First trip to Switzerland - want to do some mild hiking

Why spend a night in Zurich on your arrival? Unless you think you just won't be able to lift a finger upon your arrival into Zurich - I would suggest just hopping on the train directly under the airport and heading for Lauterbrunnen as quickly as possible.

www.sbb.ch is the best website for looking at train schedules between cities. don't really understand when you say one overall plan for everything. You don't need to book trains ahead of time. Just show up, buy a ticket and hop on.

Routing sounds OK. Zermatt to Lugano involves going via Domodossola and the picturesque Centovalli line.
"If we skip Zermatt, is it practical to go from Lausanne to Lugano?" - Yes. or you could start with Zürich - Luzern - Lauterbrunnen, and at the end go direct from Lugano to Zürich.

"wondered if there is a website that you can plan train travel by inputting the individual destinations, picking a time for departure, and have one overall plan for the trip?" - That is precisely what you can do on www.sbb.ch Put in the start and end locations, date and time and it will find you the fastest route. The only catch is you have to spell place names correctly. For example Zürich Flughafen to Lauterbrunnen, at 10:00; and it says 10:188 (arrive 12:55), 10:40, 11:40 etc.. And if you expand ech options it shows all the stops and times at each stop.

There are other shorter and easier routes between Zermatt and Lugano that don't involve the CentoVallli Railway. Travelling via CentoValli requires a "detour" via Locarno and more changes. One of the easiest routes is a departure from Zermatt at 08:13, arriving Lugano at 13:32 (time 5H:19M, 2 changes at Brig and Milano Centrale).

You can also research rail journeys on the Bahn.de (German rail) website. I'm not sure the trip to Zermatt will be worth the effort for one night, as that will only provide a few hours one evening to see the place. If you decide to skip Zermatt, you can easily get from Lausanne to Lugano in about five hours, with one change.

This is very helpful information as we are still finalizing our plans. Thank you.

You have 3 nights in Luzern followed by a night near the Zurich airport the day before departure. I think this is a waste.

You should spend your last 3 nights in Luzern. Luzern has a rail connection directly to the Zurich airport. Trains leave every half hour and take about 70 minutes. In my last visit I stayed in Luzern on my last night, caught a 7am train to the Zurich airport, and arrived about 8:15 -- plenty early for my 10:30 am flight to Atlanta. The Swiss Rail site has the details.

This will also free-up a day in your itinerary to spend somewhere else!

way to go Fast_Eddie! I couldn't have said it better myself :-)

Wow, thanks for all the tips. That's great advice. We're moving forward with our plans. One last question, if you had one extra day, would you spend it in Lausanne or in Lugano.

General rule for Alpine planning without the benefit of a short-term weather forecast, especially if you want to hike: give each location a minimum of three nights. Alpine weather is fickle. If you only allot one full day to a location, bad weather can wipe out an entire day's activities. So to truly appreciate each destination, make sure you hedge against bad weather. It's not a matter of "if it rains", it's a matter of "when it will rain".

Some of the most spectacular hiking I've seen anywhere is on the slopes above Zermatt. I just haven't seen anything so breathtaking anywhere, even in the Berner Oberland.

Our family did the same thing Fast Eddie and Tim mentioned - we left Luzern early on the morning of our flight home from Zurich. It was a bit stressful to get all five of us ready and out on our way quickly, but we walked to the train station with our bags, had the short trip to Zurich, and had plenty of time to spend the last of our Swiss francs on bags and bars of chocolate at the Coop in the airport past security. :-)

The hotel we stayed at in Luzern had an excellent breakfast, included in our room price, which was a huge value for our family of five - another reason we opted to stay in Luzern until our morning of departure from Zurich.

Have a great trip!

Laurie

The Swiss Panorama web site has live webcams from several peaks around the Oberland. Check them before you spend time and $$$ on a visit to the Jungfraujoch or the Schilthorn, as such visits are not worth it in cloudy weather.

I second the person who asked why were you staying in Zurich the first night? If you think you can handle it after your flight, I would be on my way. Zurich hotels are quite expensive and I think you will be glad to wake up somewhere else the next morning. The only thing I would have changed on my 3 week trip last summer is that I would not have stayed in Zurich for a night.

Thank you all for your replies and conversation. They have been a great help in our planning process. I never knew how helpful these travel forums were; and now I know. Happy Travels!