First time to Europe itinerary HELP! Switzerland, Italy, and . . . ?

You have plenty of time to go to Europe again, so no need to stuff everything into this trip.

You could start your trip in Switzerland, do "Northern Italy" ( whatever that means to you) and finish in London to position yourselves for the trip home

Or you could just do the 2 countries you have planned and fill you limited time easily

Do you have any guide books to help you decide what you want to do in the areas you are going? If not, get some

I agree with Joe, but that is for my own travel style as well. I would either do something like fly into major city (Rome, Paris, London) and home from Zurich e.g. A) week in London, Rome, or Paris, followed by a week in Switzerland (but you lose a whole day traveling to get there) and then fly home OR stick with your original thoughts of Switzerland plus 2-3 northern Italian locations but not add in a major city in another country which would rush you and decrease the satisfaction you feel from your adventures. With two weeks I think you can safely go either way. You are always going to lose some vacation time when moving to other cities and with several changes to smaller locations you are still probably going to add up to a day lost in the end, so I think it is your call as to what you really want to do.
Should you choose to stick with your original itin. the forum here is a wealth of info on beautiful places to visit in northern Italy.
On our first trip over I wanted to see as much as I could. On our last two trips over I wanted to stay in locations (big cities with some day trips) as long as I could. Big difference in a quick visit to somewhere versus feeling like you know somewhere.
Now that I haven't helped you make your mind up at all, I hope you will return and tell us what you finally plan to do and how it works out for you.

Have you considered flying into Munich? It is a very interesting large city.
Then the incredible Alps are just two hours south in Tirol, Western Austria. The Dolomites of Northern Italy are just south of Innsbruck through the Brenner Pass. Salzburg is another very popular smaller city to visit, too.
We find this region to be so much easier to travel through than Switzerland, and it is also much less expensive.

Do you have a proposed itinerary? Traveling to/from Lauterbrunnen will require multiple train changes, it is not really "day trip friendly". You might want to consider reducing the number of places that you visit; otherwise you are going to be doing a lot of "drive bys" and not seeing anything. If you really get the travel bug you will start planning your next trip on your return flight home or before!

"returning 12 days later". That sounds like only 10 nights on the ground. Thats much too short to cover a lot of ground as you're proposing. Distances on the map are deceiving and it can eat up most of a day to get from one of those places to another, even if you fly.

Condor has good flights to Europe from Portland, using Frankfurt as a hub, and at decent prices in September.
My proposal:
Fly to Venice and spend 4 nights. Oh, Venice has a beach at Lido.
Train to Stresa on Lake Maggiore north of Milan and spend 2 nights.
Train to Muerren, above Lauterbrunnen and spend 3 nights.
Train to Luzern and spend 1 night.
Train to Zurich airport and flight home.

I like Sam's idea. If you have any flexibility to add a day, I'd do another in Luzern. If you are still wanting to work in a bigger city experience, my recommendation based on where you already want to be would be Vienna.

If I were adding a big city to a September trip that included northern Italy, it would be Rome. The Frecce trains can take you from Venice to Rome in 3 hr. 45 min., and there's no airport involved. I would set up such a trip to begin in your chosen mountain destination and end in Rome, to play the weather odds.

I think Rome is a more interesting city than Munich as well as more geographically convenient. It won't feel very much like northern Italy.

Mind you, I am happy to travel for rather extended periods without hitting a really large city. I often prefer the smaller places because they feel more different from home. Smaller cities don't have as many McDonalds, Starbucks, etc., as you will see in the major tourist districts of a lot of European capitals.

Have you considered flying IcelandAir to Europe? That way you can get an amazing nature stopover in Iceland which is sure to satisfy at least one of you. The only downside is it would take some days away from your total vacation but it's a) still in Europe, b) Iceland is amazingly beautiful, and c) it would count as the second country you were interested in visiting. I would spend the rest of the time in Italy. Trying to do/see too much in 10 days on the ground would not be a good idea.

If not Italy or Switzerland, I'd highly recommend Germany. Lots of beautiful nature and a great city experience in Berlin.

Thank you everyone! To clarify, we're flying out of Portland September 3rd, and need to be back home on September 16th. Travel days to will presumably be 9/3-9/4, travel days home presumably 9/15-9/16. So yes, we're looking at approximately 10 full vacation days.

Glad to share some thoughts with another Oregonian!

Rick Steves' Best of Europe Tour in 14 days takes you from Paris to the Swiss Alps to Bavaria to Venice to Tuscany to Rome. Cut out Bavaria and Venice and you likely have a good balance of what you and your husband are looking for in 12 days. Fast-paced three-country tour that takes you to two of the best cities in Europe and the natural splendor of the Alps.

