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Lucerne, Brienz, Murren, and Zurich itinerary advice — please help!

Hello! My mom and I are traveling to Switzerland during early July of this year. We have already decided which cities we are going to stay in and where, so the places that we’re visiting and our time in each city cannot be changed, but we need some help with itinerary and things to do in these places.

We will have two days in Lucerne. Our first will be coming off of a travel day so we’ll likely be jet jagged and won’t want to do anything too crazy. We will have about a day and a half in Brienz, four days in Murren, and about half of a day in Zurich. We are interested in exploring the nature and being outdoors rather than spending time inside in something like a museum.

We are interested in hiking recommendations, especially in Murren, and would describe our hiking level as moderate. We aren’t interested in via ferratas or hikes that are incredibly long. Our hiking distance of choice would likely be 5 miles (8 km) or less, but are honestly open to hikes of any length. We don’t have issues with rocky paths or hills. We are also interested in taking a cog railway in Brienz, such as the Brienzer Rothorn, and are open to suggestions. We’d also love to take some sort of boat ride while in Lucerne. From the research that we have done, we’ve already gotten a sense of some things to do in these cities, but we are very open to suggestions from anyone as to hiking recommendations or really anything to do or see in each of these cities. Neither my mom nor I have been to Switzerland before, and we are very excited. Thanks for your help!

Posted by
5909 posts

You can do a search here ("hiking" Murren") and get lots of recommendations.
I use the App Alltrails and it is helpful for sussing out hikes of the length and elevation gain you want. (You can get a one month trial, but it is well worth the money if you hike with any frequency.)
This website is also a great resource: https://muerren.swiss/en/services/maps/summer-maps.html

We went to the Alpines Sportzentrum in Murren and asked for advice--they were super helpful. They can show you paths on a large map, which is helpful if you need help getting your bearings.

Posted by
176 posts

My daughter and I stayed in Murren for 4 days at the end of June last year, and it was spectacular. We hiked every day (rain or shine!). I personally found guidebook descriptions of hikes in this area to be confusing simply because, having not been there, I didn't realize understand the transportation system. So I will describe from my experience our most enjoyable hikes, and hopefully it will be helpful. There are always multiple ways to do hikes that aren't out/back and so I'm going to describe the way we did them, which isn't necessarily the only or even best way! In general my capacity is 4 miles or less at a time, and no massive elevation gain, so that's what you'll see in this list.

"North Face" - highly recommended throughout this site and many others. This is my favorite hike I have ever done - there were wildflowers everywhere and amazing views. We took the funicular up to Allmendhubel and hiked down to Gimmelwald from there, and then took the lift back up to Murren from Gimmelwald. This was not our route but it's this trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/switzerland/bern/northface-trail-murren.

"Mountain View" - we did this from Allmendhubel to Grutschalp. (So starting from Murren, funicular up to Allmendhubel to start). Again, down hill. Would be a top 10 hike if it wasn't right next to the North Face trail! When we finished at Grutschalp we took the train back to Murren. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/switzerland/bern/mountain-view-trail-grutschalp-allmendhubel

Valley floor - took the train to Grutschalp and the lift down to Lauterbrunnen. We walked the valley floor to the end, and then took the lift back up to Murren. Lovely walk. We did it at a time of day that didn't make sense to go to Staubbach Falls, but that is highly recommended by others.

We did several hikes over in Wengen as well, but I don't recall the names of them anymore. The most famous one was closed due to a rock slide. I highly recommend taking the time when you arrive to check out which trails are open, as it can vary from day to day. Wengen is stunning and there are lots of terrific hikes in that area. We were very successful using AllTrails and filtering on length, elevation gain to find trails that worked for us.

Enjoy your trip! It's such a beautiful place.

Posted by
390 posts

Sounds great! Our favorite town is Brienz. The boat dock, the train station, bus station, and Rothorn Bahn are all within 50 yards. The Rothorn Bahn is a really nice ride up to the mountain top. There are hiking trails, and I know the Rothorn Bahn makes a few stops before the top. I believe some folks hike down into Brienz from a train stop. The Steinbock restaurant is very nice, and you can eat outside if you like. It's a couple hundred yards west of the train station.

In Lucerne, there are a lot of boats making excursions around the lake, you can find the schedules online. It is a beautiful ride. You could get off at Vitznau and walk 50 feet to the cog railway which goes up to Mt. Rigi. Beautiful scenery, and a lot of folks get off the cog train and hike back down to Vitznau.

If you take the train from Lucerne to Brienz, it's also a beautiful ride. If going toward Brienz, I'd sit on the right side of the train. Excellent antique store at Brunig Pass, right off the platform.

For some motivational video, here's a link to Sylvia Michel's videos. She lives in Brienz with her beautiful dog Rasta. Some day I hope to bump into her and Rasta around Brienz.

Sylvia Michel videos

You may not have the time, but the boat from Brienz to Interlaken is another beautiful trip.

Enjoy!!