Rough draft for Switzerland trip

Since you really seem to want to go to Zermatt on this short a trip - It seems from SSB.ch that Wengen to Zermatt is over six hours round trip. Paris to Zermatt is only about 7 hours. If you stop there first on Day 1 (yes a one night stay) then catch a late afternoon train (3 hours) to Wengen on Day 2 you'll have been there nearly 24 hours rather than four or five as a day trip. Day 3 is then the beginning with the rest of your itinerary. Wengen to Zurich (3 hours on Day 4), etc.

Note for luggage - most Zermatt hotels have little electric carts to haul luggage from the station to their establishments - thanks skiers.

Thank you for your guidance. It would be ideal to travel to Zermatt from Paris directly and spend a night there and move to Wengen for rest of the days. I will look more into it. Thank you.

As much as you want to see all these places, it's just not possible. Basically every day you have massive amounts of travel instead of enjoying the things that are around where you're actually staying....

Day 1 - The earliest arrival into Wengen from Paris that I'm seeing right now gets you in around 13:41. Even if you turned around and left Wengen at 14:00 to get up to Oeschinensee, you'd arrive around 16:30 and the last cable car leaves Oeschinensee at 18:00. It takes around 20 minutes each way to hike from the cable car down to the lake, so you'd have around 30 minutes at the lake. Definitely no time to hike.

Day 2 - This day is fine.

Day 3 - This is over 7 hours of trains roundtrip to do a day trip to Zermatt. Meanwhile, you're missing amazing sights in the Jungfrau Region around Wengen.

Day 4 - To get up to the start of the Stoos Ridge hike from Wengen with a stop in Zurich to drop off your luggage is going to take 5-6 hours and the cable car down from the hike stops running at 16:00, so you can't hike up there at sunset unless you stay overnight up there.

Day 5 - Technically possible

Instead, try something like this - 4 nights Wengen > 1 night Zurich....

Day 1 - Paris > Wengen (store luggage) > Mannlichen > Panoramic walk to Kleine Scheidegg > optional Jungfraujoch or scenic walk to Wengernalp > train back to Wengen

Day 2 - Grindelwald First + hiking to Bachalpsee or Grosse Scheidegg

Day 3 - Lauterbrunnen Valley + Schilthorn/Murren/Gimmelwald

Day 4 - Day trip to Oeschinensee

Day 5 - Wengen > Zurich via Luzern

As usual, Wanderweg has a very practical plan that will allow you to actually get out into nature and enjoy Switzerland. Unless all you want to do is ride in trains and look out the window.

I would underscore that your initial draft assumes perfect weather at every stop. Mountains are fickle and while usually no day is a complete rainout, what if the only lovely weather is when you are on the train and it’s raining and overcast during the 3 or 4 hours you have to be outside enjoying the beauty?

Use www.sbb.ch/en for your travel time planning to get actual times. Don’t assume you can go up or down a lift after sunset.

Best places to see the sunset from the mountain top (ie. lifts are open late for this very purpose) in the Berner Oberland include:

• Harder Kulm https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/harder-kulm/evening-trips/

• Niesen https://www.niesen.ch/en/niesenbahn/timetable/

• Niederhorn https://www.niederhorn.ch/en/activities/evening-rides

Near Luzern:

• Rigi https://www.rigi.ch
• Pilatus (has an astronomy evening - that looks really cool! https://pilatus.ch/en/activities/astronomy-evening
• Stanserhorn https://www.stanserhorn.ch/en/informations/timetable
• Bürgenstock https://webshop.lakelucerne.ch/en/products/buergenstock-sunset

Many (maybe all?) offer an evening meal to enjoy the sunset/mountain/lake views.

Since you are interested in a sunset hike, that could also work at some of the above locations, each mountain website has details regarding all hiking options.

Thank you everyone for taking the time in responding efficiently.

We booked an IHG hotel in Bern because we get discount, therefore, we plan on transferring from Paris to Bern. We are skipping Zermatt to free up some space. Wife wants to visit Mt. Titlis and I want to do the Stoos Ridge Hike, that's where we're running into some confusion.

Here is the proposed plan now:

Day 1 - Arrive in Bern by noon, store luggage - visit Interlaken - Harder Kulm for sunset

Day 2 - Early train to Kandersteg for Oeschinensee

Day 3 - Grindelwald First + hiking to Bachalpsee or GrosScheideggse

Day 4 - Early train to Lauterbrunnen for half day and half day for Wengen

Day 5- Early train for Zurich (store luggage), train to Schwyz for Stoos Ridge (hopefully be done by dusk) and spend the evening in Lucerne.

OR Day 5 - Early train for Zurich (store luggage), train to Egelberg for Titlis and back to Lucerne

Please kindly give me your thoughts and suggestions.

