Help: Activities/passes for 5 days - Lucerne, Wengen & Jungfrau region

Are your hotels set in stone? If not, I’d recommend a bit of adjustment because you’re spending valuable time on a short trip checking in and out of hotels. Every time you change hotels you’re losing half a day realistically and you have a really short trip. With a 1 pm flight you can easily get to the Zurich airport from Luzern. Don’t waste a day in Zurich, it’s a nice banking city with some points of interest but not really what you fly to Switzerland for. If it were me I’d be basing in 1 spot the whole time and doing day trips from there. The train system is so efficient that you can easily see many things without eating up time changing hotels and moving your luggage. If you want to add in Luzern you can do that at the beginning or the end. You can also get to the airport from Wengen with a 1 pm flight if you’re ok leaving early in the morning.

Day 1 - Train to Wengen, Store luggage at hotel, explore Wengen and option to do an activity in the afternoon if you’re up for it like Männlichen Panorama hike.
Day 2 - optional activities in Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Lake Thun boat ride with castle village stops (Spiez, Oberhöfen, Thun)

Day 3 - same as above
Day 4 - Murren/Schilthorn activities
Day 5 - Train to Luzern in the morning. Luzern activities.
Day 6 - Train Luzern to Zurich airport

Our hotel in Luzern is non-refundable on Day 1. I thought it was better to break up the trip from Zurich-Wengen and stay in Luzern. I didn't know if there was time to travel from Wengen-Zurich to make our 1pm flight back home which is why we are staying in Zurich the night before our flight. Is the Zurich airport busy for international flights? How much time will we need to check in?

I personally think you'd be fine with a 1 pm flight getting there from Wengen, as long as you are ok with leaving fairly early in the morning. It takes about 3 hours via train to get from Wengen to Zurich Flughafen (airport). When we fly home (to the US), we always arrive to Zurich around 2 hours before our flight and have never had any issues. The train station is in the basement of the airport, so it's a pretty quick process. So for a 1 pm flight, I'd leave Wengen around 7 am. If that makes you nervous, the trains start around 5 am, so you could leave at 5:30 or 6:00 am if you want to arrive 3 hours early. While this is an early morning, you gain a full uninterrupted day on Day 5, which I think is worth an early morning.

Going to Luzern first is fine. Maybe do this....

Day 1 - Train to Luzern (Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Rigi)
Day 2 - Luzern to Wengen, option to stop along the way in Interlaken, store your luggage and do the Lake Thun boat ride (castle village stops in Spiez, Oberhofen, Thun)
Day 3 - Mannlichen > Panorama Hike to Kleine Scheidegg > Eiger Express down to Grindlewald > walk through town > First
Day 4 - Murren/Schilthorn activities (Start out early from Wengen to allow some extra time for enjoying this day. It takes a bit to get over to Murren & walk across town to the Schilthornbahn and since you have timed reservations you're probably going to want to do the Birg Thrill walk first before your brunch, otherwise you're going to be really rushed. After the Via Ferrata I recommend walking around Murren and/or Gimmelwald to enjoy the ambiance around there. There are plenty of great places for dinner in this after before heading back to Wengen)
Day 5 - Buffer weather day for above activities - if all has gone well, there are plenty of options to add on here. E-biking the Lauterbrunnen valley and stopping at the waterfalls is a fun day.
Day 6 - Train Wengen to Zurich airport

To answer your questions about the BO pass, just add up these different activities on sbb.ch (price defaults to half fare card pricing) and determine from there if you'll come out ahead with having a pass + HFC. If the price is fairly close, it is nice to have a pass because you can just walk on/off trains without having to purchase tickets. However, you'll still have to show a pass to obtain a ticket for things like the Mannlichen cable car, Schilthorn & First, so TBD on whether the convenience will be there for you on an short trip.

We may only want to do one boat ride-do you have a favorite? Does Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Rigi include boats? Can you take the Lake Thun boat trip one-way and train the way back? What are the castle village stops? Can you get off and on?

Is the brunch at Piz Gloria worth it - meaning is it a tourist trap? Since we are starting out early to make it to Via Ferrata at 2:10pm, I planned to eat there for lunch. It looked super cool, thoughts?

I love the idea of staying in Wengen 4 nights in case of non-cooperative weather. The hubby doesn't want to be too scheduled. I'm trying to move our Luzern hotel to the end of the trip to cut down on travel time since we have a 15 hour flight home.

Do you know if you have to make reservations for First Activities?

Any other thoughts on activities? You have been super helpful.

PS: How scary is Via Ferrata?

Is the brunch at Piz Gloria worth it - meaning is it a tourist trap?

My sister, brother-in-law and I had the breakfast and all really enjoyed it. Great views and food. We’re tourists, so we have no problem doing “touristy” things. 😊

Can you take the Lake Thun boat trip one-way and train the way back?
What are the castle village stops? Can you get off and on?

Lake Brienz has such a unique water color. Lake Thun has the 5 castles. This website has info. under Directions on how to reach each one.

https://www.thunerseeschloesser.ch/en/

You can do any combination of train and or boat that you want.

BOATS
-Lake Thun is great for castle stops. Brienz is great for water color, optional waterfall hike (Giessbach) and exploring Brienz and/or Ballenberg Museum
-Yes you can get on/off. Check their schedule online. We never do roundtrip. Always one way and train back. If you decide to do it on your travel day, you can technically take your luggage with you and just decide to not get off the boat and enjoy the sites from the water. Then when you disembark you have your luggage and you can continue on with your train ride to Wengen. If you decide to stay on the boat, you can see the castles of Spiez and Oberhofen from the water without getting off the boat. If you do this, "splurge" for first class where you get to sit on couches on the roof of the boat. Most comfortable and best views. It's not that much more expensive and would give you the boat ride experience without taking up a bunch of time getting on/off. If you do this on your travel day that's probably what I would recommend. Stops would probably be a lot to add in, unless you do a full day just for the boat.
-Castle village stops we love are Spiez, Oberhofen and Thun.
-If I had to pick only one, I’d go based on whether you care about the castles or not. If you’re somewhat interested in them but not super excited, then go for Brienz for the water color. If the castles seem exciting to you, go for that. We always get off at Oberhofen and hang out in the park beside the castle. You can get in the water there if you feel like a swim with the swans.

SCHILTHORN
-Yes, the lunch is touristy. But I guess that’s kind of the point, right? We personally just ordered a hot chocolate to experience the revolving restaurant for 15 minutes and then moved on, but not bad to do lunch if you want to. I would sort of doubt the food is ground breaking, but obviously that’s not really the point.

FIRST
-You don’t have to make reservations, but there will be lines. I've heard talk lately of 2 hour long lines for activities. I can't verify personally, but that's what I've heard and it's not even high season yet. It’s very touristy and very busy. Not to say you shouldn’t do it, but be prepared for lines. We’ve never done reservations so I can’t speak to how that goes or if you should/shouldn’t.

VIA FERRATA
-If you’re scared of heights….you’re gonna feel it :) But you’re strapped in so it’s mental, not physically dangerous.

ETC
-If you decide you’re not feeling the touristy vibe of First, one of our very favorite activities is doing the North Face hike counter clockwise from the Allmendhubel (from Murren). There are multiple mountain huts you walk by where you can stop for lunch or a drink. It’s a stunning hike that’s not super difficult. The view from the restaurant up at Allmendhubel is also lovely.