Message: Binitha
Thanks folks. Keep those cards and letters coming!!! Wife and I are doing Switzerland (or a very small part of it) by train and on into Austria Thanksgiving week. I am saving all your responses so you wont have to answer the same questions from me. Thanks for the info and Binitha -- keep us posted on what you decide and definitely how it comes out.
Shrink

Hi Binitha! Definitely Brienz because the mountain/lake views are better than from Spiez (which has its back to the mountains). Brienz has good train connections with Lucerne to the east and Interlaken, Thun, & Bern to the west. Do try to visit the outdoor museum of Ballenberg (bus from Brienz). Speaking of buses-- the Swiss postbuses are great, and they connect schedule-wise with the trains. Oberhofen on Thun's lake is most easily reached by lakeboat from Spiez or Thun. It has a dandy little lakeside castle, and by the way, Thun has a hilltop castle of interest. So much to see. Have fun planning.

emtravel-- It does take a bit of patience, but I stick with my opinion that you can reach anyplace you want to visit in Switzerland by train, bus, &/or boat. Of course, a car will make it possible to move and stop on a whim. I can't disagree with that. It's just that I don't want to have to watch traffic, look for parking places, and navigate a map, when I could be leaving the driving to the Swiss and spend every bit of my attention looking at the marvelous passing scenery. J.

p.s. Binitha, has anyone answered your recent question by saying 4 days is definitely not too much. You could spend a week in Brienz and never run out of daytrips. By the way, there's a lovely waterfall across the lake from Brienz (go by lakeboat), and a Sherlock Holmes town somewhere in the vicinity. Its name always escapes me. And if you run out of places, consider a trip to Solothurn. It's almost undiscovered and a lovely old town. J.

Hi everyone....
Thanks to all,this forum has helped me a great deal in planning my intinerary.This as follows:
1st day -Arrival in Zurich.Taking the train from zurich to interlaken
3 days-Interlaken.From here we can take the day trips to bern,lucerne,junfraujoch..etc
2 days-Brienz.Day trips to open air musuem,sherlock home town etc..
3 days-Zermatt.If we get the time,we might take part of the glacier express
2 days-Zurich.Fly out of Zurich airport.
I am now trying to find out trains out of Zurich aiport to take me to Interlaken West station.
The names for the stations are quite confusing.Please advise the search criteria in sbb.ch if i were to take train from zurich aiport to interlaken west.(there seems to be too many names for train stations in zurich)...PLS HELP...

I suggest you skip Interlaken and add these days to Brienz. Both are a very short train/ferry ride away from each other. You can do day trips as easily as from Interlaken.

For the train schedules: Plug in "Zurich airport" and "Brienz" via "Luzern". The route via Luzern and the Brünig Pass is much more scenic than the route via Olten and Bern.

On your ride back from Zermatt to Zurich you can do part of the Glacier Express: Zermatt - Brig - Andermatt. Get off there and change for the train to Göschenen, where you have to change again for the train to Zurich. Plug in "Zermatt" to "Zurich Airport" via "Andermatt".

Ingo

Don't stay in Interlaken. It's crap. Instead, go up the cogwheel to Murren or Wengen. It's an extra hour or so of your time, but well worth the effort.

Hi ...im relying on the Swiss Travel system completely for this trip.I am coming from a traffic burdened city in middle east and do not intend driving around in swiss.
What are the facilites that i can avail if i buy the Swiss Pass and what is the rate for the pass for 8 consecutive days travel.also advise other rail passes that i need to take in bernese oberland.Do i need to buy extra passes for the scenic trains??? binitha

Hi. Take a look at the sbb.ch website. On one of their pages there is info re the 8-day Swiss Pass. It covers trains, buses, and boats, as well as city transportation in many places. You will need to use your pass quite a bit to make it a bargain. There are threads here that go into great detail about the topic. I love the spontaneity that the pass affords, and I am a traveler who gets great pleasure from riding from place to place -- long and frequent sidetrips are fun for me.

Folks will also be able to tell you about coverage on the mountain trams, etc. Stay tuned. J.

Grindelwald would be a most experienced choice. Stay in this lodge, which is right at the entrance of the town, very economical but clean with a personal touch. We stayed there previously and plan to do so in the 2nd week of September. This location is wonderful if you have a car else trains are easily available. Drop Montreux. Enjoy your trip. From here you can move each day to one destination and back. The Grindelwald itself has enough to keep you busy for 2 -3 days.

Hotel Jungfrau Lodge
Familie H. Markle, CH-3818 Grindelwald
Tel: 41-(0)33 854 41 41
Fax: 41-(0)33 854 41 42
www.jungfraulodge.ch email: [email protected]

Thanks for that info, yildy. I'm tentatively planning a trip to include Bern, Luzern and Grindelwald, and always appreciate hearing about economical accommodations.