May I second Cicerone's recommendation of Brienz or Thun and their respective lakes as places to stay. I'm particularly fond of Brienz. Beautiful lake and mountain views. Thun is a small city and very interesting. I'm thinking of your comparison to 'the Tuscany experience'. Spiez is lovely, too, but I think the view of the mountains is better from Brienz or somewhere along its shore. I love the look of Oberried -- now that, IMO, looks like a winner in the small village competition. J.

I'm thinking that since both Brienz and Thun are so close to Grindelwald, we'll probably be day tripping there and around the lake.

Still looking at more options for Sat/Sun in Luzern -- the car and parking are the major concerns in getting to/from and in/around Luzern.

But am I the only one having a difficult time imagining Grindelwald as a "Tuscany experience"?

I think the 4% insurance <i>is</i> their cancellation policy. I haven't received my contract yet but if it has additional information I'll post it here.

Not trying to compare Tuscany with Grindelwald -- The comparison would be a central home base to make day trips. We had such a great time doing that in Tuscany in not having to pack/unpack and move from place to place. I hope I haven't confused anybody.

I'm looking at maybe staying in Weggis. Might be a good option and boating to/from Luzern. Park Hotel is booked. How about Seehotel Gotthard?

Okee-dokey. (Weggis does seem like a good candidate.) J.

It seems like the 25th Holiday is spilling over to the weekend. Hotels in the Weggis and the surrounding lake town areas are booked.

Any suggestions for a nice village outside Luzern/Lucerne (doesn't have to be on the lake) to stay to take train trips into Luzern?

Budman, the penny dropped for me this weekend, and I realized your trip is the last weekend in May; the mountain passes I mentioned don’t' officially open until June. If the weather has been warm, you may find that they are open, it will all depend on how warm the spring has been. You will see signs at various points (not sure how you are coming into the Jungfrau area from Germany) indicating which passes are open. Hopefully there will have been enough snowmelt to allow the passes to be cleared.

Did you try Zug? You can get to Lucerne by train from there in 30 minutes or so. Another town to try are Brunnen on the same lake as Lucerne. Sorry, don’t' have any hotels to recco there. I think people on this site have mentioned Hergiswil, just south of Luzerne, as having a few good 3 star hotels and it would have good access to Mt Pilatus, you might run a search for this town name. Hergiswil would be a short ferry or train ride from Lucerne, less than 15-20 minutes.

You could also stay in Zurich and do a day trip to Lucerne, as it is about an hour by train. This would give you more time in Zurich, which has a lot to see and do as well. (I would drop the car off early if you do that unless your hotel has parking, which is unlikely; however the car drop off place is unlikely to be open on Sunday. There are parking garages in Zurich which are not cheap but they are an option, alternatively parking is free on Sundays IF you can find a parking space and you could take the car over early on Monday.)

Also, as it is October and you trip is not until May, it is likely that hotel rooms will open up as people change plans, so if you can get on a waiting list for hotels in Weggis or Vitznau you may be able to get a room there later in the year or early next year. I would not give up on that idea as of yet, but would have a back up just in case.

I got a bite in Brunnen at the Waldst&auml;tterhof Hotel for 2 nights. Question about ferries from Brunnen to Luzern -- how often, and how long does it take. Are they direct or do they make several stops?

Have you tried Gersau on Lucerne's lake? (Just in case, the Brunnen hotel doesn't work out.) J.

budman
The NH hotel in Lucerne is not the Grand National. It used to be called the Kolping. But from the conversation in this thread, since I posted that suggestion, I guess Lucerne is all booked... sorry.
Carol

Carol, thanks for your help. I kinda/sorta ruled out staying in Luzern/Lucerne just because of the new car/parking problems. I'm looking for some place on the Lake and then taking the ferry into Lucerne.

Is it safe to assume that I won't need a Swiss Rail Pass? Since you need to take the train to Murren &amp; Wengen and take whatever boat rides, since I have the car, it wouldn't be enough to make it worth our while?

