Starting to plan a trip to Switzerland...
Thinking about 8 days. Thinking of 2 home bases...
Possibly: Lucerne
2nd Interlaken
Trying to get different experiences but seeing all the beauty of Switzerland.
Suggestions on 8 day itinerary Thinking about Either April, June or September/October of next year. Comments on weather.
April is a bad idea. It's shoulder season between skiing and summer. Many things will be closed and weather if often not very good. The best mix of weather, things being open up in the mountains and slightly less crowds is middle-late June or September.
I don't recommend staying in Interlaken. It's a transportation hub. Look for lodging in Wengen or Grindelwald.
Leaving tomorrow for a Swiss trip, but first flying into Paris then a train to Bayeaux for a two day Normandy excursion. Then train back to Paris and pickup a high speed train from Paris to Basel. Then we will use day one of our STP and take a train to Lucerne. Two full days in Lucerne and then train down to Interlaken for four full days. Decided to use Interlaken as a hub to the mountains and boats to see Lake Thun and Brienz and the activities there. From there on to Zermatt for a couple of days then the Glacier Express to St Moritz. Actually staying in Pontresina for a couple of nights. Finally train to Zurich for an overnight and then back to the USA. I’ll try to get back in here at some point and post my thoughts on Interlaken.
I would recommend you go first to the Berner Oberland (Grindelwald or Wengen per wanderweg). That way, you get your long travel day over immediately. You go to Luzern next and you are only a little over 1 hour by direct train to Zurich airport for the flight home. Trains go twice per hour. That way, you get full use of time in Luzern before heading home. If you have 8 nights total, do 5 nights in the Berner Oberland and 3 in Luzern. I am partial to Wengen as it is car-free.
For those who came in April this year they were treated to fantastic weather. We had overseas guests and they really enjoyed themselves during this time. Everything that they wanted to see was open, crowds had not yet begun to arrive.
Here is a news report in English - we had recorded breaking weather - and you can read that last April was beautiful as well. For me, it is one of my favorite times of year here!
This April was not only record-breaking in terms of precipitation.
Instead of rain, the high-pressure weather brought strong breezes and
plenty of sunshine. According to the report, April saw 130-155% of the
average sunshine duration over the 1991-2020 reference period.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/lack-of-rain-made-april-a-record-month-in-some-cases/91348521
You might have other reasons for choosing another time of year for your holiday, but I certainly wouldn’t use weather as a deciding factor.
September/October is the clear choice. We did our one Swiss trip and a dozen other trips to the Alps (Austria, Bavaria and the Dolomites) in late Sept to mid October. Our experiences with weather have been positive. Very little rain, cold to cool nights and early mornings and daytime temps anywhere from the high 50’s into the 70’s.
I’d take Interlaken off completely.
My suggestion is Lucerne for 3 nights and the Berner Oberland for 5 nights. We loved basing in Wengen. You’ll never want to leave :)
We went from our stay in Lucerne directly to Zurich airport. An easy 1 hour train ride.
