My wife and I are in our late sixties. We are not hikers or art lovers. We enjoy the natural scenery, local culture and food, mountain villages,
etc. Here is our tentative itinerary, please provide comments, criticisms, and recommendations as you see fit. Thank you!
Munich - 2 nights
Salzburg - 2 nights
Zürich - 1 night
Bern - 1 night
Interlaken - 3 or 4 nights ( day trips to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, Wengen)
Lucerne - 2 nights (take train to Zurich Airport)
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6676 posts
Any particular reason you want to go to Zurich? I think I'd suggest going directly from Salzburg to Berner Oberland for 4 nights and then go to Lucerne for 3, day trip to Bern from either BO or Luzern. If you really want to go to Zurich, make it your last night though its completely doable to do Lucerne the night before a Zurich flight. If you want to do that, you could put Lucerne/Luzern after Salzburg, then go to BO, then Zurich.
I really would suggest 3 nights in Salzburg.
We did a day trip to Bern from Lucern/Luzern and it was a wonderful day.
Posted by
San Diego, California
5776 posts
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/switzerland/train-trip-september-2025
I see you are evolving from your earlier post.
For me, this wouldn't be enough time in Salzburg, and too much time in Zurich and Bern. Interlaken is a commercial transit center, not a charming Swiss village. If you're going all the way to Switzerland, sleep IN the Alps: the mornings and evenings are priceless. Please consider the car-free villages of Wengen or Murren for lodging.
Have a great trip!
Posted by
Maryland
114 posts
Agree with Pat, spend an extra day in Salzburg. Skip Zurich. We did Bern, its a small town you can do in a day so that works and go to the mountains in Murren for 3-4 days and skip Interlaken.
Posted by
Irving
3318 posts
Salzburg is a day trip from Munich by direct train (2h). A train from Munich to Switzerland (CH) is easier and less time consuming from Munich than Salzburg.
Sleep in Zurich your last night in CH since you’re flying home from there. Take a train from Munich to Luzern and sleep in Luzern for two nights and visit the Lauterbrunnen Valley via Interlaken for five nights if possible. You need to add an additional night in case the weather doesn’t cooperate when visiting the mountains. Don’t worry, you won’t run out of things to do.
On your way back from the Berner Oberland stop in Bern and store your bags at the train station for the day and sleep in Zurich that night and fly home the next day. Zurich is not a must-see city.
Posted by
OP
22 posts
I didn’t really want to stay in Zurich, I was just trying to shorten the train ride(probably not a good reason after thinking about it). Reason I was stay 3-4 nights in Interlaken and doing day trips to the various mountain villages is that our trip is being booked through “To Europe” (because we are using a deposit originally for a trip during Covid). I was trying to use stops that matched their normal itineraries, figuring they had lodging connections at their normal stops and might be less expensive than staying in the mountain villages (my preference). I need to check with them to see if that is the case, if not , we will stay in the mountain villages. In Salzburg, I wanted to visit Hitler’s Eagles Nest plus visit other historical sites. I appreciate the comments thus far, please continue expressing your opinions, this will be our only visit to this area and I don’t want any regrets.