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Seeking advice on 14 days in Switzerland . . . and Portugal

We are seniors who appreciate beautiful sights, buildings, and flowers. Not into hiking, rather leisurely walks. Primarily, want to see Switzerland, which is why I am posting it here. Still, we don't want to spend 2 weeks visiting mountains and lakes. Hence the Portugal part, which has come up because of TAP's free stopover program. We seek to minimize hotel changes and would rather daytrip, which is why we plan to stay in Interlaken, rather than in the mountains. I have posted another version of this itinerary (which also included north Italy) on a different forum and was talked out of Italy (which we’ve seen last year anyway). How does the following itinerary look? I know Rick Steves basically ignores Geneva in his books.

Day 1 - leave BOS on TAP
Day 2 - arrive ZRH 12:25 PM; take 14:45 train to Interlaken arrive 16:58
Days 2-7 in Interlaken, daytrips to Lauterbrunnen Valley/Schilthorn; Bern; Luzern, weather permitting
Day 8 train to Geneva (via the Golden Pass?)
Days 8-10 in Geneva; daytrips to Montreaux and Annecy, weather permitting

Day 11 Plane to LIS on TAP 11:50
Days 11-15 in Lisbon; daytrips Sintra, etc.
Day 15 – leave LIS on TAP 17:25.

Posted by
20103 posts

Day 8 train to Geneva (via the Golden Pass?)
Days 8-10 in Geneva; daytrips to Montreaux and Annecy, weather permitting

Going to Geneva from Interlaken via the Golden Pass Express, you will have to change trains in Montreux. Why not store your bags in a locker and do your day trip that afternoon? Why go all the way to Geneva, then turn around and go back to Montreux the next day?

Posted by
4 posts

Sam, thanks for the suggestion--I might do just that. Another thing I was considering is to take a train from Interlaken to Bern, see Bern during the day, and from there travel to Geneva, saving some time. I haven't looked specifically at Golden Pass, will do so. At this point I am primarily concerned about the entire schedule . . . still a bit uneasy.

Posted by
20103 posts

The Golden Pass route bypasses Bern through the mountains to the south.