Where in Switzerland
 

Flying into Switzerland from Barcelona. Never seen alps and love scenery have four full days of sight seeing Where would you fly in, stay and visit. Not interested in museums. Any agendas would be helpful. Thanks!

Bernese Oberland

Fly into Zurich and hop a train (basement of airport) for Interlaken. Stay in one of the small villages on the slopes of the Jungfrau, where you have access to a number of hikes and can ascend the mountain any day it is clear on top.

From there you can easily hop the train to Interlaken and take a steamer on Lake Thun or Brienz to the towns of those names which are very different and both fascinating.

You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/
http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en

The Jungfrau Region is to me and many the absolute highlight of Switzerland - glacier-girdled peaks soaring thousands of feet above lush meadows - toylike trains and thrilling aerial gondolas going off in all direction - mountain villages like Wengen or Grindelwald where you are practically eyeball to eyeball with the soaring peaks, etc.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...=1600&bih=1075

Trains are cableways are the best way to get around this area which largely bans private vehicles from going beyong a few places - for lots of good info on Swiss trains, cables, etc check www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

You can fly direct from BCN to either Zurich or Geneva using airlines such as Easyjet or Vueling. The rail connection from Geneva to Interlaken (for your ascent further up) takes about 30 minutes longer than it would from the Zurich airport.

From Geneva to Interlaken you could go via Montreux to hook up with the Golden Pass train, one of those iconic scenic Swiss trains - takes about an hour longer that way to Interlaken but a whole lot more scenic.

http://www.goldenpass.ch/en

Golden Pass official site - check out the vaunted and awesomely unique VIP seats!

https://www.google.com/search?q=VIP+...=1600&bih=1075

VIP seats - but need a first-class upgrade and booking months in advance (on official site) to secure but so so awesome IME!

Well snickles what do you think?

https://www.google.com/search?q=VIP+...=1600&bih=1075

We've ridden in the compartment right behind the driver on Germany's ICE trains many times without paying extra (it's a small first-class compartment, usually the quiet car). The glass door and windows between the driver and pax can go opaque at the flip of a switch, but some of them don't bother, so you can see what's going on really clearly. Once, the driver leaned down for what seemed a l o n g time to get something off the floor and we were tempted to shout: watch the track! watch the track!

He glanced back, saw we were a little agitated, and flipped the switch. Whatever he was up to after that, we couldn't see. Probably better that way.

I've done the Golden Pass both in the very rear-facing compartment as well as the one above the driver. Both were great.

Sounds great. thanks

We've ridden in the compartment right behind the driver on Germany's ICE trains many times without paying extra (it's a small first-class compartment, usually the quiet car)>

I don't think it costs extra to do the VIP seat but there is the reservation fee you must pay to get one and have to have a first-class ticket or pay an upgrade to first class.

I would fly to Geneva, take a train to Montreux, switch to a Golden Pass train to Interlaken OST and take a train from Interlaken OST to Lauterbrunnen. I would stay in Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen will give you an easy access to the most picturesque areas of the Berner Oberland.