6Days 5Nights in Switzerland, need help in planning

elaineshim1
Google up Jungfraujoch and you will see that it is not a town, village, or a place you can stay. It is the top of a mountain, reached by a train tunnel through the mountain. It is visited (expensively) for the view, a restaurant, etc., usually done as a day trip from Interlaken, Muerren, or Lauterbrunnen, when the weather is nice. Those three towns are in the same general area, so pick one to stay in - don't need all three. Interlaken is biggest, with more facilities, at the base of the mountains; Lauterbrunnen, is higher up the valley, and more scenic and less crowded; Muerren even more so. Zermatt, to see the Matterhorn, is further away, and could be done in a day trip, from one of those places but would take a lot of train time. Montreux, is further West, so should be last place you see in Switzerland on way to France. It would really be good for you to pick up the Rick Steves book on Switzerland, watch his video, or another guidebook, and it would help you plan things out. Interlaken Ost is the station you will likely need, but the guidebook would help explain why.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
Actually this is my tentatively plan:
Reached Zurich on 1st may, take train to zermatt straight. Stay a night at Zermatt, next day check out, lock our luggage at the train station. Head to Matterhorn (up and down) then take train to interlaken.
Station in interlaken for the next 4 nights.
Day 3: interlaken - junfrau - interlaken
Day 4: interlaken - montrenx - interlaken
Day 5: interlaken - murren - interlaken
Day 6: head to Paris via TVG train

Do you think this itinerary is a bit too rush? I do not know how long the journey from Zurich airport to zermatt. Is there straight train to zermatt? And the journey up and down Matterhorn and zermatt to interlaken.
And I also did read from a few forum, people suggest I cancel my stay in interlaken and stay in Murren or Grindelwald?

I am hoping someone with more experience will chime in. You can see all the train information easily in English on the Swiss rail website http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html. From the train station at the airport, Zurich Flughafen, to Zematt looks like about 3.5 hours, with change in Visp. In Zermatt, the Matterhorn will be looming over you the whole time, so going up on cable car may or may not be worth it depending on weather. May is late for skiing so they may not all be running. I prefer the short trip up the Rothorn opposite the Matterhorn, which gives great view.

I like Interlaken, but Muerren, Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald are all smaller, and closer to the mountains. I would not do Montreux on day trip. I would stay there at least one night, on your way to France. Interlaken is too much unnecessary backtracking.

PS if you haven't you need to look at the various rail pass options for Switzerland, because some of the trips (up to Jungfraujoch, for example) are very expensive w/o a pass or discount card.

If you're staying 6 nights in Switzerland, I'd stay two nights in Murren, two nights in Zermatt, then two nights in Montreux or Vevey before heading to Paris through Geneva on the 7th day.

If you're staying only five nights, I'd stay just one night in Zermatt and hope you can get there early enough to enjoy a good day there.

Having you given any thought to renting a car, with pickup at the Zurich airport and dropoff at the Geneva train station?