Need help with Switzerland and Italy iterinary
 

We will be traveling to Switzerland and Italy in July end for 8 days (excluding travel days).
We have a rough plan which looks like this, please feel free to suggest any modifications. Any comments will be appreciated. Kids are boys ages 11 and 7.

Sunday – Land in Zurich , travel to Lucerne, check in
Monday - Lucerne
Tuesday - move to Laussanne (Lake Geneva Area)
Wednesday – move to Interlaken (Jungfrau or Museum of Swiss life)
Thursday – Interlaken (Jungfrau or Museum of Swiss life)
Thursday night on train to Venice
Friday – to Lake Garda
Saturday - Venice
Sunday – Venice to Milan
Monday – Fly from Milan

You valuable suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

I really enjoyed Lausanne, but unless you have a specific interest in visiting it, I must admit that I think you might want to consider adding that time to the Bernese Oberland.

Have you explored options for visiting Lake Garda on your way to / from Venice? Is it enough of a priority to warrant spending so little time in your other destinations?

Hope that helps!

There is no night train to Venice from anywhere in Switzerland - only Munich and Innsbruck and Vienna - day trains take several hours so maybe break your journey at say lovely Lake Maggiore at Stresa or look into cheap flights if 6 hours on a train is not your cup of tea. Lake Garda would be an hour shorter only - but yes stop in Gardaland before going to Venice.

In Switzerland you may want to look at a Swiss Pass as you are doing enough trains to look into it -for lots of great info on Swiss trains and passes and things like the Half-Fare Card and Berner Oberland Pass (covering Lucerne and the Jungfrau Region) or Jungfraubahn Pass - just in the Jungfrau region - so many choices but some kind of pass would probably save you money and let you just hop any train anytime with few restrictions.

Great sources of info on Swiss trains and passes - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Not sure why you are going to Lausanne just to sleep it seems - an extra day there would let you take lake boats on Lake Geneva and hit such lakeside gems as the Chateau Chillon, Vevey and Montreux - the latter two much more romantic places to stay in than the big city of Lausanne.

When going between Lausanne and Interlaken you can take one of Switzerland's iconic scenic trains - the Golden Pass - takes a bit longer than the quicker mainline route but a lot more scenic.

Hi travelwith2kids,

I have some concerns about the ordering of your itinerary -- you are going from north (Luzern) to south (Lausanne) to central/north again (Interlaken) and then south again (Italy).

It would make much more sense to go: Luzern - Interlaken - Lausanne (or rather I far prefer Montreux or Vevey) - Italy. In fact, there is a direct (no changes) train from Montreux to Venice that leaves at 08.36 and arrives at 14.40.

I also don't much care for one-night stops; I think they're counter-productive, giving you too little time there for too much hassle. I would consider skipping either Luzern or Montreux and adding those days to the Jungfrau region.

Have fun as you plan!

s

ditto to all that swandav says! One-night stops suck - unpacking, packing, etc takes time away from sightseeing. Either put two days into Lausanne area or skip it - IMO not worth the time to be there for just a half-day or so.

Realy the time it takes to unpack and pack up and travel time to Lausanne you have at best a half day there - not enough to enjoy - yet add that day to the Jungfrau Region would be sweet - so many things of variety to see and do - you now have about a day and a half - consider taking a boat ride on Lake Brienz to Ballenberg Open-Air museum if that is the museum (free entry with a Swiss Pass - about a $20 or more value p.p.) - from Interlaken-Ost train station - behind it hop on the boat and go via Geissbach Falls - get off take the ancient-looking funicular up to the falls itself - reboard the next boat and get off a Brienz - take a postal bus to Ballenberg - return from Brienz by train to Interlaken - this is a wonderful day but is not the rugged Alpine peaks the area is famous for.

Another whole day would be to take the Jungfraujoch train and incorporate with it the famous and easy Ridge Walk from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg - where you can get the Jungfraujoch train - cable ways go to the Mannlichen from Grindelwald and Wengen - The Mannlichen is one of the most famous vista view points in Switzerland with a 360 degree awesome view over the whole range of the Swiss Alps.

So much to see and do in the Interlaken/Jungfrau region - just going to Lausanne for a half day means you'll be on trains a lot - either more time in Lausanne - like 2 nights or scratch it IMO.

Thank you kja,swandav2000 and PalenQ for taking the time and responding! I will take notes from everything that has been suggested.

Thanks for the thanks! No matter what you do in Switzerland you will love it - especially the Jungfrau Region of undescribable beauty.

Oh and kids under 16 traveling with parents get a free Family Pass with a Swiss Pass and they never pay a dime for any transports - even ones only discounted with passes.