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suggetion about my first trip of europe with 5 days 4 night in switzerland

our group 2 coupple with four children [16 to 22]
want to stay at BERN and sightseen by trains as follows
1 st day settle at bern and visit bern city
2nd day go to engelberg [titlis] and afternoon comes at luzern at night back to bern
3rd day go to jungfraujoch and evining at interlaken at night back to bern
4 th day go to zermatt fullday and at njght back to bern
5 th day checkout from bern and go to zurich,and book luggage in loker.and visit zurich
in evening depart for vienna

as we are 1st time visitor we want to visit as much as we can.
please suggest us about our itineary

we are going in 3rd week of june

Posted by
7209 posts

Most first time visitors, just like you, want to see as much as they can. Unfortunately you're going to be spending a large amount of your precious vacation time seeing the inside of trains. Would you rather spend you time actually being out in those wonderful areas experiencing them first-hand rather than seeing them all pass by from your train window?

Yes, you itinerary is do-able, but it is not practical. You have 5 nights which is a very nice amount of time to see the sights. I would recommend to you to base yourself 3 nights in the lauterbrunnen valley and 2 nights in Lucerne. There is plenty to see and do in those 2 areas for your time in Switzerland. Delete Bern and Zermatt from your itinerary. You'll be seeing plenty of high mountain tops with snow when you visit the Jungfrau (from Lauterbrunnen) and when you visit Titlis (from Lucerne).

Use www.sbb.ch to see how long your train journeys will take...it's 3.25 hours on the train from Bern to Jungfraujoch (and 3.25 return). That almost 7 hours of just sitting on the train!!! That doesn't include ANY time on the Jungfrau and its many sights and activities. You'll be passing through the most beautiful areas in Switzerland on that long day trip and you will have ZERO time to stop in those beautiful alpine villages to see the sights or have a cup of tea or lunch.

Don't waste your time sitting on trains. That's a common mistake that too many 1st time visitors make.

Posted by
12040 posts

Another common mistake- not accounting for Alpine weather in your plans. All the travel videos depict the Alps during optimal weather... but just as common as clear blue skies are overcast, rainy days. If you're planning a trip far in advanced, there's no way you can predict the weather on any one day. So, if you want to experience the best of the mountains, here's what you do- pick one destination and sit there for 3-4 nights. That way, you spread your bets that you'll get to enjoy that location in case one or more days hit you with bad weather.

Posted by
5 posts

thanks for your reply

as we are living in hilly areas we have not more interest in hiking and mountains
mainly we want to see city life of swiss and go around lakes
as you stated we are dropping zermatt and will not go beyond interlaken

as we cannot go next time ,we are planning in tight schedule to reach more destinations.
we are planning to purchase eurailpass for 15 plus 2 seventeen day continuous pass.
we are coming from frankfurt at 14.56 by train to bern and 4 nights at bern
as we are booking hotel nearby bern train station on walking distance [metro also available free with city tax]
1st day we check in hotel and rest there and will take dinner at near by place.
2nd day we will go to luzern by train [1 hour] and to engelberg total 2 hour and back.
this day can be hactic but anyway we will manage
3rd day we will go to interlaken [1 hour] and enjoy in lake and interlaken city and back
4th day we will go for thun lake half hour from bern and go around there and back
5 th day, day for zurich city

as our train journey on 2nd day 4 hours.
3rd day 2 hour
4 th day 1 hour
5 th day 1 hour [bern to zurich]

I think this plan will not be hard for us
mainly we donot want checkin and checkout frequently

Posted by
7209 posts

If you you do not intend to take advice that you asked for, why even ask for it at all?

Posted by
16893 posts

I was going to question your choice of a Global pass over a Swiss pass, but now I see that the trip may also include Frankfurt, Vienna, and Rome, mentioned in another post. It does sound like a lot of train travel in 17 days.