Finalizing Switzerland Itinerary

Lucerne is charming and worth sleeping in. Lots of fun on the farmers' Saturday market days. Take a boat ride to the cogwheel train to Mt. Rigi. See if the open air Cabrio cable car is still running. Safe travels!

Given the time of year and weather, I would have a back up plan to Lauterbrunnen for all five days in case it rains/snows/is foggy/etc.

Lausanne or Montreux would be a nice contrast to the BO. If you’re into wine you can tour the Lavaux wine region, walk the Montreux promenade, go up to Rocher de Naye, etc.

Lucerne can be a good day trip from Zurich, but it’s also worth it’s own stop on your trip.

Wise words from April about having a backup plan. Weather has been erratic here (I am writing from Lauterbrunnen) the past 3 weeks. The Swiss Meteo (get the app) forecast is promising for the next week, but having a car means you can very easily head to the lakes, even over to the Ballenberg Museum, with little trouble.

I would lean toward Lausanne as a more temperate location for your final e nights. A great contrast in geography, culture, language, and food to both Zurich and the greater Berner Oberland.

In case the weather is very rainy in BO, what are some backup plans?

Also, we thought about sleeping in Luzern but don’t want to change four hotels with the baby and all our belongings… which is why we landed on Lausanne, thinking we could discover a different part of Switzerland.

As far as the pass goes for cable cars, trains, which one would you suggest? We would only use it to go to Murren, Wengen, Gimmelwald and Grindelwald. We won’t go to the high summits with the baby because of altitude recommendations. We’ll take the car to Lucerne, Interlaken, Bern,…

I don’t think that there is any point in getting a pass for what you intend to do.

Lauterbrunnen - Mürren regular price return ticket 32.80

Purchase a return ticket (instead of one way), using the Schilthornbahn route. It will be valid for the day and you will be able to get off at Gimmelwald when you want to.

Lauterbrunnen - Wengen return 14.40

You can drive to Grindelwald, but if you want to take the train it will be 18.80

we landed on Lausanne, thinking we could discover a different part of
Switzerland

Good idea!

As to passes, I think you would benefit from a Berner Oberland Regional Pass. It makes getting onto the cable ways effortless, by-passing lines, and not having to think about whether you want to open your wallet. If you love it at Männlichen and want to go every day, with the pass you don’t have to think about it. It also covers the valley bus should you end up shuttling to or fro Stechelberg, or if you decide to ride the train to Interlaken just because you can.

One of my rainy day suggestions — and we did this during a rainy/overcast/ not good for hiking day — joyriding. Hop on the train to Kleine Scheidegg, ride the Männlichenbahn to Grindelwald Terminal and, if you like ride one stop on the train to the town center to have a look in shops, eat lunch, etc. Then return to Terminal, ride the magnificent Eigergletscher Express to Eigergletscher (I don’t think this is too high for the infant) and take the train down to Lauterbrunnen. Fabulous views even in overcast conditions and there are few places in the world you can do such a thing.

List out the lifts you know you will take, a couple of bus rides, at full fare. (Note when you look them up on the SBB website or app, they will assume you have a Half Fare Card so you have to double the amounts shown.) Then look at the price of a 3-day BO Regional Pass https://www.berneroberlandpass.ch/de/all-in-1-ticket/.

Other rainy day ideas are to go to Bern or Luzern for the day. I know you’ll have a car, but you can avoid city parking hassles by taking the train with your BO Pass.

I still have to do more thorough research to know exactly which lifts/buses/trains we want to take. It seems a bit overwhelming to understand.

As you said I will have to calculate individual rides vs. The pass to see if it’s worth it.

Since we are there for 5 nights, I assume we will want to explore our surrounding areas at least 4 full days. If the BO pass covers 3 days, the last day we would buy individual tickets?

What we know for sure is wanting to visit Murren, Wengen, Gimmelward and Grindelwald.

Is it worth switching the itinerary to the following ?
Option 1:
6 nights Lauterbrunnen, 3 nights Lausanne, 2 nights Zurich (day tripping to Lucerne from Zurich)

Option 2:
6 nights Lauterbrunnen, 2 nights Lausanne, 3 nights Zurich

Or keep it as is with 5 nights Lauterbrunnen, 3 nights Lausanne and 3 nights Zurich

Since you mentioned this:

We would only use it to go to Murren, Wengen, Gimmelwald and Grindelwald. We won’t go to the high summits with the baby because of altitude recommendations.

I thought that you were not going to go any higher than Mürren or Wengen. If you are then the suggestions Laurel puts forward are great, including getting the BO pass.

In deciding how many days to allocate to each location, it could be helpful to dive a little deeper to see what each area has to offer that is of interest to you. What kinds of things do you want to do?

Apparently Murren is the highest altitude we should go with the baby, which is why we're considering not going any higher...

But what if we loved Murren/Wengen or the other villages and want to go there multiple times during our stay?

In Lausanne, we want to go to Montreux, visit Château Chillon and of course the city of Lausanne itself.

