Scenic Swiss village towns near Zurich and Lucerne
 

We will be in Lucerne and Zurich. Many people recommend spending less time in the cities and more time in the country side, visiting the little, scenic towns and villages near them. From what I know, Lucerne itself is a small enough town. Besides that, could you recommend a town or two near these cities accessible by train?

Zurich is primarily a business city. And Lucerne is a quite sizable town - but in the lowlands. When people say to visit the villages they are suggesting you go up into the mountains to the tiny villages - and go hiking across the meadows and lower mountains.

From Lucerne you can take a lake steamer to several small towns around the lake (but not IN the mountains) and can take a cable car or railway up Mt Pilatus ot Titlus.

To see real mountain towns you need to head to the Berner Oberland - head to Interlaken and take the train up into the mountain to Wengen or Muerren.

The Berner Oberland is where I would head to. So many little towns to stay in. Beautiful hikes. Spent 8 days last time and heading back for another 3 days to show my kids why I loved it so much. Very easy to reach by train. Car not advised since you can get to everywhere with the trains and lifts in the area. We stayed in Lauterbrunnen and absolutely loved it.

Muerren.

Standinginafield ,
Do you mean Murren? Just in case OP needs to research it. It is a lovely little village, also in the BO.

To me, one of the most beautiful towns I ever saw was Stein am Rhein. It's about an hour from Zurich. Great location on the river and lovely buildings.

There are numerous photos of SaR in our webshots album. See what you think.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554510509SyxotU

Agree that Mürren is a lovely little village. The village itself is nothing spectacular (unlike Stein am Rhein e.g.), it's the scenery around that draws the tourists. It's quite out of the way if you're coming from Munich and concentrate on the Zürich/Lucerne area, though.

Lucerne is very beautiful, the scenery around (with the lake and the mountains) is gorgeous. Not many glaciers to see nearby, though, thus many folks will recommend the Bernese Oberland above Interlaken. An option is a day trip to Engelberg and a cable car ride up to Mt. Titlis, just to see the snow/glacier.

Try Rapperswil at the south end of lake Zuerich, just 30-40 minutes by train from Zuerich Hauptbahnhof. (Has a castle, deer park and lovely lakeside promenade). Or Zug also along its own lake (famous for Zueger Kirschtorte- a yummy cherry cake)!