Route through Switzerland to Austria

Congratulations on retirement! I can highly recommend it. One can do the entire trip by train - Zurich (very good connections to the US) to Lauterbrunnen to Zermatt to Chur to Tirano to Innsbruck to Salzburg to Munich (very good connections to the US). Early October will be warmer but not necessarily warm. Check out European cities for average monthly forecasts on Weather.com. Your trip will be mostly in the mountains, and the Alps are a lot like mountain regions in the US at the change of seasons.

As far as scheduling your train trips and sightseeing - each change takes half a day and you have six changes between arrival and departure. I always try to plan three nights in each location to allow for two full days in each place (Weather?), and everywhere you want to go will deserve it.

Some people like the larger town ambience of Interlaken, but I would prefer Lauterbrunnen myself... right in the mountains. Wengen and Grindelwald have their aficionados too, of course, but you can visit each from any of the others during a four day stay.

I suggest you start at SSB.CH the Swiss National Railway site for travel times and routing within Switzerland. Zurich to Lauterbrunnen, Lauterbrunnen to Zermatt, and then Zermatt to Chur.

The Bernina Express takes you into spectacular country - but it takes a long time to get back out too. There is an express bus from Tirano to Locarno on the Italian Swiss border which can get you back to Luzern and then on to Innsbruck but it is still a long day.

Or from Tirano to Innsbruck by train is the longest day (about 7 to 10 hours) and travel times and routes can be checked on trenitalia.it (Italian railways) or OBB.AT (Austrian railways). Interestingly most solutions take you back to Chur before heading east to Innsbruck, or south to Milan and then back northward.

Innsbruck to Salzburg can be checked on OBB.AT as can Salzburg to Munich.

Have a great time!

First, you’ll want to do this trip via train. Renting a car will be very expensive with the country drop off fees and most of what you’re doing in Switzerland is in car free areas. The cities in Austria have challenging parking and getting a private driver would be extremely expensive with your route. Train info below after the itinerary suggestion.

You are correct to start in Switzerland in the mountains and end in Austria. I recommend Wengen for a first time visit. It’s car free, charming, beautiful mountain views and well situated for day trips within the area. It has grocery stores, shops, restaurants & there are many good hotel options. However, for a longer stay you could also consider a chalet apartment rental (look at interhome, e-domizil, airbnb, Wengen Apartments, Alpine Holiday Services, etc.) — just make sure to get a south facing balcony for best views and note that Wengen is built on the side of a mountain so if you get too far downhill from the train station you’ll have a bit of a “hike” to/from the train/shops. For hotels, the Maya Caprice is well located and nice. If you want to stay in a true authentic Swiss village that still has many chalets from the 1600s and is connected via cable car or bus, then Murren has the best views in the area. It takes around 20 extra minutes to connect out for day trips to the further region, but there is a ton of hiking and biking right around there. They also have chalet apartments or depending on your budget, the nicest hotel is the newly renovated historic Murren Palace. I don't love Lauterbrunnen, especially in October as the steep cliffs make the valley go in to deep shadow in the afternoon, making it colder feeling and less picturesque for "cocktail hour on the balcony with a view after a long day of hiking and sightseeing" :)

I’ll make an assumption of 18 nights in my suggestions…

Fly in to Zurich > Wengen 6 nights > Zermatt 3 nights > Pontresina 3 nights > Innsbruck 3 nights > Salzburg 3 nights > Fly out of Salzburg or Munich

Here is a day by day. Obviously some of it is weather dependent, but it gives you an idea of what you can accomplish in a day….

Day 1 - Zurich Flughafen (airport) > Wengen (3 hr train) - explore village
Day 2 - Mannlichen + easy scenic walk to Kleine Scheidegg + optional Jungfraujoch
Day 3 - Murren/Schilthorn/Gimmelwald
Day 4 - Lake Thun boat ride to see castles (Spiez, Oberhofen, Thun)
Day 5 - Lauterbrunnen Valley e-biking (up to Trachsellauenen if you have the fitness ability)

Day 6 - weather buffer day for all of the above (or places like Schynige Platte, Grindelwald First, biking Grosse Scheidegg, etc.)
Day 7 - Wengen > Zermatt (3 hr train) - explore village
Day 8 - Gornergrat
Day 9 - Glacier Paradise, weather buffer for Gornergrat
Day 10 - Zermatt > Glacier Express to Samedan and on to Pontresina for a base (8 hr train ride)
Day 11 - Pontresina relax (bike or hike options)
Day 12 - Bernina roundtrip to Tirano & back to Pontresina to sleep (4.5 hr roundtrip train ride)
Day 13 - Pontresina > Innsbruck (4 hr bus/train ride) - this will be a very scenic ride as well through a very quiet part of Austria
Day 14 - Innsbruck exploration
Day 15 - Innsbruck mountain excursion
Day 16 - Innsbruck > Salzburg (1.5 hr train)
Day 17 - Optional day trip to Salzkammergut (Hallstatt, etc.) or Hohenwerfen or Konigsee
Day 18 - Salzburg
Day 19 - Fly out of Salzburg or Munich (1.5 hr train)

Rest of my advice continued in next response, as this ran out of space :) ......

Use SBB.ch/en for all Swiss train rides. With this itinerary, you’ll want to get either the 15 day Swiss Travel Pass or the Half Fare Card. With quick math they will be fairly similar price at the end of the day (somewhere around 800-1000chf per person depending on what specific activities you do). With the half fare card you’ll get 50% off across everything in Switzerland and buy each ticket separately. With the Swiss Travel Pass, any inhabited areas you’ll get included for free and then you’ll get 50% off tickets on mountain excursions, so for example, from the airport to Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Grindelwald, boat ride on Lake Thun, Zermatt, Glacier Express, Bernina Express, Pontresina, etc. will all be free with no ticket purchase required and then you’ll need to purchase discounted supplement tickets for things like the Schilthorn, etc.

You also need to get reservations for the Glacier Express & Bernina. These are separate from your actual ticket, so even if you have an STP that includes the Bernina & Glacier for free, you still get a paid seat reservation in addition. This should be done far in advance, as the reservations sell out.

You can use SBB for all your train rides through part of Day 13. From Day 13-19, use OBB (the Austrian rail company)

When going to Innsbruck, if you do the Swiss Travel Pass it will get you from Pontresina to Vinadi on the Swiss/Austrian border, so you’d just need an OBB ticket from Vinadi to Innsbruck.

This is a starting place. If you have additional questions about all of this, feel free to reach out!

Stay 5 nights in one of these- Wengen, Grindlewald or Interlaken - to experience the charm and beauty of the Lauterbrenen Valley.

Just wondering if you have a reason for eliminating Mürren from the choices?

Grindelwald is a bigger town with cars and buses, and great views and probably meets your requirements.

Wengen is much smaller and car free, one of the top recommendations around here.

Lauterbrunnen, which you missed out, is physically below both Wengen and Mürren. It gets quite busy, but there are lots of valley floor walks and shops, and it is the rail hub up in the mountains.

Mürren, which you also left out, is my personal favourite. On the edge of the cliff across the valley and higher altitude than Wengen, Mürren has loads of walking and is on the side of the valley with the Schilthorn.

Interlaken, which you did include, is a big town way down in the lowlands. It is the train, road, shopping and boat hub of the area and looks and sounds it. I stayed there several years before I started staying up the hill, and I've never looked back.

Don't know if that would help.

Certainly, if you want to limit yourself to Interlaken, Grindelwald and Wengen, go for it. Just wanted you to have more of the big picture.