Itinerary Help - 12-14 days by train in Sept/Oct

Sounds like a vgd plan u have done your travel homework.
I would stay in Laussane on Lake Geneva. It is a very nice town with prommenade on thelake. And in the Lauterbrunnen Valley floor for the Berner oberland area. This would give u more flexibility in case the weather is not good for Mtns. Murren is my favorite but u are right it involves cable ride up and down. Lucky u , u will be visiting one of the most beautiful parts of the world. I go whenever I can.

Stay in Lucerne 3 days/2 nights.

I always look at 2 nights as one day. That is one full day to do stuff. Your arrival day is gone by the time you land, transfer to Luzern, and get settled. A walk around town and dinner and crash. Then you have one day for sightseeing (Titlus or Pilatus) as you will leave on day 3 after breakfast, most likely. At best you can get in a little more time around town in Luzern or a boat tour, but really no time for mountains.

In the Berner Oberlander maybe you should base stay in Lauterbrunnen the train to the Interlaken hub is in the valley.
That way you don;t have take your luggage up and back down when you leave.

Thanks so much for the replies. I will adjust based on when we arrive in Zurich and appreciate the advice.

First of all, you might look into the Berner Oberland Pass, which covers all transportation South of Bern and Lucerne. That includes boats, trains, cable cars, most museums, etc. but only a discount to the tops of Schilthorn and Jungfrau.
Also, be aware that you want Interlaken OST on all transportation. There's also an Interlaken West.

I wouldn't do both the Schilthorn and the Jungfrau excursions. The latter is much more expensive and will take almost all day. Schilthorn will be just a few hours, AND you can decide if the weather up there is ok by seeing the monitors at the cable station at Murren. Plus, with the Schilthorn, there are lots of trails right there that leave from Murren that you could do the same day. Click on my name to see previous posts where I name the trails. Jungfrau takes much longer so weather may cloud up by the time you get to the top.

I wouldn't allocate a day for Bern. Not much there, and you'll be routed thru there anyway to change trains on the way from Lauterbrunnen to Geneva/Lausanne. I visited Einstein's house. I think it was a 20 min walk from the train station. So if you simply had a 2 hr layover in Bern, on the way, that should do it. Trains to Geneva should go every half hour.

In Lausanne, you might consider the Museum Art Brut, which is art done by mental patients. There's info and samples on the internet.

In Geneva (I used to live there), I never thought about a UN tour, but that's just me. I DID, however, think the tour of the Red Cross Museum (roughly across the street from the UN) was worthwhile.
Also, I enjoyed going to John Calvin's church (Old Town), where you can climb the belltower for a nice view of the city.
If you stay in Geneva, you will get a free bus pass for the day, including a "water taxi" that goes across part of the lake.

Not much to explore in Zurich. I'd use that extra night in Lauterbrunnen, unless your flight is early morning. Train transportation in Switz. is excellent; you can set your watch by it.

Thanks for your comments. I wanted to plan a day for Bern because my partner is an Einstein fan so if he wants to stay longer we can. Or we can stop in Thun longer on the way back or something like that.

Is there a reason to get a Berner Oberlander Pass as opposed to a Swiss Pass, which was our plan?

And thanks for the tip on Interlaken OST!

Valerie

I like Bern. I especially like Bern if I have a day with miserable weather (all too common in Switzerland), because of all the arcaded streets. But I remember enjoying Thun as well. Maybe not so much on a bad-weather day, though.

I wanted to plan a day for Bern because my partner is an Einstein fan so if he wants to stay longer we can. Or we can stop in Thun longer on the way back or something like that.
Is there a reason to get a Berner Oberlander Pass as opposed to a Swiss Pass, which was our plan?

I was fascinated with the Einstein Museum in Bern (different than the Einstein House). It's on the second floor of the Bern Historical Museum, and free with a Swiss Travel Pass (which also includes free admission to most museums and castles in Switzerland). The Einstein Museum is 18 Swiss Francs per person without the pass. Nearby is a Natural History museum, which has a display of enormous quartz crystals from Switzerland.
Bern also has a nice bear park with a bear viewing platform beside the river where you can watch the bears play in the water. And has a pretty rose garden higher up the hill, with a great birds eye view of the city.

Since you plan to spend only half your time in the Berner Oberland while in Switzerland, I would think you'd do best with a Swiss Travel Pass rather than the Berner Oberland Pass, which is regional, although it covers more of the transit in that region, more fully. But the Berner Oberland Pass does not include museums.

If you go to the Lake Geneva area from the Berner Oberland area (Jungfrau, etc.) you should take the more scenic Golden Pass train route rather than the quicker route through Bern. The Golden Pass route is via Spietz, Zwiesimmen, Gstaad, to Montreux.

I don't think you'll be able to see half of what you plan with the time you've allowed, but you can pick your priorities when you get there depending on the weather.

The Berner Oberland Pass and the Swiss Pass will come out pretty close, but I prefer the former for 2 reasons. One is that the Berner covers the Jungfrau region a bit better, with more free rides to some hikes such to First, Mannlichen,Allmendhubel, or Harder Kulm. That makes me less hesitant to worry about the costs once I'm there, which is quite freeing. Also the Berner is slightly cheaper, I think 350 CHF for 8 days vs. 398 CHF for Swiss Pass for 8 days. If you buy it when you leave Lucerne, you can use it to within a few miles of Montreux, which I think will be around 8 days.
You can do your own calculations by looking here and here:

http://www.regionalpass-berneroberland.ch/en/

https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-travel-pass.html

If it helps you any, I find that without a pass, I'd probably average about 30 CHF per day in transportation in the Jungfrau area for cable cars and trains. Both passes will come out pretty close, so take your best guess and then go with it.