Hello everyone,
Its early on, but we're starting to look at our next trip, I really want to do Switzerland this time, but I have never been, does anyone have an itinerary suggestion for me? Im thinking likely coming in from Paris by plane, moving from left to right as we want to end in Munich for Oktoberfest again, anywhere from 6-9 days I think is what we'll probably be looking do in Switzerland.
Thanks!
Day 1 - TGV from Paris to Lausanne - 3 nights
Day 2 - Day to Geneva
Day 3 - Day to Bern
Day 4 - Train to Lauterbrunnen - 3 nights
Day 5 - Day to Murren
Day 6 - Day to Wengen/Jungfraujoch
Day 7 - Train to Luzern - 3 nights
Day 8 - Lake & mountain excursion
Day 9 - Day to Zurich
Day 10 - Train to Munich
As a freq tourist to Switz the previous suggestion is very gd in general. However i would skip Bern . It pales. In comparison to other areas.
And be prepared for price shock as everything in Switzerland is quite expensive.
I too like djp_syd's plan.
No way fly from Paris, the High Speed train is faster and more comfortable. It is called "TGV-Lyria", click here for the timetable.
For train times and prices within Switzerland use the Swiss Railways website: http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html
If I had to skip 1 place, I would Skip Geneva and leave in Bern. You could stop off in Geneva for ½day on your way from Paris.
You could also do Bern as a day trip from Lauterbrunnen.
When travelling from the Berner Oberland to Luzern, take the direct-but-slow train route via the Brünig pass, scenic.
A recommended day trip from Luzern is Titlis. It is a mountain with a permanent snowcap and a small glacier at the top, which you can go to the top of via a series of cable cars. Details here: http://www.titlis.ch/en
As a Swiss resident, Switzerland is not expensive, the rest of Europe is cheap :-)
P.S. Investigate getting a Swiss pass or a half price ticket for Switzerland, this will almost certainly pay off, especially as you will almost certainly go on a number of mountain railways and cable-cars.
Thanks for the replies everyone, its helpful to hear about a country I don't know much about. I have definitely heard it is expensive... I was just in Denmark, how does it compare to that?
I like the route, but it seems to have a ton of movement in it, unless those distances aren't too far? Odd coming from me, as I generally move advocate for a lot more movement than I think is the norm on this forum, but a trip every day seems a bit much.
Its tough, not knowing much about Switzerland, I find myself gravitating toward the safety of places I've heard of, like Zurich or Geneva, but these don't seem to be the priority here.
Dag, Geneva and Zürich are nice, but the Swiss Alps are better. That is not a lot of time travelling, look up times on the SBB website. And the train trips area ll scenic. If you want to do Zürich, it is en route when you travel on to Munich, so you could stop off for a few hours (luggage storage in the station).
Zurich and Geneva are very pleasant cities but lack the 4-star sights you find in such places as Paris and Rome. It's such a stunning country, it would be a shame to spend too much time in those cities (which are achingly expensive) when the lakes and mountains await you. The other reason for moving around more than usual is that every time you change locations you'll go through magnificent scenery.
I'd recommend staying in Murren rather than Lauterbrunen. Lauterbrunnen is on the valley floor, Murren is a charming, mostly car free town, 5,000' elev with stunning views in front of you. I prefer being enveloped in the Alps / mind blowing views vs looking up at them from the valley floor.
Since you plan to focus on Switzerland/Germany, I would skip Paris, do an open jaw into Geneva or Zurich, out of Munich.
I mostly agree with djp_syd. Instead of Lauterbrunnen, I would stay above it in Murren. I would skip Zurich and add that day to Murren.
Be prepared for the price shock of Switzerland, and especially Murren(the mountains in general). In Murren, on our second trip we self catered in an apartment and had sandwiches from the Coop grocery store for lunch during hikes every day. Given the high prices, the mountains were worth it.
From Murren, the North Face trail was great! The Mannlich to Kleine Scheidegg was fantastic, you can walk all the way back through Murren and down to Lauterbrunnen if you wish. You are walking along the top of the hill on a mostly flat path with a drop off to one side down to Grindlewald.
We were just there in September, landing in Geneva and flying out of Munich (also experienced Oktoberfest!). Your itinerary depends on what you're really looking to do. Just in Switzerland, we spent two nights in Lausanne, four nights in the Berner Oberland (Murren), and three nights in Lucerne (we day tripped to Bern from Lucerne, which was only an hour each way). We felt like we saw "enough" of Lucerne after about a day and a half, but I know there are outer areas to explore, but given the expense, we enjoyed the other areas better. Lucerne was, by far, the most expensive place we visited -- one night we just wanted something quick (I was super sick) and we got take out from the burger place in the food court at the train station. Two burgers, fries and drinks were 40 CHF (and the exchange rate was fairly close to the USD). Our favorite place was the Berner Oberland -- you just aren't going to see anything else like those Alps right up there in your face and they're so beautiful, and we were able to get around to a lot of places in our time there (including Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch). With Lausanne, we explored the Chateau de Chillon and took a day trip out to Gruyere and the Caillet chocolate factory, but in hindsight, we wished we'd had at least a day more to explore Lausanne itself (we just made it to the Olympic Museum -- it was pouring that day). So looking backward, we would've done three nights in the Lausanne area (including a day trip to the country), two nights in Lucerne and four nights in the Berner Oberland. Sorry...this became longer than I expected!
Sorry Becky, that price doesn't seem all that high for CH. Just seems to be how they roll over there.
dag, If you don't yet have Rick's guidebook (hint, hint), he has several suggested itineraries for trips of different lengths. And of course the info you'll need to decide what you want to see and where you want to stay. And as noted, get ready for nosebleed prices. But that's the price for visiting one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
