Best stop in Switzerland via train from Paris to Venice

In an earlier thread today, I confirmed that there are some Paris-Lucerne and Lucerne-Venice train departures that can be accomplished with just one connection. It's easiest to see all your options using the DB link at How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online, although that one doesn't sell tickets for these countries. SBB.ch is the Swiss site and will sell tickets, but I don't prefer their page layout.

Lucerne is a pretty ideal place to spend two days in Switzlerland. I hope that you mean three nights and two full days. However, our top favorite is around the Lauterbrunnen Valley, not staying in Interlaken, but near it. You can get from Paris to Interlaken with one connection (then some local transport to a smaller village base) and from Interlaken to Venice with two connections.

The first leg of either trip will usually be Paris-Basel on a reserved, high-speed TGV. These are on sale now through the summer, with some limited-availability advance-purchase discounts.

Best train to take is always the quickest. Just go to your favourite train times lookup site (for example www.bahn.de ) and put in Paris to xxx, date and time. Repeat for xxx to Venice (Venezia Santa Lucia).

As to where xxx is. With a varied group, and not wanting to waste to much time getting to the absolute peak of the Alps (pun intended), I would recommend Luzern. Since each leg of the trip takes ½ day, is your "2 days" two complete days, i.e. 3 nights? I hope it isn't less.
Luzern gives you a nice town to look round (½ day), a trip on the lake (other ½ day), and my personal favourite, a day trip up a real mountain with a glacier at the top to go on and in. Titlis: http://www.titlis.ch/en

I too would suggest a stop in Luzern---hopefully two nights---over Lauterbrunnen. It is a lovely small city right on the lake, with access to lake boat trips and mountain excursions on Rigi or Pilatus. a favorite is the boat---cogwheel railway---cablecar----boat trip to Vitznau, up Rigi by train, ride down by cablecar to Weggis, and back to Luzern by boat.

Staying in Luzern will give you easy access to the preferred route through the Alps, the Gotthard Pass route. (Actually the best route is the Bernina Pass, but that would take longer). If you go to Lauterbrunnen instead, the shortest route to Venice takes you through two veeeeery long tunnels, the deep Lötschberg Basistunnel and then the Simplon tunnel. You can see these tunnels as dashed lines on the Swiss rail map:

https://www.swisspasses.com/railpass/overviewmap_en.pdf

Basically, you are going under the Alps, not "through" them.

The Gotthard Pass route has a few tunnels but they are quite short. And some of them actually make a spiral turn as they lose altitude on the descending side. ( Look for these on the map too--they look like circles). On this route, you ascend much higher into the mountains and have the opportunity for nice views of snowy peaks and hanging glaciers.

Either route will take you to Milan,where you change to an Italian train heading to Venice. That part of the journey is 2 3/4 hours.

I agree with Chris - we spent time in Luzern and Engelberg, and visited Mt. Titlis. It was spectacular, and there wasn't a ton of walking, if that is a concern for your nearly 70 year old family member. One thing to note - when we went to Mt. Titlis, it was during the heat wave last summer, and the temp was a bit above freezing at the top. This made for very slippery walking on the snow - a lot of fun for my kids, but people my age and older were carefully picking their way so they would not take a fall. So, consider footwear carefully for this part of the adventure. You can see dramatic views from the platforms and walk the suspension bridge without these slippery worries - but if you want to really hike on the snow, just know it might be really slippery.

The paddlewheel steamers are a beautiful way to get out on that gorgeous lake, and we really enjoyed our cruise to Weggis/ We walked around, and then had a lovely lunch there, before returning to Luzern. This was on our last full day in Switzerland - it was a lovely, calm way to end nearly 3 weeks of fast-paced and excellent travel in France and Switzerland.

Thank you for all the replies. Is it possible to go to Lauterbrunnen Valley as a day trip if we base ourselves in Lucerne? Or is that travel too difficult to enjoy as a meaningful day trip?

marcie,

I'd also suggest Lucerne, given the composition of your group. It's not only a beautiful and historic city, but also provides a range of activities and good hotels and restaurants.

Taking a day trip to the Lauterbrunnen Valley is certainly possible, although the travel time to Interlaken Ost ranges from about 1H:50M to 2H:27M each way with one or two changes (depending on which train you use). From Interlaken Ost, it's another 20 minutes on the Berner Oberlandbahn to Lauterbrunnen. If you leave early and return to Lucerne in the evening, that should provide enough time for a good look at the valley.