Family trip with 13 nights in Europe

After landing in Zurich, spend your first 2 nights in Lucerne and then 4 nights in Lauterbrunnen. Lucerne is a beautiful small city with two mountains nearby (Rigi and Titlis). You can take cable cars to the top of each. There are several small villages lining Lake Luzern, with ferries connecting them all. Luzern has nice lake-front parks where your children can play with local children.

Lauterbrunnen is in a mountain valley wedged between the Jungfrau and the Schilthorn mountains. There are lots of small villages to explore, hiking, biking, waterfalls, train to the Jungfraujoch, cable car to the top of the Schilthorn, and more.

After visiting Lauterbrunnen you should go to Italy. I will let the experts on Italy weigh in on where to go.

A rail pass of some kind will probably be a good idea for Switzerland. The Swiss Travel Pass or Half-Fare Card are usually the best deals for a stay of 5-6 nights. The passes and discounts cover trains, cable cars, ferries, and buses. The Travel Pass covers museums as well. This page has the details.

I hate to say it, but $90 US/night for apartments will be a challenge, especially for Switzerland. Have you researched this?
In Switzerland, when you get the Half Fare card for 120 CHF per adult, you can get a free Family card which allow your kids to ride for free. Without the card, they ride for half the adult price. www.sbb.ch/en
In Italy, you can buy advance purchase nonrefundable tickets for mainline rail journeys. Your daughters pay half price. For instance, there are supereconomy tickets Florence to Rome on June 19 for 58 euro total, (19 EUR per adult and 10 EUR per child). www.trenitalia.com
I'll just set a proposed itinerary.
3 nights Luzern
3 nights Varenna
3 nights Florence
4 nights Rome
Good luck. Start looking at apartment prices.

Luzern: "Backpackers Luzern", call them, there are two kitchens and refrigerators and a good grocery store down the street. Only a microwave available for breakfast but you can cook more at night, get plastic food storage containers at the grocery store, and cook at night, refrigerate, and reheat in the microwave in the morning. Oh, and buy a 6-pack of boiled eggs at the grocery store. Good protein early in the morning with no cooking.

want to spend equal time in swiss and italy.

• would the 8 day swiss family pass be a good option or should i go for the half fare card?
• or should I take a rental self drive car in swiss and return it there only, get the train to venice and again hire a car there?
• should i include rhine falls also. heard that there are nice places nearby like black forest.
• heard of an area in switzerland where there is a big park depicting the life and culture of switzerland but not sure of the name. something bougen ball or like it?
• thinking 7 nights in swiss (land in zurich, spwnd day in rhine falls, then 4 nights in luzern and 3 nights in some other place), 2 nights each in venice, florence and rome.

•heard of an area in switzerland where there is a big park depicting the life and culture of switzerland but not sure of the name. something bougen ball or like it?

I think you are referring Ballenberg, near Brienz.
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/open-air-museum-ballenberg.html

is ballenberg and /or rhein falls worth the trip?

The open air museum at Ballenberg is a nice look at pre-industrial Switzerland. It's worth a day trip from the Lauterbrunnen area if it's a cloudy day. All sunny days in Switzerland should be spent in the mountains.

Rhine falls is too far out of the way given that you would have to back-track to get back to Switzerland and then to Italy. Save it for another time.

Switzerland's public transportation system is very good so it's usually not necessary to rent a car.

Sounds like you need a good guidebook or two. And unless you're geo-blocked, you can watch Rick Steves TV shows about Switzerland, Italy and all of Europe on Youtube or on this website or on Amazon. Or other people's home videos, if you like. There's no excuse nowadays for not doing research before your trip, and it will make it all so worthwhile.

For a truly once in a lifetime trip, you might also consider paying an experienced travel agent for their connections and expertise.

Hi:

This is the itinerary I am planning to follow. Please correct me if any changes are required. Traveling with family (wife, 2 daughters (6-12 age))

Day 1 Zurich (7 AM)-lauterbrunnen (apartment booked)
Day 2 luaterbrunnen
Day 3 lautterbrunnen
Day 4 lautterbrunnen-zermatt
Day 5 zermatt
Day 6 zermatt-montreux
Day 7 montreux
Day 8 montreux-venice
Day 9 venice
Day 10 venice-cinque terre
Day 11 cinque terre
Day 12 cinque terre - pisa- rome
Day 13 rome
Day 14 rome-flight

I have lots of questions:

• is it fine to do zermatt and then montreux or should I reverse the order
• I want to do junfrau and either titlis or shilthorn, pls advise. titlis is more popular
• what all boat rides I should be doing based on this itinerary
• would a half fare card be better or a full swiss pass?
• what are the things/trips to do in montreux, venice, cinque terre and rome?
• do I need a eurail swiss+italy pass instead or should I take a swiss pass and a separate italy pass. basically need to know how to best travel in italy economically
• should I add night in florence after pisa day trip and reduce a night from rome or venice
• should I take a night train from montreux to venice. what are the options? are they good and what cost?

