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Need help with itinerary and travel passes

Husband and I will be going to Switzerland in September for 7 days. My itinerary is still very rough. Need advice on tickets and passes. Any suggestion is much appreciated.
Day 1 - arrive in Zurich. Take train to Luzern from Zurich airport. Stay in Luzern.
Day 2 - spend the day in Luzern (boat tour, Mt Pilatus). Stay in Luzern.
Day 3 to 5 - Berner Oberland
Take train/cable car to Murren. Stay in Murren for 3 nights.
During these 3 days, places we would like to visit (wish list):
Lauterbrunnen valley
Trummlebach falls
Schilthorn, Piz Gloria
Birg
Gimmelwald
Allmendhubel and North Face hike
Kleine Scheidegg
Jungfraujoch
If this list is not enough, any other suggestions?
Day 6 - take train to Bern. Spend the day in the city and stay in Bern.
Day 7 - day trip to Spiez, Lake Geneva, or Montreux. Stay in Bern.
Day 8 - take train to Bazel. Embark on a 7-day Rhine River cruise to Amsterdam.

With this itinerary, should I get
Point to point tickets
STP
Half Fare Card
Berner Oberland Pass
Any other travel pass suggestions?

Posted by
4961 posts

I think you'll need to scale back your list for BO considerably. Some of that could perhaps be incorporated into transit days, for example when you arrive at Lauterbrunnen, you could store bags and see the falls. You'll have two full days to accomplish the rest. For example, you can head up to Schilthorn in the morning and spend the rest of that day hiking. I believe the North Face hike passed through Gimmelwald, so there is overlap on your list, you just need to consolidate. We determined that to visit Junfrau from Murren would have taken us the better part of a day, so we did closer things instead. You might look into stopping there in transit?
I would consider if you'd prefer to keep days 6 and 7 in Murren.
You'll want the half fare pass at the very least.

Posted by
2 posts

Store bags at Lauterbrunnen and see the falls sounds like a great idea. Do you know where in Lauterbrunnen I can store the bags?

Posted by
612 posts

Day 3 - store luggage at train station, bus or bike to Trummelbach Falls (e-bikes rented at Imboden), return, then up to Mürren. Option for an easy walk down to Gimmelwald if there is time and cable back up for dinner. Or if you want to get up to Murren on your arrival day to enjoy up there, this could be done on your exit day when you leave Murren by storing luggage on the way out. If weather is amazing on your arrival day I always say go up to Murren and enjoy the mountain views while they are there. Don’t waste beautiful weather on Trummelbach Falls.

Day 4 - If weather is good, Schilthorn first thing in the morning (stop at Birg on way down). Return to Murren to get on Allmendhubel and do North Face hike ending in Murren. If you didn’t get to go to Gimmelwald on Day 3, you can walk down there this day. Or cable down if you’re done walking.

Day 5 - Kleine Scheidegg and Jungfraujoch. Jungfraujoch is extremely touristy and busy, so be prepared. I personally just love KS and would consider just hanging out there instead of going up to Jungfraujoch with the masses. You can also see Wengen on this day if you want.

Bern is a nice city, but if your interest is something like Spiez you can easily do a Lake Thun Boat Cruise as a day trip from Murren if you add on a night in Murren. Lake Thun Boat Cruise has great stops at Spiez, Oberhöfen and Thun.

Posted by
234 posts

Just a few thoughts....
After Luzern, stay in Murren until you depart from there to Basel. With the Berner-Oberland Pass you can take day trips to both Bern and Spiez. The B-O pass will also cover your train trip from Luzern to Murren too and as far as Bern going to Basel.

Re: the other passes. Get out your calculator! If you know the specific trains you wish to take you can look for SuperSaver rates.
We have the Half-Fare Card and booked 1st class SuperSavers for our 3 train trips and will purchase the B-O pass when we arrive in Luzern just for the 3 full days we are in Wengen.

Re: Jungfrau and Schilthorn. Perhaps skip both, but IMHO forgo Jungfrau for sure due to time getting there from Murren and the high cost.

Put Schynige Platte to your possible excursions from Murren. This should convince you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5exqHPPeRtA