We are early 70’s travelers planning our last European trip to Switzerland for end of May, beginning of June, 2024. Our days are flexible.at this time. Our current itinerary is as follows: Arrive Zurich, take train to Lucerne, and spend 3 nights there. Take train to Chur, catch Glacier Express to Zematt; spend 2 nights there. Take train either to Murren or Wengen, and spend 3 nights there. We plan to purchase both HFC and Swiss Travel cards. We hope to wander cities, use trains, cable cars etc, to view mountains, and take short hikes .Any suggestions will be most appreciated. .
Posted by
Nashville, TN
612 posts
Are you set on May/early June? Some of the mountain trails will still be closed then and you may find certain cable cars, etc. down for maintenance in between ski season and summer season. Typically everything in the mountains starts to fully open up in mid-late June so if you have any flexibility in your dates to push back a few weeks you’ll find more mountain activities open. If those closures don’t affect the things you’d like to do, then you will find smaller crowds which is nice.
Other than that, I think Luzern, Zermatt & Wengen/Murren sounds like a lovely itinerary!
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Our dates are still flexible. Thank you for your suggestion.
Posted by
Chicago
3125 posts
I agree to push back a week or 2 if you can.
Last year I arrived June 5th and started in Montreux and then went to Wengen then Lucerne. When I first got to Wengen, my favorite trail männlichen to kleine Scheidegg was still closed. It opened on June 13th. I want to say it opened right around June 13th this year too. It generally opens mid-June depending on the amount of snow.
That time of year is such a great time to be in Switzerland—less crowds and amazing wildflowers everywhere.
I enjoyed June so much I have a return trip planned for next year, arriving on June 6th. Once again starting in Montreux and then Zermatt and up to Murren/Wegen and on to Lucerne.
This details what I did last year:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-switzerland-my-trip-report
I already have a few of my hotels booked. You can really get some great prices if you book early. Although one of my hotels from last year has doubled their prices. So, if you can commit to dates soon, I’d start to book the hotels.
The Swiss Travel Pass worked great from my trip as I was in several different regions. I would suggest thinking about that for your trip. It really makes things easy. Although Switzerland in general is an easy place to travel.