Another "need itinerary help" question

I didn't see the earlier itinerary discussion so can't comment on that.

But if you fly out of Geneva and your flight isn't too early, consider staying in Lausanne. It's about 45 minutes away by train from there to the Geneva airport. A much nicer town with a better view across the lake at those beautiful alps.

And is is possible to have just a 3 hour stopover in Bern while travelling from one destination to the next? Many trains go through there enroute and this might work for one of your travel days. And the Bern train station has bag storage.

Thank you, Teresa. I don't think I was very clear. There isn't another post from me, but it seems most of the questions on the Switzerland forum are some variation of "Help me with my itinerary!" We'll be coming from Murren via Interlaken, so Bern seems the wrong direction if we're headed to Zermatt or Lausanne. If we fly out of Zurich I would consider a visit to Bern. Did you like it? Enough for a night or two?

If we fly out of Geneva, we will definitely be staying in Lausanne.

The Lausanne area along the lake is just beautiful. I think you will love it as something quite different from the BO area. Yes it's a city, but it has such an impressive lakefront, and so much to do if you hop on a boat or train, you won't feel it is a city at all.

There is a lot to see and you have listed already what I would recommend most. I would also suggest exploring the wine country east of Lausanne.

Zermatt is wonderful, but very limiting if the weather is bad. If you really want to try to get there, I would suggest finding a hotel in Lausanne that has a good cancellation policy and then if the weather looks promising while you are there, you can head to Zermatt instead. MAJOR caveat here. I did this last year, but it was in late May, not early September. Bookings and availability may be quite different at that time.

I personally don’t love Lausanne. Especially after spending 6 relaxing days in Murren, Lausanne is going to be a lot. You have to take the train to the metro to get down to the water because it’s a steep city. If you want to do Lake Geneva, I’d recommend Montreux, Vevey or one of the smaller villages along the water with train access. For example, we stayed in the beautiful village of St.Prex. It’s off the tourist radar but has very authentic French village vibes and is on a train line to Lausanne and has a boat stop in order to see Chillon/Montreux/etc by boat. That or Zermatt would be better than Lausanne IMO.

Thanks both of you. Your perspectives are helpful. I've pinned down flexible reservations for Lucerne, Murren (keeping this for sure), and Zermatt. Waiting for my traveling buddy to read the Switzerland book and weigh in, although she'll probably defer to whatever I want to do.

Now thinking of skipping Lucerne and heading straight to Murren, leaving a little more time for Zermatt/Lausanne area. I'm a slow traveler and 🇨🇭has way too many beautiful places!

I have visited both Montreux and Zermatt five times. Once was in early September. Absolutely love both towns. Lausanne was way to big. Stay in Montreux and take the boat to the Olympic Museum. Day trips from Montreux include Gruyeres (cheese, walled city, castle), Broc (chocolate factory) and the vineyards of Lavaux. Actually, took a day trip from Momtreux to the Olympic Museum and then took a train from Lausanne to Grandvaux to visit a winery and walk the paths through the vineyards towards Lac Leman. Then trained back to Montreux.

Zermatt is my favorite. I book a hotel with a view of the Matterhorn. In all the trips I have taken there, I have always been able to view the Matterhorn. Even in December when it snowed. Clouds and fog pass quickly. Sit on the balcony as the sun sets sipping a glass of wine or a beer! Cable cars up to Klein Matterhorn lead to fabulous views (you can see into Italy). So does the train up to Gornergrat. Sit at the Panorama Self Restaurant deck with a snack overlooking the Matterhorn and the Gornergletcher! Easy hiking down from Gornergrat to intermediate stations.

Have fun planning!

If you’re a slow traveler, I think keeping it to 2 stops might be great for you. We live in Murren for our summers every year and never tire of the area, spending months there. It’s a peaceful, idyllic place to be. This last summer we decided to spend 2 weeks on Lake Geneva at the end of our summer before heading home to try something new and when we stepped off the train in Montreux I immediately wanted to be back in Murren. It’s not that Montreux and all that doesn’t have lovely stuff to do and we did enjoy it, but after the peacefulness of a car free village, it felt like a bit of a scenery overload to be dodging traffic, etc.

Have you considered doing this trip in reverse? Start out in one spot - Montreux, Zermatt or Luzern and do your “busier” few days first and then end with tranquility for a week in Murren. That’s what I would do :)