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Ideas for a Two Week Switzerland Itinerary

Fellow Travelers,
My wife and I have our two week Switzerland framed out for this July as follows: arriving to Zurich airport on Monday morning, taking a train to Lucerne immediately (not too interested in Zurich). We plan to secure a 15-day Swiss Pass and take trains the entire trip. We have booked places to stay already as follows: 3 nights in Lucerne; train over to Wengen, stay 3 nights; train to Zermatt, stay 2 nights; train to Montreux, stay 4 nights; fly out of Geneva mid-day.

We have some ideas of what to do in each region that we’re staying at and looking for more ideas from those who are experienced with Switzerland. We’re in good shape and ideally like to do a hike each day in the morning until mid-day / early afternoon and then come back to explore the town or nearby towns for museums, walking around and taking in the local culture. We are both teachers in Nashville, TN and enjoy history, exploring different cultures and science. From previous overseas travels, we typically eat twice a day as we like to buy local foods in the morning to take out with us for the day (after we’ve had our coffee!); this helps with our budget as well as gives us the experience of exploring local food cultures.

Budget-wise, airfare, Swiss pass and lodging are already accounted for; additionally, we’re budgeting about $400/day for meals and incidentals for the two of us. Does this seem reasonable? We do prefer to have a nice meal in the evening (so we’re also looking for some suggestions for dining) and we always enjoy a great beer and glass of wine!

Any suggestions of experiences to avoid and those to prioritize as a must-do are appreciated!
Thank you!

Posted by
6564 posts

Welcome to the Forum. You've obviously already done some research.
My only comment would be to maximize your time in the Berner Oberland, as no one is ever ready to leave, so more time sleeping in the Alps, less in cities. So perhaps increase the time in Wengen, and decrease time in Montreux.
The Swiss cities get quite hot in the summer now, so the mountain temps will be welcome. Also, mountain weather is fickle, so by increasing your days, you increase your chances of good weather. Two nights- one full day-in Zermatt is risky.
Enjoy this beautiful country!

Posted by
6564 posts

Carrie, they didn't budget for Swiss chocolate ( wink emoji)!

Posted by
3689 posts

Pat's right, the cost of chocolate does add up. :-)

There's a lindt store right in Zermatt.

Posted by
1073 posts

Hello from a fellow Nashvillian!

It may be too late at this point to make any adjustments to your lodging, but if it is possible, I’d recommend taking a night or two off of Montreux and adding it to Wengen. As you say you love hiking and nature, I think you’re going to want more time up in the mountains and a bit less time in Montreux. If it’s too complicated to rearrange everything to make that work, then possibly a night off Luzern to add to Wengen. You’re going to want at least 4 nights there.

I think $400/day is more than reasonable and never hurts to over budget instead of under budget — you’re going to need to purchase some supplement tickets for mountain excursions that the Swiss Travel Pass doesn’t cover, if you want nice meals with wine, etc. then you can eat up half of that in food in a day.

Some ideas for you to look into…

Luzern
*Time exploring the historic center + walking the Musegg wall (love eating at the little organic farm to table restaurant along the Musegg wall. They have a working farm along the wall that supplies the meat and vegetables for the restaurant - Hinter Musegg - www.hinter-musegg.ch/)
*
Boat ride to Vitznau + Rigi + hiking
**Day trip to Lugano + boat ride to Morcote (such a charming little village) if you’re interested in seeing the Italian portion of Switzerland

Wengen
*Beautiful walk from Mannlichen > Kleine Scheidegg > Wengernalp (the apfelkuchen in Kleine Scheidegg at the outdoor counter of the train station is very good and authentic)
*
Day exploring Schilthorn/Birg Thrill Walk + Northface hike counterclockwise from Allmendhubel (lunch at mountain hut Suppenalp) + easy walk down to Gimmelwald to explore the local farming hamlet with lots of self service fridges to buy the local cheese (have their local homemade beer Schwarz Monch at the Pension + dinner at the pension - fixed menu or wood fired pizza next door at the hostel)
*Schynige Platte (Panorama hike Daube Oberberghorn Loucherhorn)
*
Boat ride on Lake Thun with castle stops at Spiez, Oberhofen & Thun (love the homemade ice cream made from local milk at the boat dock at Spiez)
**The food is great at Hotel Baren in Wengen — we also like the dinner in Murren at Hotel Eiger

Zermatt
*Gornergrat + hiking
*
Exploring the village
**Hike to the foodie mecca (reservations required) - Chez Vrony

Montreux
*Walk the lake promenade to Chateau de Chillon (self guided audio tour well worth it) + boat ride from the castle back to Montreux or on to Vevey or Lausanne for exploration
*
Day trip from Nyon to Yvoire, France via boat (many good French restaurants here)
**Hike amongst the Lavaux Vineyards + wine tasting (Chexbres to St-Saphorin)

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks everyone for the tips! I might be back with some more detailed questions regarding logistics of using the train.

Carrie: your trip reports have been very helpful, especially detailing some relative times for taking walks and ease / difficulty.

Wanderweg (Fellow Nashvillian!!): Great idea regarding Schynige Platte, its on our itinerary now! Waht is your opinion on this: while in Wengen, we're thinking about heading out early one morning and first doing Trummelbach Falls (training to Lauterbrunnen, walking the 2 miles to the falls to see more of the area) and the second heading out from Lauterbrunnen up to Mürren to do the Northface hike (counterclockwise as you suggested, so its relatively downhill) and ending in Gimmelwald. We're both in decent shape so we're comfortable with the physical aspect of this idea, but I was wondering about total time. Do you think this is reasonable? Thanks so much for your advice.
Best,
Mike