Day 1 --> Arrive Paris
Day 2 - Paris (Ile de la Cite, Louvre)
Day 3 - Paris (Champs-Elysees and Tuileries Garden, Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower)
Day 4 --> Train to Switzerland - Lauterbrunnen Valley (6-7 hours travel via Basel - may be visit Strasbourg, Colmar, or Bern en route)
Day 5 - Lauterbrunnen Valley (explore Kleine Scheidegg and Wengen)
Day 6 - Lauterbrunnen Valley (explore Murren, Gimmelwald, and Luaterbrunnen)
Day 7 --> Train to Italy - Milano (5 hours travel - may be visit Zermatt en route via Visp or Brig)
Day 8 --> Florence (2 hours travel, consider to visit Tuscany countryside) - (Accademia, Duomo, Renaissance walk)
Day 9 - Florence (Bargello, Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio-Oltrarno)(if you're especially fast-paced, you could travel to Rome this evening).
Day 10 --> Rome (2 hours travel) (Colosseum, Forum, Capitoline Hill, Pantheon)
Day 11 - Rome (Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps)
Day 12 --> Flight home

You could also substitute London for Paris and/or Rome. Budget fly from or to London-->Switzerland or Italy at the beginning or end of your tour.

Or, skip France (and London) and start in Zurich and spend more time in Switzerland (Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus, Zermatt and the Matterhorn, Bern, etc.) or see more of Italy (Venice, Cinque Terre).

Another holiday that could easily end up feeling like a politician's campaign tour ;-)

It's a common mistake, particularly common among young and/or inexperienced travellers. OK, you have the energy and enthusiasm of youth on your side - a distant memory for me - but you should heed the advice of experienced travellers who will almost always try to steer people away from planning too many destinations.

The reason is that, while you will indeed get to 'see the sights', that really is all you'll do - 'see them'. You will have little to no time to really engage with the people and places, nor will you 'see' most of what's in front of your eyes. You will also spend at least half of your time in each place thinking about moving on to the next.

My advice, for approx twelve days on the ground (one or two of which you will be jetlagged), would be two stops maximum, albeit with a car for at least some of that time (but not in cities). This allows for the loss of one full day spent in transit and so assumes you will fly into one destination and out another. If you have to use connecting flights to or from your entry/exit points, you lose even more time.

To paraphrase an old saying, "More is less".

If you leave on 9/3 and return on 9/16, you have 12 nights on the ground. That is enough for 4 stops, as long as you keep it in the same geographic area with good public transport, and fly open jaw. The title of your post is:

First time to Europe itinerary HELP! Switzerland, Italy, and . . . ?

Switzerland and Italy are in the same geographic area with good transport options by train. Go with your first instinct.

I agree with Steves_8 that having just 2 or 3 areas to vacation in is the way to go. If you read the advice of the frequent travelers on here, you'll see that that is a common theme.
Since you have only 10 full days, here's what I would do (and have done when I take friends).

I would spend 5 days in Paris and 5 days in Lauterbrunnen, or a 6/4 or 4/6 split. That will give you both city and country.
Rick Steves has lots of videos and articles and books covering Paris, and it's pretty easy to navigate using the Metro. Most people there speak English to some degree. There are a variety of activities from museums to cafes to catacombs to flea markets to monuments like the Eiffel Tower.

After days in Paris, go to Gare de Lyon where you can take the fast train to Geneva (3 hrs, a very smooth ride with no stops). Order tix in advance because this is the only train where you will need to reserve seats. See www.seat61.com for info.
Grab some lunch in Geneva then get tix to Lauterbrunnen, which is about 3.5 hrs total. (Change trains in Bern, and Interlaken Ost, and for that last leg make sure the train car says "Lauterbrunnen" on the side, because the train splits.)

In Lauterbrunnen, there are enough trails and sights to keep you busy for 10 days. With 5 days, assume 2 will be overcast or rainy, leaving 3 days. I've sent you via private forum mail our dozen fav hikes with maps and pics. Just click on your name in upper right to read your mail.

You could also make side trips to Lucerne, or to Castle Chillon in Montreux on your way to Lauterbrunnen.

Definitely a way to maximize time and hit a "big city" would be to fly into the big city like others are saying and then fly home from there or the closest airport from your last stop. I have done several 10-25 day trips over to Europe in the last 10 years and I always fly into London, Dublin etc before catching a hopper flight with (ryanair, easyjet, other budget airline) to my final destination. Prime example I flew OK to Dublin spent the day in Dublin before my final flight that evening to Milan. Then on my way home after 3 weeks I flew back into Ireland and stayed a few days before coming home. Another trip I flew into London for a night, train to Scotland, Flew to Wales, Flew to Paris, and ended back in London for 2 days before flying home. I think that may be your best Option. Flights in Europe are short, no more than 4 hours anywhere, and thus worth hitting a big city as you are already in Europe and so close compared to Portland. I don't see why you couldn't hit a big city like Berlin or Munich and take the train to Switzerland from there. Or Vice versa fly in to Rome and then take the train to the smaller cities in northern Italy before hitting Switzerland. I love Rome, gone back there 3 times total and definitely recommend it in the fall when there are less tourists and cooler temperatures .
If you go the London route I did a quick search and Portland to London round trip in September is about as cheap as Ive flown across the pond. Approximately $700 round trip. Plus a flight to Zurich is only about $55 so this may be an easy transition to add on that big city. London is fabulous and definitely a great choice to add on!
Hope that helps and makes sense. Happy travels!

I didn’t read all the replies you got. From what you’re describing sound like my husband and I when we were in our 30’s- were only 42 now... 12 days? Lucerne, Berner Oberland and Lake Como. Hiking Biking Snow Sun City life and Beaches.... you’ll both be happy.