switzerland
 

HI,
We are planning to take a 7 days holiday to switzwerland.We will be travelling with our two kids sometime in June.We want a totally relaxing,full of nature and beauty kind of a holiday.We dont want to see shopping areas etc..we would be landing at Zurich airport.Can someone please suggest a good plan for us.
Regards,
seema

to me the highlight of Switzerland is the Jungfrau Region around Interlaken - the dreamy glacier-strewn majestic snow-capped peaks of the picture of Switzerland etched in our minds' eyes - a panopy of toy-like trains, aerial cable ways and foot paths for all energies lace the this gorgeous area - stay up in the hills in a place like Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen and just get have the view of the rugged Jungfrau Massif from your hotel balcony.

There are lots of varied things to do in this region - a waterfall inside a mountain (Trummelbach) - train to the Jungfraujoch where you kids will go wild with walking to a glacier, the ice caves and sled dogs - and boat rides on the lakes that bookend Interlaken and on and on - the Ballenberg Open-Air museum is one of the finest in Europe - showcasing Swiss life from times long ago.

anyway it is easy to get there from Zurich airport by train to Interlaken and then trains up into the hills - and investigate the Swiss Pass, valid on trains, lake boats, city buses, trams and free entry to over 400 Swiss museums like the Ballenberg one - about $20 a shot value for adults - and if you kids are under 16 then they get a free Family Pass where they never pay a dime to travel on any train, cable car, etc. Great sties for learning about the Swiss railways, lake boats, passes, etc - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

En route back to Zurich you could hop on the scenic Brunig Pass railway from Interlaken to Lucerne and stay there until your flight as Luceerne is less than an hour from Zurich airport by train. Lucerne is a lovely city on a lovely lake - hop the popular lake steamers to tour the lake.

We want a totally relaxing,full of nature and beauty kind of a holiday.We dont want to see shopping areas etc>

Well that sums up a place like Wengen or Grindelwald to a tea! Only surrounding by some of the planet's loveliest nature! Use Wengen as a base and hop to the Jungfraujoch - summit or down to Interlaken to ride boats that your kids will absolutely adore...over by boat on Lake Brienz perhaps to the Ballenberg Open-Air museum - or down to Lauterbrunnen to see the water cascade inside the cliffs...and on and on and on...

Zermatt and the Matterhorn is the other really awesome area along with the Interlaken-Jungfrau Region that matches the picture of an Alpine wonderland of our minds with reality - but IMO the Jungfrau Region offers much more varied actvities than the Matterhorn area - but this would be another area to consider for peace and quiet up in the Alps - about 3 hours or so from Zurich by train - perhaps 4 I would guess.

I agree with PalenQ about the Jungfrau region. I've taken all 4 of my kids there different years, when they were different ages, and they always loved it. As a matter of fact, when my third son was 12, he was asked what the one thing was that he would want to do on a trip to Europe, and his answer was to go to the ice caves on top of the Jungfrau. (He had seen the pictures of his 2 brothers there). We added Switzerland to that trip because of that wish.

Here are 2 trip reports that might help you. We stayed in Lauterbrunnen the first time when the 2 kids with us were 12:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...burg-paris.cfm

Last summer we went again with the same 2 kids (at 17 years old) and stayed in Grindelwald:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nd-pompeii.cfm

We did not repeat activities other than a hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg so each trip report will discuss different activities that our kids (and the adults) loved. There is so much to do, but my biggest recommendation is to have a balcony facing a valley or the Alps, depending on where you stay. There's the beauty and you might not even want to leave your hotel!

Great advice. Lauterbrunnen valley is an incredibly beautiful place. A nearby aleternate day trip would be the mountain area south of Lucern, around Engelberg down to Trift (suspension bridge). Gondola's funiculars, lifts, walking paths and all kinds of ways to see this area, but with less fellow tourists.

One could split the time between Jungfrau and Titlis areas - say 4 days in Interlaken area and 3 days in Lucerne - from which it is an easy day trip to the Mt Titlis/Engelberg area which I agree is also an awesome Alpine wonderland.