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Are 5 locations in 7 days too much??

Posted by on

We are twenty-somethings traveling to Switzerland for the first time this summer. We are both active and have decided to throw 6 days worth of traveling in backpacks and ride the train to our destinations.

Below is our June itinerary for Switzerland:

Day 1-2: Grindelwald (Arrive in Zurich in the morning, take trains)

Day 3: Zermatt

Day 4: Murren

Day 5: Lucerne

Day 6: Zurich

Day 7: Depart from Zurich in the morning

We have looked at some travel routes by train and the longest routes seem to be to and from Zermatt. Aside from that, most locations seem to be within 1-2.5 hours from one another. The three locations that are locked into our itinerary are Zermatt (even though we know the weather is unpredictable), Grindelwald, and Zurich (we fly into and out from there), but the order in which we visit them can change.

Are we trying to see too much in a 6 day trip? Or, is this totally doable!? We need some major advice before we start booking hotels. If we're being too ambitious in our itinerary, please advise us! What can we change? Should we change anything?

Posted by
1103 posts

With this itinerary, you will spend a lot of traveling. I would cut the number of stops in half.

Posted by
1371 posts

I'd be tempted to switch the order of Zematt and Murren since Murren is so close to Grindelwald. You can get up to Murren from Grindelwald so you may just want to stay 3 nights in Grindelwald before moving on.

Posted by
1443 posts

Much too ambitious for me, but maybe ok for you. Either way, you're spending a lot of time traveling around but not much time experiencing anything.

On day 3 you go from Grindlewald to Zermatt, a 2.5 rail trip. But on the following day you go from Zermatt to Murren, which is very close to Grindlewald already, and another 2.5 hours away by rail. So you're basically backtracking on consecutive days.

I'd skip Zurich on Day 6. There's nothing very special about it from a typical tourist's point of view. Sure, you fly out of Zurich on day 7, but Lucerne has a direct rail link to the Zurich airport (2 per hour, 70 minutes). Unless your flight is super-early, you can get to the airport in plenty of time from Lucerne.

Here's what I suggest:

Wengen for nights 1-4. Car-free, way up in the alps, gorgeous scenery. Abundant hiking. You can visit both Grindlewald and Murren as easy day-trips (on the same day, even).

Lucerne for nights 5-6.

I'd skip Zermatt because you're getting plenty of alps in Wengen. But if you really want to include it, you could do something like this:

Wengen, nights 1-2
Zermatt, nights 3-4
Lucerne, nights 5-6.

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