Unfortunately you can't do it all, so you'll just have to prioritize what's most important to you. You can combine Days 3 & 4 into one long day to make room for both Stoos & Titlis, but you also have to be prepared that it's unlikely for you to have 5 perfect weather days for all these plans. You can certainly cross your fingers and hope though! Use MeteoSwiss and keep your plans flexible. Decide together what your top priorities are and pick your best weather days for those specific activities.

Again, you can't do the Stoos Ridge hike until dusk as the cable car stops running at 4 pm. So unless you want to hike all the way down the mountain, you have to be done before then.

I do understand saving money, but you also have to consider that by staying in a base not where you're visiting you're adding a significant amount of travel time to your days. Did you look for IHG hotels in Interlaken & Luzern? If you stayed 3 nights in Interlaken > 1 night in Luzern > 1 night at Airport Hotel, you'd save around 6-7 hours of additional train time in your itinerary.

Day 1 - Paris > Bern > Harder Kulm

Day 2 - Oeschinensee

Day 3 - Make sure to start out early to fit this all in. Grindelwald First + hike in the AM / Mannlichen + Wengen + Lauterbrunnen in the PM
Bern > Interlaken Ost > Grindelwald > Grindelwald First + Bachalpsee or Grosse Scheidegg (lunch at the end of the hike at First or Grosse Scheidegg) > Grindelwald > Grindelwald Terminal station > cable car up to Mannlichen (views) > cable car down to Wengen (explore + optional dinner) > train to Lauterbrunnen (dinner if not in Wengen) > Interlaken Ost > Bern

Day 4 - Bern > Luzern > Schywyz > Stoos > Klingenstock (lunch) > Stoos Ridge Hike > Fronalpstock by 4 pm > Stoos > Schwyz > Luzern (dinner) > Bern

Day 5- It doesn't make sense to go all the way to Zurich to store luggage for either of your options. You're better off storing in Luzern and then continuing on to Schywz or Engelberg and then retrieving your luggage from Luzern on your way out that evening to a Zurich airport hotel. Just stay at the airport to maximize this day and be close by for such an early flight.
Train from Bern > Luzern (store luggage) > Engelberg + Titlis > Luzern (retrieve luggage + dinner) > Zurich Flughafen (airport hotel)

Unfortunately, there are no IHG hotels in Interlaken, there is one IHG hotel in Lucerne. I understand staying in Bern will only increase the travel time, we are paying the amount of 1 night in Interlaken/Wengen for 3 nights with taxes at IHG hotel in Bern. I'll definitely keep track of weather using MeteoSwiss. One can only finger cross and hope the weather does not shift. We will be skipping Stoos. Wife is adamant about Titlis, therefore, so, here is what I was thinking:

Day 1 - Paris > Bern > Harder Kulm

Day 2 - Oeschinensee

Day 3 - We start super early by Grindelwald First in the AM (skipping Bachalpsee and other hikes) and mainly focus on riding mountain carts/trotti bikes > come to Wengen in noon - cable car up to Mannlichen (views) > cable car down to Wengen > train to Lauterbrunnen during sunset hours

Day 4 - Bern > Luzern (store luggage) - train to Engelberg for Titlis > back

Day 5 - Early train to Schwyz for Stoos > transfer to airport hotel for next day early flight

My questions is, does Oeschinensee require the full day or can it be started early and be done with by noon and split the day with Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen/Wengen?

I put Stoos on the 4th day because it takes longer than Titlis.

Waiting in the lines for the adventure activities at First will take you longer than hiking to Bachalpsee, FYI. Lines are typically 2-5 hrs per activity and you can’t reserve ahead of time.

You should give a full day to Oeschinensee. Your whole itinerary is absolutely jam packed. To enjoy these places you must slow down a bit. If you have extra time after Oeschinensee, stop in Thun for a bit on your way back to Bern.

• Bern → Titlis: leave at 7:00, arrive at the summit around 9:27

That would for sure be a normal day trip for me as far as timing. Personally, I would not switch hotels just to save about an hour on the train.

On the day you move from Bern to Luzern, you actually lose some time checking out, storing luggage, which will force you to catch a later train to Engelberg, and thus arrive at Titlis later. The only real time savings is the one-hour return trip from Luzern to Bern at the end of your day.

For your 2nd Luzern day, though, you would save about two hours total by staying there vs. Bern (see my thoughts on this below).

• Bern → Stoos (Klingenstockbahn) is longer, but still manageable: leave at 7:02 and arrive around 9:47.

Only you can decide if that feels like too much travel. For me, the flexibility of keeping one base in Bern would matter more.

A big advantage of one base is being able to adjust plans based on weather. Switzerland often has very different weather in different regions. Bern works especially well as a base because trains connect easily in every direction.

Check the weekly forecast map within the MeteoSwiss app and you’ll see what I mean. For example, today I would pick Zermatt over Grindelwald because the forecast is much better.

In the end, it depends on your travel style. For one base - make a list of what you most want to see, check the forecast each evening, and choose the best option for the next day. Everyone values time, convenience, and experiences differently, so it can be really helpful for you to look up train schedules, hiking routes and times, so that you can decide roughly how long something will take.

