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Second Switzerland Trip - 5 Nights in December

Posted by (Sacramento, CA) on

Hi all! A group of 4 of us (in our early 30s) are planning to be in Switzerland mid December for 5 nights. We’re from the US but will be coming from Munich and flying out of Zurich the last day. My boyfriend and I have been to Switzerland once, and it’ll be the first time for the other 2. On our initial trip we stayed in Lucerne and Wengen in September, and did Mt Pilatus, Schilthorn, Jungfrau, Grindelwald, and a day trip to Interlaken for paragliding and St. Beatus Caves.

Looking for any suggestions on 2 places to stay this time that’s not very sleepy - as in have enough to do/restaurants and things like that - and make sense geographically without feeling like we’re running around everywhere. I was thinking maybe Interlaken because we saw so little of it, but not sure if there’s that much more to it or if it’d be a good hub. I hear good things about Zermatt but it’s a long train ride from Munich so I don’t know…

We aren’t into skiing so won’t be doing that, but paragliding while there’s snow sounds like it’d be fun. Don’t know about what other winter activities there would be? Maybe some Christmas markets? A lot of itineraries I’ve seen are non-winter things and places I’ve already been, so hard to decide.

TIA!

Posted by
3226 posts

You can board a train at the Munchen Hbf station to Interlaken OST that will take 6h 15m and require two connections.
Zermatt will take 7h 30m and also require two connections departing from the same train station.

Posted by
8967 posts

sheenyb10, the thing about Interlaken is that it is at the foot of the mountains, not in the mountains. So it is a convenient jumping off point for going up the valley and into the much more interesting villages there. Yeah it has restaurants and shops, and the international wintersport crowd if that's what you want.

Posted by
1062 posts

we were UNDERwhelmed with the Xmas Markets in Switzerland compared to Germany - we go over over other year and have seen most all of them. Lucern and Basel do have decent markets. Even the one in Munich is UNDERwhelming compared to Dresden, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, etc. Are your airline tickets set? Switzerland is amazing, but in December I'd head to Germany to see the Markets. The ones in Salzburg and Vienna Austria are ok (better than Switzerland, not as good as Germany). Have you considered taking the Glacier Express or a Rail to see amazing scenery? We love Switzerland in the Fall, but in December, we would head to Germany to see the Christmas Markets.

Posted by
1406 posts

Colmar, France is a fabulous place not too far from Zurich via rail with an outstanding Christmas market. Bern is another option although I haven't been there in winter.

Posted by
11 posts

Thanks for all the input! I have heard to not stay in Interlaken in December but I’m not quite clear why… is the weather “better” in a mountain town rather than the valley? There were also a couple of Airbnbs available on Lake Thun but not sure it’s the right time of year to really enjoy them.

I hadn’t thought of Bern so I’ll definitely have to look into it! Zermatt sounds like it would be fun but it’s quite a long train ride for the short amount of time we have and I’m having trouble getting it to logistically fit. Is it really worth the lengthy travel time? Would Montreux be more worth it? Or perhaps Appenzell, which looks to be closer to the German border…
Colmar looks so lovely to me, but the rest of the group want to stay in Switzerland :(

As for the Christmas markets we are initially flying into Belgium so I think we’ll be okay with sub-par markets in Switzerland as long as there’s other activities to see and do.

Posted by
3226 posts

A train from Munich to Bern will take 6h 30m with two connections and Montreux is about 2h longer with three connections. If you’re traveling from Munich’s airport that will increase the time and number of connections. You can fly non-stop from Munich to Zurich for $126.

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