Seeking Comments on Our Itinerary

Hi Steve,
We’re doing a portion of the same trip as you in June but for a week less. We also are not enchanted with the long Glacier Express route. You could consider Plan C: leaving St Moritz on the GE for 5 hours and stopping overnight (or longer) in Andermatt, then continuing three hours to Zermatt the next day or so. The River House (boutique hotel) and Hotel Sonne both sound like nice places to stay. Then you could continue with your original plan after Montreux. Wish I’d thought of that earlier. Ha!

Emily

Quick reaction Schaffhausen is a beautiful relaxing little city with many lovely walks around it.

Stein am Rhine is a good looking town too.

So nice start

Murren is lovely, but I am team Wengen. It's much more central in the area's Alpine transit network (one could argue it is the most central point). People who dismiss Wengen as being more touristed than Murren don't know what they're talking about. Murren is more of a ski resort village proper; Wengen sits on a significantly larger flatter spot with more working family agriculture surrounding the town.
As such it's better for local walks that roll but don't force you up long steep hills or into a narrow corridor of flatter walks. Murren has the best views no question, likely some of the best views on the planet, but Wengen's views are very good. Murren has some ridiculously nice larger hotels, and probably better restaurant choices, although we cooked in Switzerland and Wengen has a good supermarket. Neither is a bad choice at all, but Wengen is my family's top choice.

You’ve really done your homework to come up with this itinerary, which I think is fantastic. I was in Switzerland for two weeks with a Swiss Travel Pass and, the one overly-lengthy train ride I remember was the one you’ve identified- the eight-hour ride from Zermatt to St.Moritz. While beautiful, it was just too long. Andermatt makes a good overnight point. I thought the Bernina Express route was tops followed by the route from Lucerne to Interlaaken through the Brunig Pass.

As hikers, you might really enjoy going from Pontresina to the Swiss National Park in the Engadine region. It’s about 90 minutes by train. The medieval town of Zuoz makes a nice stop either on the way there or back. While in Pontresina don’t miss the Morteratsch Glacier which is an easy, flat 30-minute hike from the train station at Morteratsch. It’s only 10 minutes by train from Pontresina.
On the Bernina Express route, another fantastic hike starts at the Alp Grum station where you can hike to a glacier-fed lake and back in about 75 minutes.
I would pick Murren any day of the week over Wengen for the spectacular views of the Eiger, Munch and Jungfrau mountain peaks, and for the hike to Gimmelwald.
Have a great Trip!

One more quick point, and I must say I agree you have put together an enviable itinerary very well thought.

There is very good, safe bicycling infrastructure on your first stop and some of the others. If the two of you are still on bicycles you can do some really pleasurable rides to pretty sights if you have good weather.

Thank you all for your replies.

@ Emily
We hadn’t considered your suggestion of breaking up the Glacier Express trip and staying somewhere overnight. Have to think about that as it would mean a day less in Zermatt. Thanks for the hotel recommendations we will check them out.

@ Hank
Thanks, looking forward to exploring the area. We appreciate your take on Wengen and we plan to spend time there exploring and hiking from there as well as Murren. That is a good option re biking on our first stop. we’ll look into it

@ Kenko
I was reading more on the Engadine region earlier today and the suggestion re Pontresina to the Swiss National Park sounds like a good idea. I kind of wish we had planned more time in the area. The Morteratsch Glacier and Alp Grum station hike sound interesting and I’ll research them.