itinerary help for Switzerland

I absolutely love Switzerland. The mountains, lakes, and skies, incredible! And that says a lot because I've spent a lot of time in the mountains in my own country. That said, a lot of the great activities Switzerland has to offer are weather dependent. I think you have to keep you itinerary flexible and you have to build in some bad weather days. I stayed four days in the Lauterbrunnen valley in January. Most of the time we couldn't even see the mountains. We planned each day when we got up. I had a list of things I hoped to accomplish and each day we checked a few off based on the weather. If I hadn't stayed the four days, I could have ended up leaving without seeing the gorgeous views at Murren, Lauterbrunnen and Gimmelwald. One day was supposed to be completely a wash out with overcast skies so we went to Murren to walk around and go to lunch. Within an hour the skies over Schilthorn (and just over Schilthorn) cleared and we jumped on the gondola and went to the top. Similar happened to us in Luzern. Our first day the hotel staff told us that the mountains would likely be socked in all day. Within an hour, Mt. Rigi was clearing, we high tailed it to the boat dock and took a beautiful boat ride across the lake to the train and up to Rigi. The next day when we woke up in Luzern it was raining, and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon so we decided on a day trip to Bern where the weather wouldn't factor into our enjoyment as much. We had planned to take a Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and hotel staff told us it was basically a blizzard all day, we should take the train to Munich for the day and do SOM tour another day. We did go to Munich (and had a great time) and did SOM a couple days later when the mountains were visible. Obviously, Salzburg is in Austria, but it was another example of having to go with the weather of the day. Sorry, I just wrote an essay, I hope this is helpful. My point is, to give yourself blocks of time in certain geographic areas so you increase your chance of having good weather days and then keep the scheduling of your days flexible so that you can be responsive to the weather. Its a little more work but, Switzerland is so worth it!

In regards to Chillion, the interior of the castle is very interesting. The location on the lake is very picturesque, you will want to make sure you have time to admire/photograph the exterior, the lake and surrounding mountains. My recollection is that we got to Chillion at about 2pm after taking the train from Lauterbrunnen and then the bus to the castle. From there we went to Geneva, and we didn't get to our Geneva hotel until about 7.

Your itinerary is very busy,but you are young and enthusiastic so it is good to have a lot planned. You may well not get to all of it but you can adjust as you go. I do have a few suggestions:

For Oct. 4, the Rigi loop by boat to Vitznau, cogwheel train to the summit (Rigi Kulm), then down to Rigi Kaltbad to catch the cablecar down to Wiggins, and return by boat to Luzern, can fill a day. I suggest you do that instead of filling the morning with the Stanserhorn and then rushing the Rigi experience. Allow some time for walking on Rigi if the weather is good, and lunch somewhere.

Oct. 6, your day walking from Maennlichen to Kleine Scheidegg and then continuing down to Grindelwald for activities on the First gondola, actually looks fine to me. Our adult children enjoyed the Trottibikes a lot.

Oct. 7, I believe you will run out of time before you get to Schynige Platte. Remember in October you will have shorter daylight hours than summertime. If so, you could see Schynige Platte the next morning and then cruise one of the two lakes near Interlaken, not both. Lake Brienze offers a waterfall behind Grandhotel Giessbach; Lake Thun has a castle. Take your pick. (I cannot recommend one over the other as we have done neither).

Hotels:
Amerone Hotel Flora would have been my pick in Luzern if we were to visit there this summer. We will not have time, unfortunately, but it looks like a nice modern place with moderate prices.

We have not stayed at Hotel Caprice in Wengen but I know it is well-regarded. If their dinners are too expensive, consider dining one night at Hotel Baeren which is known for excellent, locally-sourced food.

I am not familiar with Hotel Splendid in Montreux, so no comment there.

Weather in Switzerland may be turning cold and cloudy by October, so pack accordingly.

Thanks for all the replies i will have a look again on itinerary and make some changes as you suggested.