinion the part ebtween brig and Andermatt is nice but not that spectacular. You also seem to want to stay in a train for most of the day - not a wise decision IMO. Use your time to be in the mountains and breathe fresh air, not inside a moving glass box.

>We'll be renting a car to drive from Interlaken to Lucerne and for the remainder of our trip.)

Why? It doesn't make sense to jump between the means of transportation like this, especially with your itinerary. Rent a car for the part of the trip for which you really
need one - and that depends on your plans. For example Lucerne and car are not a good combination.

A pedantic note: it's Stein am Rhein (Stein on the Rhine), not Stein an Rhone - completely different rivers, though both begin in Switzerland...

Of all people here, Altamiro should know and have told you that the windows on Swiss trains INCLUDING the Glacier Express OPEN..even the huge ones in the Panorama Cars so don't be intimidated by the Charles Atlas breathing the air stuff...but I DO agree that the portion Brig-Andermatt while very scenic is probably not worth the day trip and pass use and I've done the entire GE trip FOUR times.
OTOH if you want to go to Brig or Visp and then go in the OTHER direction...take the train up to Zermatt..the 1.5 hours trip is plenty scenic and then consider the possibility of ascending even higher for a possible closer look at the Matterhorn peak.

if you were going to be longer in Lucern another great day trip (which you can easily do in HALF a day is use the pass to go up to Engleberg (one hour out of Lucern and then take the three-segment cableway trip up to Mt. Titlis. The final stage is in the Italian cablecar with the revolving floor for a 360-degree view.

I also agree that in Lucern you really don't need a car...

>Of all people here, Altamiro should know and have told you that the windows on Swiss trains INCLUDING the Glacier Express OPEN..even the huge ones in the Panorama Cars so don't be intimidated by the Charles Atlas breathing the air stuff..

Actually no, the huge ones in the Glacier Express and also many newer cars DO NOT open, as it does not make sense to build in A/C and then allow the windows to open. Older cars in "normal" trains on mountain lines often open, but these are also slowly replaced by new ones.