Rental Car advice needed

A car will get in the way, as you will be forced to always return to where you parked it. Interlaken likes to lure unsuspecting tourists in and then slap big fines on them. But Interlaken is not that Interesting anyway. The interesting parts are in the mountains around it, and a lot of those places are not accessible by car.

What are your other plans in Switzerland? If you get the Half Fare Card all public transport is half price, and you get the family card included for free, which allows your kids to go free everywhere, as long as the adults have a ticket. And that includes adults. That way you could make an interesting trip, like go Bern - Interlaken - Grindelwald - Kleine Scheidegg - Lauterbrunnen - Interlaken - Brienz (by boat) - Luzern.

Thank you for the advice. Those 3 days will be the only portion of our trip in Switzerland. This trip is set for April.

We are also reconsidering Bern as our home base. We may switch to Lucerne. Are either Bern or Lucerne more challenging to get to Interlaken and surrounding areas via train?

Is this your first visit to Europe? No, I really don't see an advantage to renting a car, trains are frequent and take you more or less everwhere you want to go.

And as mentioned, Interlaken itself is not as attractive as the nearby mountain villages, many of which can't be reached by car.

No this will be our 3rd trip to Europe (first for kids) and fully understand trains are typically the way to go.
Thank you for the feedback on Interlaken.

I think as Americans we just automatically default to renting cars because it's often the best (or only) choice. In Europe and especially in CH it's usually the opposite. It becomes a burden.

I agree completely on rental car not being ideal. I was intrigued by the opportunity to drive at a leisurely pace in such a beautiful area but sounds like nit the right approach. Thanks

I swim against the grain on this forum, but I highly recommend a car ESPECIALLY in Switzerland.

If you are two people, its not a huge saving one way or the other. If you are more than two, car is usually cheaper. Our itinerary was Basel-Bern-Murren-Lucerne-Chur. We were two people. We priced it out and found it cheaper to rent a car for a week and park it at Stechelberg for two days while we stayed in car-free Murren, than buying point-to-point public transport. You may find trains cheaper if you use a discount card, or cars cheaper if you are more than two persons.

But even if more expensive the gigantic advantage of a car is the freedom it gives you. See a beautiful lake? Stop there for lunch. That village look charming? Park and walk around. Your hotel 15 minutes walk from the station with your luggage in the rain? No problem. You never need to check a train schedule.

Parking in Berne and Lucerne required use of internet to find a few addresses of public parking lots, and GPS to locate them, but once found they were super easy.

You can drive on a US license. IDP is not required in Switzerland. https://ch.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/#:~:text=You%20may%20drive%20in%20Switzerland,applying%20for%20a%20Swiss%20license.