I don't think there are any non-stop ferries between Brunnen and Lucerne, but you don't have to change ferries, for schedules go to http://www.lakelucerne.ch/. The views on the journey are really beautiful, you can stop off in Vitznau or Weggis or other little towns along the way. You can also take a train in about an hour, some require no changes. You go the &quot;back way&quot; via Arth-Goldau which is William Tell country and pretty as well, you would see another lake and some different mountain and rolling green hill areas on that journey. You could ferry out and train back or vice versa depending on time and crowds at the ferry pier (can be jammed on the Lucerne end on a nice day).

I don't understand Swiss Passes, as I never had to buy one, so leave that to the experts on this board. However I believe that you get free or discounted ferry trips, and discounted cable car trips, which would help in the Jungfrau area. You have to add up all the potential train trips, cable car trips and ferry trips you might take and do the math I guess. I think the Swiss Pass also gets you a substantial discount on the Top of Europe train ride up the Jungfrau. You can get prices for train trips at rail. ch and for the ferry rides on the site above.

We heard from the SeeHotel Gotthard in Weggis. Should be a little closer ferry ride into Luzern.

Thanks everyone for all your help/suggestions.

Zurich is the only place (list night) that I don't have reservations. It seems like Priceline is the best bet for a nice place at a reasonable price. I'll wait until 2-3 months out.

Oops, I don't have a place to stay my first night in Munich.

I'll start another thread. I don't want to stay downtown Munich.

Cicerone, or anyone familiar with Weggis. I just got an offer for the Hotel Albana. Between that and the SeeHotel Gotthard, which one would be a better choice? The Park Hotel is over $400 per night, so I think I'll pass on this great looking place.

I am reading your post with interest since we are planning to pick up a BMW this summer also and go to Switzerland. Last time we went to Austria and Germany. We still haven't decided where to drop off the car. I am having difficulty planning this trip...there are too many places I want to see.

cparris, I found that running from pillar to post is just like putting a check in the box to see everything on one trip. We just picked a small area, and I'm finding we still won't have enough time to see, relax, and enjoy the ambiance of the area.

I read another post about things to do just around the Lucerne area and got information overload.

I'll be back the end of May and post a report. BTW, what are you picking up? I'm getting the X3 this time around.

Hi, Budman. Noticed your comment re last night in Zurich. Maybe you'd like to look into the Zum Goldenen Kopf in Bulach. Nice little town about a 15 minute local busride from the flughafen. The hotel is a historic building restored and renovated a year or so ago. You could even turn in your car the night before and bus back and forth. It's really a snap, the bus picks up folks in several tiny towns between Bulach and the airport. The food at the Zum Goldenen Kopf was good, too. But you could use the train to zip into Zurich for the evening if you so desired. It gets my vote. J.

Thanks jmw44 -- looks like a nice place to spend a last night with a short taxi ride to the airport. I'll check it out. Maybe they might even be able to provide a shuttle?

We stayed at Hotel Gotthard. We had 3 balconies overlooking Lake Luceren and a very modern, spotless bathroom. The hotel looks like an older French Hotel (pale yellow) on the outside but the rooms are very modern with lots of white and primary accent colors. It was a real surprise. We took the boat on the 1/2 hr ride from Luceren. It was a spectacular ride with the mountains all aroundl I believe we made 2 stops before Weggis as commuters and school children were dropped off. Since we had the Eurail Pass, we were able to ride first class in the upper area of the boat, away from the noisy children, commuters, etc. The town is nestled into the hill side. We could have called the hotel and they would have picked up up with our luggae (only a rollaboard each - we travel light) but we walked the 3 blocks to the hotel. After we checked in we took an evening walk and saw the community band, people playing chess with larger than life chess pieces, and watched the swans gliding past us on the lake. It was so restful. We ate breakfast in a cheerful room on the second or third floor of the hotel (included in the price,) and then took the boat into Luceren for a day of sight seeing. We left the noisy city on our boat and were once again transported into the peaceful town of Weggis. They also have a lovely restaurant directly on the lake with wonderful fondue. When it was time to leave they drove us to the boat dock because it was raining. It is pronounced Vehk hees. The Hotel Gotthard owners are lovely people. We recieved a nice Christmas card and note from them the following year.