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advice need for Switzerland in Ten days

Below is my itinerary

I never been to Switzerland, and from what I read the cities are beautiful but it sounds like there are limited things to do in the city compare to Paris, Madrid, London, so it sounds like half a day or day is enough for many of the cities. Someone advised that I should eliminate staying in Lausanne and Bern and stay in Vevey instead and do a side trip from Vevey to Bern. They also said to add a day to Zermatt just in case you have bad weather on one day and add a day to Lucerne and stay only one day in Zurich. I would appreciates any comments to my itinerary below. Also, How much swiss francs do you need to carry for each day or can you survive with just your credit card.

Arrive in Zurich and take a 1 hour train to Bern for 1 night

Take a 1 hour train from Bern to Lausanne and spend 2 nights and take a side trip to Geneva which is 30 minute train ride away from Lausanne.

Take a 3 hour train ride to Zermatt and stay 1 night.

Take a 3-4 hour train ride from Zermatt to Murren and stay 3 nights

Take a 3-4 hour train ride from Murren to Lucerne and stay 1 night

Take a 1 hour train ride from Lucerne to Zurich and stay 2 nights.

Posted by
11315 posts

I agree on at LEAST 2 nights in Zermatt. I would skip Zurich unless you need to be there the night before for your flight. We did Bern as a day trip from the Lauterbrunnen Valley. You could do that and cut down on transfers. So maybe something like this, avoiding one night stops.

Arrive Zurich, train to Lausanne (3.5 hours) - Lausanne 2 nights

Train To Zermatt, 2 nights

Train to Muerren, 3 or 4 nights

Train to Lucerne, 2 nights

Train to Zurich, < 1 hour so arrive day of departure if flight is not too early. Otherwise, deduct a night from Muerren and add it here.

Posted by
11294 posts

Laurel beat me to it - I agree 100% with her itinerary recommendations. You want as many nights in a mountain location (like Zermatt and Mürren) as possible, as a hedge against bad weather.

As for money, my advice for Switzerland is the same as everywhere else. Get out about 400 CHF from an ATM when you arrive. If you end up using all of this, just get more when you need it (ATM's are everywhere, including in small villages like Mürren). If you are putting most purchases on credit cards and don't use all your cash, just put it toward your last hotel bill and put the rest of the bill on your credit card.

Posted by
60 posts

From the cities you listed Zurich is definitely the first one that should get the axe. Lausanne is supposed to be quite beautiful (more so than Geneva). Don't have many memories of Vevey but once you are at lake Geneva there's a lot of beautiful and interesting stuff to see alongside it. Really depends on what your interests are and what time of the year you'll be there.

Lucerne is nice because it has lots of sights around it: Mountains, the lake, Rütli meadow, Swiss Transit Museum, old town, bridges, etc. And if you're comming from Mürren there's the Aare gorge and the open air museum right on your route.

So for simple convenience I'd say base yourself somewhere on the middle of lake geneva and in lucerne and inform yourself about what you can see in and around the cities you mentioned. Then decide if a detour is worth it to you

Like Harold said. Get a good bankroll from ATMs when you arrive and top it up when needed. I'd say you should be good with 100 per day per person even in the more pricey towns assuming you don't need to buy a lot of tickets and the sort with it. But while ATMs are generally easy to find you don't want to keep an eye out for them too often. So getting a good sum up front and stashing some in your luggage gives you breathing room while you figure out your spending rate.

Posted by
3551 posts

Just returned this week from 3 weeks in switz.
Skip Zurich and Bern. Zermatt 2 days, Lucerne 3 days,
Murren 3 days min. Laussane 3 nights with side trips
Hope this helps alittle.