Hello there, I've just booked a last minute trip in 2.5 weeks and I'm so stressed out with planning. Here's my preliminary plan. Need some.suggestioms as to what to do at each location:
Day 1 arrive at zurich and go straight to Lucern
Day 2 Lucern to Wegen
Day 3 wengen
Day 4 wengen
Day 5 wengen to zermatt
Day 6 zermatt
Day 7 zermatt
Day 8 zermatt to Geneva
Day 9 Geneva
Day 10 heading home
Unless you've already booked lodging and it's not adjustable, I'd take a day away from Geneva and put it on Luzern. Luzern is a much prettier area than Geneva. Also, if your flight isn't too early in the morning, I'd consider staying in Montreux or Vevey instead of Geneva and just taking the train to the airport in Geneva for the way home. The lake promenade walk to Chateau de Chillon is lovely in Montreux. You can tour the castle and then take the boat back to Montreux. You can tour the 1000 year old vineyard terraces. It's just a prettier area in my opinion, while Geneva is more of an international diplomatic city.
In regards to everything else, it's hard to give you suggestions when you don't say what you're interested in. Do you want to hike? Museums? Historic sites? Lakes? Mountain top viewpoints? Give a bit more idea of your interests and capabilities.
Last minute, but when, exactly? There can be troublesome closures between seasons (summer and skiing) in the mountains.
Trip is Oct 21 to Oct 31. We like hiking, taking pictures, not so much museum. Thanks!!
Your dates are safe for most of the facilities (trains, cable ways) to be open in the Wengen area. Too bad Männlichen will already be closed. You can go over to Grindelwald and ride the Eigergletscher Express then come down from there on the train back to Wengen.
Swissnomad posted this helpful list of closures the other day:
Wengen - Kleine Scheidegg closed Nov. 4 - 29
Männlichen closed Oct. 21 - Dec. 6
Grindelwald First closed Oct. 28 - Nov. 29
Harder Kulm closed for the season Dec. 2
Schynige Platte closed for the season Oct. 21
Good hikes/walks to consider include Grütschalp to Mürren, The Northface Trail, and the Lauterbrunnen Valley itself is a lovely amble. Over at Grindelwald we like to walk from First to Grosse Scheidegg and there is the immensely popular and therefore crowded hike to Bachalpsee,
I have not been to Zermatt for quite some time but there are a lot of good hikes. Rick Steves’ has a ton of info on your destinations. Do you have his Switzerland guide book?
Unfortunately, there are a few more closures to note. I was compiling a list for myself to help plan outings in the near future, so I thought I would share them here.
For convenience, I'll list them all (including those already mentioned above), starting with the dates.
Not all of them are within your dates, but this might be of help to other travelers as well.
These closures would affect the Grütschalp - Mürren hike and also the North Face Trail. If these hiking trails are open you could still hike them, but would need to hike the whole route without the use of train or funicular to shorten it at all. This would mean an in-and-out hike for Grütschalp - Mürren and hiking the complete circular route for North Face.
Sources (and if I have made any mistakes, please let me know):
Thanks Swissnomad!
I assume this
Oct 21 - Nov 3 - Grindelwald - Kleine Scheidegg
Refers to the train and the Eigergletscher Express will still take one up and the Jungfraujoch train can be used to descend to Kleine Scheidegg?
We were thinking about staying until the end of October next year but I forgot how cumbersome it gets for a couple of weeks when the closures start. I think we’ll want to be gone by the 20th or so….
@Laurel, yes, this refers to the train.
Eigergletscher Express will still take one up and the Jungfraujoch train can be used to descend to Kleine Scheidegg?
Exactly! Jungfraujoch - Kleine Scheidegg train runs 365days/year. From there it would be possible to go further down via Wengen.
I think we’ll want to be gone by the 20th or so….
Things definitely begin to slow down around then, don’t they? It is more fun not to have to consider closures and just head out on your favourite routes every day.
Thank you so much fir all the info. Definitely helpful to plan my trip.
