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feedback or suggestion for 10 nights itinerary?

Posted by (new york) on

Hi,
I'm glad I found this website and thanks for lots of great information.

My husband and I visit Switzerland for 10 nights in mid October and like to get some feedback on our itinerary.
Trip is from Florence to Lyon and Switzerland is in between by train. (Lyon is the airport we fly back to US)

Before joining this forum, my itinerary was as below.
Florence - Zurich by flight.
ZRH 1 - St. Moritz 1 - Zermatt 2 (for glacier express) - Grindelwald 3 - Geneva 1 - Lyon 2
I realized Glacier express doesn't work during our visit and Zermatt doesn't seem to operate as usual either. and I read many reviews about the cities in BO area and Grindelwald doesn't seem to be the one we want.

my new temporary itinerary
Florence - St. Moritz by train including Bernia Express or regular.
St. Moritz 1 - Zurich 1 - Lucerne 2 - Wengen 3 - Bern 1 - Geneva 1 - Lyon 1

St. Moritz is based on trip distance and train time. (can be changeable for better stop) I wish to cover Lausanne area as well, but I couldn't think of going there with luggage out of current itinerary. also I'm not sure about missing Zermatt because of October weather. Bern - Geneva - Lyon seems to be a little redundancy as hotel check out - train - hotel check in.

I will appreciate any suggestion. Thanks. Happy Lunar new year!

Posted by
612 posts

I would suggest narrowing down your bases a bit and if some of these places remain important to you they can be done via day trip instead of dragging your luggage around so much and spending valuable time moving lodging so much.

For example, from Luzern you can easily do day trips to Zurich (40 min) & Bern (1 hr) if you want, so I’d take your nights in those 2 cities and put them in Luzern.

St. Moritz is quite a bit out of the way and a lot of extra travel time for 1 night. I’d recommend something like this….

Florence > Luzern - 4 nights (optional day trips to Bern & Zurich)
Luzern > Wengen - 3 nights (optional day trips to Lake Thun or Brienz, Murren/Schilthorn, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, etc)
Wengen > Montreux - 2 nights (Chateau de Chillon, Chexbres to St Saphorin vineyard terrace walk, boat ride to Lausanne)
Montreux > Lyon - 1-2 nights (if you only do 1 night there it would be much easier to just fly out of a Geneva, so possibly take a night away from Luzern to give yourself some time there or change your flight to Geneva)

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you for the advice. Yes two nights in Montreux sound great except we have to give up the train scenery between Tirano and Chur. Wouldn't it be one of the list not to miss? maybe other train scenery is good enough?

Posted by
612 posts

All of Switzerland is beautiful and I’d personally prioritize more time to actually enjoy the places you go over trying to “see it all”. If you keep your itinerary trying to see this many places you’re basically going to just see the country by train and not much time to do anything while actually in the locations. Train rides are nice, but they can’t replace activities that are not seen out a train window.

Posted by
3 posts

Here is the recent update on my route. I'm still not sure about Wengen where it would be somewhat closed. Some could enjoy being quiet and others could feel bored. Should I consider to stay down in the valley area and visit the mountains daily or Mid October is still ok to be around there.

  1. I gave up Bernia Express option since it would be too dark to enjoy scenery view in the shoulder season.
  2. We like to take advantage of hotel Status (Hyatt Global, IHG Diamond) and utilized points.

Florence to Zurich - Train.
Zurich 1 - Park Hyatt (Point)
Luzern 2 - Central Luzern (cash $580 breakfast included)
Wengen 3 - Hotel Alpenrose ($830 breakfast, great view.) Other recommended places were closed for the season.
Montreux 1 - Grand Hotel Majestic (Marriot Certificate)
Geneva 1 - Intercontinental (Points)
Lyon 2 - Intercontinental (Points)

I definitely like to include Zermatt + Scenery train option like Glacier Express or Bernia for next trip.

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