I have worked out this itinerary after a lot of research and now need help in fine tuning with the final plan, travel, day plans etc. Help will be highly appreciated.

can someone pls help.

I have 7 nights in switzerland in which i have made the first 3 nights reservation in lauterbrunnen. I am thinking of next 2 in zermatt and next 2 in montreux but I am not fully sure. Can you suggest what should I be doing considering that on the 8th day I have to take the train from domo.

I want to do junfrau and either titlis or shilthorn, pls advise. titlis seems more popular

what all boat rides I should be doing based on this itinerary?

I am also not sure if any scenic train ride (like golden pass, bernina, glacier) can be done. would love to do atleast one?

How is the chocolate train? should i stay in montreux for that?

would a half fare card be better or a full swiss pass?

what are the things/trips to do in montreux?

pls help. its already mindboggling with all the research on the web so far.

Take a deep breath, and say to yourself, we can't do everything and we don't absolutely have to decide everything now. You have options.
Perhaps the Swiss Travel Pass will work best for you. Once you make that decision, you can cross a big item off the to-do list. You can decide your route of travel spur of the moment. And Switzerland has lots of scenic train rides that do not have famous names. For instance.
1. Travel to Lauterbrunnen from Zurich via Luzern. The stretch from Luzern to Interlaken over the Brunig Pass is very scenic.
2. Travel from Lauterbrunnen to Zermatt via Kandersteg for another scenic route through the old Loetschberg Tunnel, instead of the new faster route which tunnels completely under the mountain.
Remember, the reason the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, Chocolate Train are famous is because they have an advertising budget.

You don't have to decide these now. You can look at the weather and vary the route accordingly.

The Jungfraujoch? Wait until you are there and look at the weather before you decide to spend the time and money.

In Montreux, visit the famous Chillon Castle on the lake. And there are opportunities for boat trips there as well as Lauterbrunnen.

You have flights booked, lodging booked, transportation is a known (you know it is available and convenient). Now comes the easy part, enjoying the trip. One last tip, listen to your wife and kids about their desires. It won't be a fun trip if they don't have fun.

thanks sam. you are indeed super. thanks for all the advise.

i need to still book the accomodations. done in lauterbrunnen and zermatt but rest remain.

after 3 nights in lauterbrunnen and 2 in zermatt, should I bgoing to montreux or somewhere else?

in montreux where should i be staying so that i can catch the early morning train to domo? are the b&b's available to the south of the lake (Evian, Thonon) accecible via boat early morning to montreux train station?

in my itinerary where can i take the kids for a great chocolate making and tasking experience?

I would not recommend staying in Evian or Thonon and relying on taking the boat over to Lausanne to catch your train to Venice that morning. Besides the boat ride, you would then have to take the Metro from the dock area to the train station, all carrying luggage. If you can find a place near Montreux station, that would be ideal. You also could look in Lausanne, which is a large city nearby and you can also board the train to Venice there.

There is always the Chocolate Train excursion from Montreux to Broc to tour the Maison Caillier Nestle chocolate factory. It is an all-day excursion and includes a stop in Gruyeres for a cheese making tour. It is a bit pricey (69 CHF with a 2nd class Swiss Travel Pass, 80% discount for children). You could do this on your own. The entry fee is 12 CHF for adults, but children are free. If you have a Travel Pass, just board the train in Montreux, change trains in Montbovon. Takes 1 hour 40 minutes to get there.
https://cailler.ch/en/maison-cailler/la-chocolaterie-suisse/

I heard that instead of going to the chocolate tour better experience is to go to local chocolate artisans. in the factory its more of just the audio visual tour and packing of chocolates. pls advise what would be better.

in my itinerary is there any place where I can get a great chocolate experience.

Yes, find hotel in Montreux near train station. Rick's guide should list them, or you could try some google mapping.

Looking for advise of two few more things:

• after landing in zurich at 7 AM, should I go straight to lauterbrunnen or should I keep luggage in locker and go to Rhein falls? is it worth the time and detour?
• is chocolate factory near montreux really good?
• how can I do mt. titlis and rigi in this plan?

Going to the Rheinfall is totally up to you. I find, on this site, most of the interest comes from visitors from India.
I don't think Rigi or Titlis are practical without staying in Luzern. You will have plenty of opportunities for mountain excursions in Lauterbrunnen and Zermatt and Montreux.
Chocolate factory is also up to you. Since they run a daily train to Maison Caillier, it must be popular. But the train ride is part of the allure. As I said, this can be done without using the pricey special train. Same tracks, same mountains.