Itinerary help

A good guidebook will, well, guide you, versus the Internet which is like the Wild West of information. A book can help you with logistics, selecting locations to visit and all those things you don’t know that you don’t know.

Once you’ve delved into some info that help you decide your two locations (and that is an excellent guideline for your time on the ground), the Internet, including this site, is your research buddy for lodging, trains, ticketing, passes, and so on.

Rick Steves’ Switzerland guidebook was our Bible for our first few trips to Switzerland.

Meant to add, you might get a great deal of insight from videos. You can watch Rick Steves’ Switzerland episodes right here on the site,

Definitely spend most of your nights in the car- free villages of Wengen or Murren- sleep in the Alps. Then choose one city, perhaps Lausanne or Montreaux, for the French influence. I personally prefer Lucerne, but that is German speaking.
You are rather late to be booking lodging, so secure that asap. That may influence your itinerary.
We like Hotel Des Alpes if you make it to Lucerne.
Have a great trip in this beautiful country.

A lot of the French speaking part (like Montreux, Lausanne, etc. ) is going to feel more city like, as it’s much more densely populated. What about going over into France and seeing somewhere quaint outside of Colmar on the Route des Vins d'Alsace like Ribeauville, Riquewihr, etc. for 3 nights and then doing a car free village in the Swiss Alps like Wengen for 5 nights?

I wouldn’t recommend staying in Murren this May as they are replacing the train cars from 6-31 May so it requires a bus + cable car connection to get to/from in May.

If you want to stay in Switzerland but keep from the city feel, I’d steer clear of the Lake Geneva area and focus on maybe 2 car free villages - Wengen + Zermatt or if you want to stay on a lake for part of it, maybe look at the quieter parts of Lake Luzern like Weggis or Fluelen. That doesn’t help you with wanting to see the French side, but it does keep things “quieter”.

If you truly want to get off the beaten path, we did two week-long stays that might fit the bill:

1. For the German side, pick one of the villages just outside Chur. We stayed in Malix (not really even a village, more of a bus stop), but it was definitely of the mountains. Logistically you would head into Chur each day for your excursions, but they are plentiful and full of everything you listed: hiking, nature, scenic beauty, etc. You can also use the bus system which is great, often without having to head back into Chur.
2. On the French side consider one of the villages along Three Lakes of Lake Murten (French: Lac de Morat), Lake Biel (French: Lac de Bienne) and Lake Neuchâtel. They are connected by canals, and represent terrific scenic beauty, birdlife, and wine country. Murten/Morat might make a good hub or Neuchâtel, which is bigger and more of a city.

These are not typical destinations, and others may argue that for your first trip you'd be remiss not seeing major highlights like Lauterbrunnen, Zermatt, etc. But if you are looking for something different, do some research and see if these suggestions appeal...

Another good resource is located on this website
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/switzerland

You have 5 days to play with? I think first priority is to get to Interlaken and use that as a base as RS suggests. Get to Lauterbrunen 18 minutes away. There are two mountain loops over LB that are both interesting. You can stay in those small expensive towns for a magical time. You can also take boats of trains on the nearby lakes - eg Thun and Brienz. There is also hang gliding from mountain above interlaken.

There are other places but that’s the best bang for your buck