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Switzerland late March to early April - Help most appreciated! :)

Hi!

My wife and I will be starting off our honeymoon in Paris from 22 March evening to 26 March. We intend to visit Switzerland from 27 March to 5 April, where we will catch our flight out of Paris at 11pm on 5 April. I'll caveat by saying that the Switzerland idea just came up so we're still in the midst of researching but wanted to get some guidance to see if we're on the right track / what we're planning is reasonable / and to hasten the process given we're a few months away! We would want to take it easy, walking around towns, cafes/coffee, enjoy the scenic views of the mountains and lakes, no skiing / winter activities, ok to do easy hikes / walks although during that time I'm not sure what's available, simple food. Nothing too packed.

Here goes:

27 March - Take train from Paris to Lucern in the morning. Chill out and explore the town.

28 March - Mount Rigi via "classic round trip"

29 March - Iseltwald (Heard this is a cute little town. Worth staying overnight or as a day trip?)

29 March - Grindewald. First. (Should we use Grindewald as a base? or perhaps Interlacken? I've read that there's not that much to do in Interlacken because its become quite touristy, but I could be wrong, and that its better used as a base).

30 March - Lauterbrunnen

31 March - Wengen / Murren (Are these do-able in a day? I get confused with how close things are and how easily you could get to each of these towns by gondola, walking, etc.)

1 April - Zermatt. Gornergrat. How long should we spend in Zermatt; maybe another day?

2 April - Zermatt or elsewhere like Thun / Bern / Montreux?

3 April - I'd need help here please :) Left it open so there's room to extend stays in any of the places above.

4 April - I'd need help here please :) Left it open so there's room to extend stays in any of the places above.

5 April - We'll need to catch the 11pm flight in Paris home. I'm wondering what we can do in Switzerland on this last day, or if we should head back to Paris early / the night before. Where in Switzerland would be good for us to travel back to Paris from?

Questions:

  • Swiss pass / half fare pass? I'm thinking based on our activities like Mount Rigi, the Swiss pass would work better? Please let me know!

  • Scenic train ride - Are there any parts of the journey we should look prepare for this, or would travelling the course of our trip already accord us with some scenic views on the trains that we'd take?

  • Should we look to Interlacken or Grindewald or any other area as a base and do day trips? Or perhaps stay in two different areas after Lucern, and then do day trips? I guess I'd be keen to seek your advice on where we should spend our overnight stays.

  • Paragliding - This is something we're considering if we can fit it in. Any recommendations?

  • Mountain coaster - Any recommendations?

  • Since we are coming from Paris, does it make sense to go from left to right in Switzerland, flying out from Zurich back to Paris by plane? Or is it better to take the train from Paris to Lucern and start our travels?

Thank you so much! We really appreciate it :)

Posted by
313 posts

As a long time forum poster and traveler, I think I'd be safe in saying why go to Paris at all? I think you'll need to explain so we can get a sense of why not fly straight to Switzerland?

Posted by
3 posts

Sure, happy to share - our tickets are redeemed as a round trip to Paris. Initially thought of doing Paris and then flying down to Nice to explore the south of France. However, it’s a sudden change in plans that we could consider Switzerland instead as we’d like to see the mountains etc. Logistically it woudlve been a bit more challenging to see the French alps. Hence, we can’t change our flight to and from Paris.

Posted by
1079 posts

It sounds like you already have your flights but it would have made more sense to fly into Paris and out of Geneva or Zurich.

Posted by
3 posts

Yea, but that’s not possible now unforch. So making the best of the situation. How about the proposed itinerary?

Posted by
170 posts

Staying in Luzern sounds really good and is a match with what you want to do. You could certainly extend your time there and make a few different outings to mountains in the area, weather permitting.

Iseltwald is cute, but I would say certainly just a day trip. Add in Giessbach falls. Can go by boat if you like, scroll down to Brienzersee for schedule

https://www.bls-schiff.ch/sites/default/files/2024-12/timetable_bls_schifffahrt_2025_0.pdf

Interlaken - can actually be a very good base at this time of year because you can easily get to a wide variety of destinations and make your plans according to the weather. The higher up you stay the greater chance you have of snow on the ground, so it all depends on if you want that kind of experience or not.

No matter where you stay in the area (Interlaken, Grindelwald, Mürren, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen) all these are very close together and you only need to pick one location to stay in to explore the whole area.

You will be on a scenic train ride - Luzern to Interlaken. If you also go to Montreux from Interlaken area, that is another scenic ride (via Gstaad).