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9 night itinerary feedback

Hello! We are travelling the beginning of September and here is our current itinerary. Our first day we fly into Zurich from the US at around 0900, where we plan to take the train from the airport to Vevey. We plan to explore some wineries while we are there, possibly get on the lake. From there, we plan to spend 4 nights in Murren. We picked Murren because we prefer small towns and wanted to stay in the mountains. While there, we obviously plan to do a good deal of hiking. Our last three nights we plan to spend in Lucerne. Our flight out the last day leaves Zurich at 0925 so we'll be leaving early that morning. We felt this itinerary gives us a little days of a few different areas. Our main question right now, is if we should move one of the nights from Lucerne to the BO. In Lucerne we'd be staying near old town, and focusing more on restaurants. so I don't know that we need three nights. In looking at discussing boards it sounds like generally the consensus is to maximize your time in the BO. Thoughts? For reference, our perfect day is a long hike, a post-hike beer, exploring the area and finishing the day with a good meal (and probably a couple more beers :-) ).

Thanks!

Posted by
21139 posts

Our flight out the last day leaves Zurich at 0925

Is this an Intercontinental flight, or flight to elsewhere in Europe, either connecting or a final destination. There is a 5:35 train from Luzern that will get you to the airport by 6:44, which should be OK for an Intercontinental flight. You can take a little later train if it is a European flight. You have to change trains at Zurich HB, but that looks like going down 2 levels on escalators to the underground platform.

If there is a lake you want to get on, the Vierwaldstaettersee in Luzern is the one.

Posted by
612 posts

If your idea of a perfect day is a good hike and beer, then yes, add time to Murren. And make sure to stop at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald after a hike for their Schwarz Monch beer. One of our favorite post Hike traditions :)

Posted by
4956 posts

Ditto on examining that departure time and if you want to have to depart Lucerne that early--for a noon flight, it was great to stay there the last night, but a 9:30 flight would give me pause. Then if you have to move a night to Zurich, you might want to keep it as is. But otherwise, I think two nights in Lucerne would be sufficient.
So it's two nights at Vevey?

Posted by
1529 posts

I would add a day to Murren. We felt 2 nights was sufficient in Lucerne. I'm always sad leaving the BO - even after a week. Could never get enough time there.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks all for the replies so far. So our flight is intercontinental the morning of departure from Zurich. That gives me a bit of anxiety, but less so my travel companion. I guess we are trying to avoid 4 different stops. I'm agreeable to having our lake time in Lucerne vs Geneva. If we stuck with our current plan, that would have us 2 nights in Vevey, 4 nights in Murren, 3 in Lucerne. Based on comments, we could either do 2 in Vevey, 4 in Murren, 2 in Lucerne, and 1 in Zurich to make our flight back to the US a bit less stressful. Otherwise, we could skip Lake Geneva and split our time between the BO, Lucerne, and the last night in Zurich. If we did that, we'd probably do 6 in Murren, 2 in Lucerne, 1 in Zurich. If we were to spend 6 in Murren, would we be looking at significant costs in navigating to other areas in the BO vs staying in Gimmelwald?

Posted by
612 posts

You’d probably want to do the 6 day Berner Oberland Pass + Half Fare Card. That’s 254 chf for the reduced price BO pass + 120 chf for the HFC, which would get you 50% off your time in Luzern, Vevey and/or Zurich. So it’s 374 chf per person + the cost of whatever you decide to do not fully covered by the BO pass.

https://www.berneseoberlandpass.ch/prices-tickets/

Posted by
4 posts

We can't seem to decide whether we should focus our time in the BO and Lucerne, or keep our two nights in Vevey? If we keep the two nights in Vevey, we'd do a boat ride to the Castle Chillon, and we'd want to do the Swiss wine trail. Any strong opinions on cancelling the nights in Vevey and moving them to Murren?

Posted by
21139 posts

It is your vacation and you should do as you like.

Posted by
612 posts

Everyone has personal preferences, but since you asked… :) - if I had 9 days I’d only want to do 2 bases because I don’t like moving every couple days, but some people enjoy moving a lot. Do you want this to be a whirlwind trip or to have more time to slow down? Only you can answer that.

That being said, Vevey is a very different “vibe” than the BO and Luzern, since it’s the French speaking part of Switzerland. We live in Murren for the summer every year, so of course I’m biased to it, but we did spend 2 weeks near Vevey this last summer to see what the area was like and did enjoy Chateau de Chillon and the vineyard terraces. Other than that, there are places in Europe I’ve loved more. But of course you’ll get other opinions that they loved it, so I think it’s somewhat personal preference. I didn’t love how “busy” in general the Lake Geneva Region is - it’s very heavily populated, people working/commuting/traffic/living daily life and felt less “vacation” vibes than the BO does, if that makes sense.

I don’t think there is really a correct answer, but regardless I personally wouldn’t want less than 5 days in Murren to allow for the huge amount of things to do around the Jungfrau Region + buffer days for poor weather.

Posted by
69 posts

Yes, the Vevey area has a totally different vibe than the BO. It is, after all, the "French" part of Switzerland. The BO is German influenced. I personally would include the Vevey area. I usually stay in Montreux as I prefer it over Vevey. You can visit Chateau de Chillon via a lake boat from Montreux. Queen's (the band) former music studio is open to the public for free at the Montreux Casino.
The promenade along the lake is a wonderful place to walk. Easy train/bus connections can take you to my favorite winery in the Lavaux region, Domaine Croix Duplex in Grandvaux. Maude (the owner) and her brother make fantastic wines. Sitting on the terrace of the winery above Lake Leman tasting their wines is so enjoyable. After, walk down past the vineyards to the train station at Cully to catch the train back to Vevey or Montreux. Staying at my favorite quirky hotel in Montreux (Hotel Spendid) with a balcony overlooking the lake, I can watch the sun set with a glass of wine.

https://www.croix-duplex.ch/en/the-domain/

That said, I love the BO area also. Enjoy your trip!