Itinerary feedback please

Welcome to the forums!

This all depends on flight times and how much you want to travel on arrival day in Zurich. I would change the order to Zermatt, Murren and the Luzern. If your flight departure is late morning of later you could skip the last night in Zurich. Add it to somewhere else. I would add it to Murren.

Have a great trip.

I would suggest going to Interlaken/Lauterbrunen/Wengen/Murren area instead of Zermat. I have been to all of them and prefer the former to the latter.

We were in Zermat 2 months ago, and it was expensive of course, but you could not see anything from the city, and you needed to take a train to a vantage point to see the Matterhorn. We were recommended one train, but found it was 100 eu per person for a short train - and it seemed visibility was very limited that day, so we never went and never saw it.

The Interlaken area is also closer to Lucerne and Zurich. Zermat is further toward France. However if you are going to go to Zermat, you can also go see the castles of Sion not too far away from there.

Another idea : from Zurich you can go up to Schauffhausen/Appenzell/St Gallian for a different experience. There is a nice cable car up to a picturesque mountain just outside of Appenzell. The Rhine falls are just outside Schuaffhausen which is a nice little town with a free castle you can visit.

So jealous of your trip, and making memories with your daughter. Glad you're going to spend enough time to appreciate and experience the Berner Oberland. I find it magical and mystical. We loved the Hotel Bellevue in Murren, and the host, Ruth, is easy to communicate with and very friendly. Book directly with her for the best rates, especially for multi -day stays, and mention RS. I think you have enough days there.

The Matterhorn is very moody, weather-wise. Will your daughter be ok if the clouds never clear?

I like Bern, but like Lucerne better. I would suggest another day in Lucerne, for a boat ride and cogwheel train to the summit of Mt Rigi, and an open air Cabrio cable car to the top of Mt Stanserhorn. It's a comfortable, fun city to wander, explore, and work off jet lag.
Have a safe trip!

Just to balance out RailRider’s opinion of Zermatt, I think that it is a fantastic location and, as you say, it is a priority for your daughter.

You can look at the tourism website (zermatt.ch) to see photos and live webcams. It is indeed possible to see the Matterhorn from the village. There are some great hikes in the area that you can access directly from the village by foot that provide nice views as well.

There are money saving options for those who want to go up the mountains. Paying full price is not at all necessary.

All mountains have the potential to be covered in clouds…this also happens in the Berner Oberland. :-) The Matterhorn is one of the most photographed mountains in the world and I have always seen it whenever I have gone there, perhaps it shows itself more often than people think.

Thanks for the input. We arrive in Zurich at around 5 pm. Early enough to get out of town to our first destination, but it's not early enough to get all the way down to Zermatt in my opinion. So I'm thinking Luzern will have to stay as the first stop. We have a very early flight out of Zurich on getaway day so we'll have to spend the night before near the airport. I think I'll need to keep it as 2 nights in Luzern, 2 in Zermatt, and 4 in Murren to avoid having single-night stays in any one area. That doesn't appeal to us.

I'll likely get the Swiss Rail Pass. No, I haven't done the math yet, but if it's anywhere close to making financial sense, I'll go with the Pass instead of getting point-to-point tickets. That said, I know the Swiss Rail Pass covers the scenic trains. I'm ok with taking an indirect path from one destination to the next if it means I can squeeze in one of those rides. Any advice which leg of the trip would work for that?

Thanks again.

Oh, and I just registered for the Rick Steves Switzerland webinar next Saturday night. Hope to learn a few things there.

Where do you find the webinar?

Go to the RS homepage. They're under Festival of Europe 2023.