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Switzerland in Nine Days: July Itinerary - Lucerne - Murren - Lutry - Bern

My fiancée and I will be in Switzerland from Monday, 02 July- Tuesday, 10 July. We've bought an 8-Day Swiss Travel Pass and will travel exclusively by train bringing only carry-on luggage and one backpack for each of us - traveling light! We plan to do one laundry run during the trip.

Day 1 (Monday) - Land in Zurich at 10am, take train to Lucerne - stroll through Lucerne, perhaps a boat ride on the lake.
Day 2 (Tuesday) - Take train from Lucerne to Murren - we plan to leave Lucerne mid-morning and arrive in Murren early/mid-afternoon to do some short hikes/walks.
Day 3 (Wednesday) - Murren - All our travels in this area will be weather dependent but we would like to do one early morning journey to Jungfrau (we'll have to leave Murren by 6am to catch the 8:00am train from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch) and at least one trip to Schilthorn and include as much hiking as we can squeeze in while we are here. We're still exploring the various hiking trail options in the region. At least we'll have three full days, including the possibility of exploring the Lauterbrunnen valley if weather is inclement on any given day.
Day 4 (Thursday) - Murren
Day 5 (Friday) - Murren
Day 6 (Saturday) - Leave Murren to take Golden Pass train to Montreux and then on to Lutry. We have reservations on the Golden Pass from Zweisimmen to Montreux on the 12:25pm train, arriving in Montreux at 2:15pm. We'll have to leave Murren no later than 9am to catch all the connecting points of transportation to make it to Zweisimmen for the 12:25pm train. Once we arrive in Montreux we're undecided if we should proceed at once to Lutry (where we'll be staying) or wander around Montreux, perhaps visiting Chillon Castle. The Montreux Jazz Festival will be occurring during this time so we're going to wing it and see how crowded the area is during this time. If it's too crowded we'll just head on to Lutry and explore around there with an evening cruise on Lake Geneva.
Day 7 (Sunday) - Lutry - walk among Lavaux Vineyards (we're thinking of taking the morning train to Chexbres and walking back to Lutry with the morning sun on our back) and then take a boat ride on Lake Geneva.
Day 8 (Monday) - Bern - take train to Bern - still working on this day's itinerary but we're thinking of stopping in Fribourg on our way to Bern (I don't think getting to Gruyeres will be practical during our time in Lutry) - explore Bern's old town. Last day of our Swiss Travel Pass.
Day 9 (Tuesday) - Zurich - take train to Zurich for 1:40pm departure.

Any suggestions would be welcome: especially any favorite hikes around Murren, exploring around Lake Geneva and sites between Lutry and Bern. Again, we'll be travelling on the Swiss Travel Pass and would like to keep any extra costs for travel excursions to a minimum (we're aware the trip to the Jungfrau will cost us $$$ even with the Travel Pass).

Posted by
1117 posts

Sounds wonderful. Murren is awesome. Here is a link to a valuable hiking resource, including route descriptions and map: http://www.gimmelwald.ch/e/activities/summer/hiking.htm. The hike we did and loved was from Birg (second top station on the Schilthorn), down to Sprutz waterfall, and ending up in Gimmelwald.

Three days in Murren is sufficient. Do your sightseeing on the valley bottom on your day in or day out, or tie it in with the trip across the valley to the Jungfrau, to save wasting time going up and down. Trummelbach falls is my favourite thing to do on the valley bottom, and Lauterbrunnen is a nice enough town for a coffee.

Personally I prefer the Schilthorn to the Jungfrau, so if you can only afford to do one... The Schilthorn is better because it has a view of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

Bern is worth more time, so I would recommend cutting Fribourg out and just going from Murren to Bern and spending the whole day in Bern. See the Zytglogge (medieval town clock) and Barengraben (bear zoo right on the river).