Kay2

Have to underscore the unpredictability of the weather. We stayed in the BO in late May/early June and one day you couldn't see the mountains plus snowing and the next day was perfectly clear and warm. People would look at the webcams in the train station and check weather report for the day before booking. I think this is more expensive and you risk the train being sold out--others can tell you. Because the day we had blocked to go up to top of one of the mountains was the cloud/snow day, we hiked instead and did not make to the top that trip (I've been to Pilatus before and enjoyed it.)
My personal opinion as a mountain lover is that I don't have to go to the top of all of them, that I also enjoy the hiking around the villages and fields with the mountains in view (when the weather cooperates). I enjoy not only riding vehicles to look at the mountains, but feeling like I am in the mountains on foot, stopping for photos, picnic lunch, etc. If you are lucky like we were, some of the flowers may be late. They were gorgeous and we would have missed the fields of flowers below First if we hadn't had the cloudy day canceling our trip to the top of the mountain.
Rick Steves has some good suggested walks in the area.

kaleighmh

Thanks for the advice! I did not include the Matterhorn simply because it is just not convenient to our itinerary, and I don't want to be more rushed than we already are. I have "scheduled" Pilatus, Jungfrau, and Schilthorn into the itinerary... if all goes well, we will see all three! If the weather is not good, then we will have to miss out. We just don't have enough flexibility if the weather is bad unfortunately. We leave in 16 days, so excited!

tomatonose

/kaleighmh/

Which places did you visit? I found your post very interesting and am eager to know where did you go and what did you see. We are going to Paris ,Switzerland and Itlay in the beginning of September . We have 4 days in Switzerland and we are thinking of going to bern, Lucerne , Pilates and zermatt. Am I being too ambitious? I am a bit of an overplanner too and I try to squeeze the most out of my travel time generally but I want this trip to be a 'bit' of an exception.

mokka4

Yes, IMHO, 4 days is too much for all those places. Base in Luzern and easily visit Pilatus from there. If the weather is rainy or cloudy, daytrip to Bern. Skip Zermatt on this trip as it is an outlier. Focus on the delights of the Berner Oberland.