Itinerary Help July 2020

How many nights do you have in Switzerland? You’ll need 4 nights for Wengen/Jungfrau Region. (No one who goes there wishes they had less time.) Days available for hiking or sightseeing are really those between the nights you have planned. That is, a 3-night stay gives two full days to do or see something. Arrival and departure says are, at best, half days.

There is nothing particular in Chur or Tirano except they are end points of the Bernina Express. Do you intend to ride the train? That is a big factor in determining route and number of nights in each location.

Zermatt is best done with at least three nights so you have a better chance at good weather in the fickle mountains, and Bettmeralp, where one finds the Aletsch Glacier also is best done with three nights. What if you only stay two (worse, one night) and the glacier is socked in by fog? If you only stay two nights in Zermatt you’d only have one full day in Zermatt itself. How can you day trip to see the Aletsch? By staying in Brig you are neither here nor there with respect to the mountains you want to visit and one night stays are seldom satisfying.

So how many nights do you have and what are your priorities? Is the Bernina Express Route part of the plan?

Editing to note I just saw your plan to ride the BE. Sorry I missed that the first time through. Still need to verify if you have 9, 10, or 11 nights in the country.

Laurel is spot on.

Regarding the Berner Oberland: “No one who goes there wishes they had less time.”

The above quote should be added to the header of the Switzerland forum!

You won’t be sad about adding another day or more in Wengen if you like to hike. There’s a gaggle of absolutely incredible hikes of all difficulties in and around Wengen/Murren/Lauterbrunnen.

Of course there’s hikes in Zermatt and Lugano, etc., as well. It’s just nice to have a base for a while. Also weather is always at play. You may have the best four days of weather ever, or you may have a mix.

If it was me (hiker as well) I would add a day or more in Wengen and maybe narrow the rest of the trip down to just two more places like Zermatt and Lugano. Of course this depends on what you’re looking to see and do.

Riding the BE is above my pay grade so maybe someone else will chime in with info on that.

Great places to hike! I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve always had great luck (over the past 7 summers) finding hotels without reservations in both Wengen and Zermatt (and everywhere else in those areas). I’ve really enjoyed having the flexibility to stay or go. My goal was always climbing 4000m peaks, so being in zermatt or wengen was not the place I wanted to be when it’s storming. It’s difficult to make that decision, but afternoon showers is normal and I would go up into the mountains with that forecast. But, if its raining in the morning and forecast says it’s not getting better, it’s not much fun to be wet in the clouds. Especially, if staying for a few nights.

Having a backup plan for lower elevation if it storms is fun to plan as well. Planning is almost as much fun as the trips IMO.

For the Bernese area (wengen) it’s only an hour train ride to down to Thun and it’s comfort and beauty on the lake. I find it more interesting than interlaken, but both are close.

For Zermatt, anyplace in the rhone valley (including Brig) is pleasant. I’d pick Sion or even Martigny for their history. There are many interesting bisse hikes in the ancient terraced vineyards between Sion and Sierre and great bike paths (free bike rental at train stations). There are hot springs in the area as well. Leukerbad is very nice.
I also find getting a 1month half fare train card worth it if I’m moving around a lot and give discounts on lots of lifts. Even for just 10 days.
For good weather, you might consider Saas-Fee and environs for hiking. The time from Visp-Zermatt via train is about same as Visp-Saas via bus.

I hope you have great weather, but these high mountains do get rain about 1/2 the time. Going lower has saved me a few times. The good thing is the rain is usually short lived (couple days) and the Swiss are great at forecasting weather.

Beyond those two regions, I can’t speak, but I’ve had no problem spending 10-14 days in those general areas and being sorry I had to leave at the end. 7 years and counting!
Good luck, and again, hope you get the alpine sunshine! It’s great.