• Bern - Oeschinen leave 7:39 arrive on the mountain at 9:05
• Hike to lake: marked 'C' on this map. 25 minutes.

https://oeschinensee.ch/map/index.html

So far you have spent two hours of your day. You can choose if you want this outing to be your whole day - hike other trails, spend more time at lake, etc. Let’s say you don’t want to hike a lot, and you are satisfied with your experience so far. Great! Head to Lauterbrunnen (2 hours travel time). There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it is certainly possible.

Regarding the Stoos Ridge Hike

Will you be in Switzerland on a Saturday? Here is info from their website:

The chairlifts on the Fronalpstock operate every Saturday from 2 May
to 12 September 2026 until 10 pm and from 19 September to 31 October
2026 until 8 pm.

https://www.stoos.ch/en/stories/evening-trips-fronalpstock

If you can't go on a Saturday, the schedule shows chairlifts run until 5:30pm daily from 1 May - 1 November (not 4:00pm!)

https://www.stoos.ch/en/pages/chairlifts-stoos-fronalpstock

I wouldn’t go to Oeschinensee at all unless you plan to do the actual hike that gets you the photos you’re likely seeing on social media. It’s a full day to enjoy the lake, do the hike, eat at Arva or the bergrestaurant and do the mountain coaster.

In regards to Stoos, that cable car can be finicky come September. We were there in early September a couple years ago when they got some snow and closed down Fronalpstock, so even though it was supposed to be 5:30, they reverted to 4 pm and you had to do the hike as an out & back, which you couldn’t fully do because of the snow. Sounds like you should go for a Saturday though if you can, since you want to do a sunset hike. And cross your fingers for good weather :)

A really good thing to remember is that weather can cause lifts to close at any time of the year - this is something you will often know about in advance when checking the weather app (what is expected) and looking at the mountain website the day you intend to go up - often you will see a banner, as you do now on many sites, stating poor weather conditions and that lifts and/or hikes are not open.

I have been on Männlichen during the summer season and the winds picked up too much causing them to close the gondola down to Grindelwald - I was the final person off of the lift.

All schedules are subject to weather, and obviously this is for the safety of all staff and visitors.

Thank you all for contributing to my post, I really appreciate it. Upon after reviewing all the comments, I have revised the itinerary based on our interests and time that we have in Switzerland. We do not plan on doing longer hikes but connect to the main spots that we want to visit while we're there for short time. I know we are trying to a lot in the short time so bear with us while we map things out. Please take a look at the following and share your thoughts.

We are keeping Bern as base 1, Lucerne as base 2, Zurich for base 3.

• Day 1 - Arrive in Bern around noon (store luggage) - train to Interlaken - stop by at Thun on the way back to Bern

• Day 2 - Start early by train to Kandersteg for Oeschinensee (be done by or past noon), train to Lauterbrunnen and spend the rest of the day in nearby villages - Murren, Gimmelwald

• Day 3 - Early start by train to Grindelwald for the activities - visit Jungfrau from there depending on the time

• Day 4 - Transfer to Lucerne by catching early train - store luggage at the hotel - train to Engelberg for Mt. Titlis - be back to Lucerne to spend the evening

• Day 5 - Early train to Schwyz - bus to Stoosbahn - Gondola to Fronalpstock or Klingenstock (haven't decided on the viewpoint yet - back to Lucerne late noon - transfer to hotel near ZRH - visit Lindt Home (planning on booking the last slot)

• Day 6 - Early flight back home

One can only hope for the weather to stay stable during our visit to be able to enjoy the itinerary. After jotting down the things of our likes/musts, we narrowed it down to what was important to us and we have been at it to complete the itinerary. But yes, there is no such thing like a perfect itinerary since its subject to change due to weather. We will definitely pack light rain jackets and layers.

It’s fantastic that you are focusing on the things you really want to do. It feels like breathtaking mountain views are what you’re after most and you have chosen a good variety of those.

Having a plan like this will give you a good jumping-off point and you can adjust your day trips as you go along according to weather, energy, etc. For example if it is really beautiful Day 1 you might go all the way into the Jungfrau Region (Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, etc.) rather than see Interlaken and Thun, especially if there is rain in forecast for the coming days.

The more you have prepared beforehand the easier it will be - save your train connections in SBB app, pre-purchase tickets such as going up to Oeschinen so you don't have to stand in line. When you arrive at Kandersteg look at the map that SBB provides for the walking portion Kandersteg Bahnhof - Kandersteg (Talst. Oeschinen) - this is where you catch the gondola up. Google maps has you going way out of the way for some reason.

I hope you get some beautiful weather! Enjoy your holiday!

Edited to add: by purchasing tickets beforehand I mean do it on the morning of your outing, or on the train ride there - no earlier than that so you can adjust according to weather.