In Zurich, we will day trip to Lucerne, and visit Zurich. We have to spend a day there for business as well.

In Lauterbrunnen, we just want to enjoy nature and walks (easy hikes) and visit the villages mentioned above. We would also visit Interlaken.

We're planning to visit Bern as a stop when we're leaving to Zurich from Lausanne.

There is a less expensive way to Mürren, via Grütschalp, this does not go through Gimmelwald - return 23.60

So you literally could go to Mürren and Wengen each day for a total of 38.00 x 4 days = 152.00

On one of these days you might go to Grindelwald instead 18.80

I understand that people like the convenience of a pass, but if you are not going higher up into the mountains (this is far more costly) then I struggle to see how it is of value to you.

A 3 day BO pass is 240.00, and then you still have your final day to pay for, but in the end you need to feel comfortable about your choice.

A great day outing could be: drive to Giessbach Falls, walk up behind the falls, continue driving to Brienz, see the beautiful town, walk along the waterfront promenade, continue on to Ballenberg Museum. This would be a really full day and could even be two separate trips, or just pick and choose what parts are interesting to you. All of it is doable in rainy weather.

A nice walk is from Grütschalp to Mürren. It is a relatively flat, wide trail with views of the mountains. I walked it last week and hardly saw another person. It was so peaceful.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions!

So far, to Grindelwald we can drive or take the train.
To Murren, we can go through the Grütschalp route which is cheaper (if we don't want to visit Gimmelwald).

If we want to visit Gimmelwald (is there anything to do or just walking around?), then we will go via Schilthornbahn which is more expensive but allows us to stop in Gimmelwald on our way down.

At what point do you do the Grutschalp Murren walk? Like taking a one-way ticket then walking the other way?

Is the Open Air Museum still open in Mid-October next week?

I'll throw in an opinion that I think Lausanne is not a great option. It's a steep city that requires metro to get up to the train station, so it's not very convenient for day trips and it's just a city. Why go all the way to Switzerland to spend your time in parts of it that are not quintessential to the country in my opinion. I think you'll find it disappointing after the charm of the Berner Oberland. If you really want to do Lake Geneva, then look into Vevey or Montreux, but even then, I think you'll get plenty of Swiss city experience by being in Zurich. Unless you just really love cities, I wouldn't waste that much of your trip to Switzerland on a part of it that's just ok. Stay on Lake Luzern in a more charming area like Brunnen with beautiful lake and mountain views where you can do day trips to Luzern, Bern, Stoos, etc. as well as a boat ride to Fluelen and the fast tunnel train to Lugano with a boat ride to the super charming Morcote on the sunny side of the alps with Italian flair.

@wanderweg We have a car with us, which is why we will be day tripping from Lausanne. We thought it would make for a change of scenery from the German part of the country and the mountains. We do enjoy cities in general.

We thought about sleeping those 3 nights in Lucerne, but thought that we're already spending 3 nights in Zurich, which gives us ample time to do day trips especially to Lucerne...
We have those 3 extra nights in the itinerary that we could use to stay anywhere, but thought Lausanne would give us something different.

We will never know if it's worth it unless we go, right?! I also heard Lausanne is harder to navigate which made me hesitate, but how bad could it be, if we use the metro?

Even with a car I still wouldn't do it, but of course it's up to you. We spend our summers living in Switzerland, so we've pretty much seen it all. Lausanne is one of my least favorite places I've been in all of Switzerland. I'm not saying it's horrible, I'm just saying there are many, many places I would chose before Lausanne. But maybe you'll go and come back to report that you disagree with me :)

It's so tough to pick places to go for the first time!

We thought about staying in Bern and Lucerne but figured they are easy day trips from where we're staying. We don't think we'd want to add more days to the BO region either, since we'll already be staying 5 nights.

At what point do you do the Grutschalp Murren walk?

You can get a ticket Lauterbrunnen - Grütschalp, then walk the path to Mürren. I like going in this direction because you are looking at the mountains the whole way.

Here is a link to the walk:


https://muerren.swiss/en/maps/summer-maps/hikes.html#area=60825263&cat=Hiking%20Trail&filter=r-fullyTranslatedLangus-,r-openState-,sb-sortedBy-0&ipd=39076401&wt=Mürren%20(Switzerland)%0A60825263&zc=12,7.86836,46.55076

Is the Open Air Museum still open in Mid-October next week?

Yes. Closes for the season Oct. 27

https://ballenberg.ch/en/plan-your-visit/opening-hours/

Just a note that going the Schilthornbahn route is only about 10.00 CHF more and is definitely worth going this route at least once and including a stop in Gimmelwald. There is not much to actually do there, but it is so picturesque and worth taking time to walk through.

Thank you for the clarification!

So we'll take the Schilthornbahn route when we want to stop at Gimmelwald, but if we want to visit Murren other times then we'll take the Grütschalp route. Makes sense!

That walk sounds really nice!