Unterseen, Thun, Spiez?

Look at Wengen or Grindelwald for amazing views…

Yes, no doubt. But I couldn't find any AirBnB's that had beautiful views but I did in the other towns.

To clarify, are you looking for someplace close to Lucerne to stay that has amazing views?

Margie: Yes, we've been blown away by some of the views from Airbnb's we've seen, some in Thun, Oberhofen and Unterseen. Not so much in Lucern (we're on a budget so that might have something to do with the lack of views from the apartments). Argh! So much to see/do so little time, but we also don't mind just relaxing in one place and taking that one day trip to Wengen, etc. Hard to know!

I guess what I'm also asking, is: has anyone been to any of these smaller areas, and did you enjoy them, and why? Sorry for the garbled messages.

Unterseen is administratively separate but effectively part of Interlaken. It is the part over the water bridge from Interlaken. If you visualize Interlaken as midway between lakes Thun and Brienz the main part is nearer the Interlaken West station than the Interlaken Ost station. Interlaken Ost and lake Brienz is logically east. Lake Thun is logically west of town. There is a water channel between and connecting the two lakes. Most of Interlaken is logically south of that water channel, Unterseen starts at the bridge and is logically north and west of Interlaken. To a casual observer it is all one place.

I don't know of any particularly scenic bits of either Interlaken or Unterseen, unless perhaps a rural cottage on lake Thun might be what you are looking at - if so, that's a pretty decent walk into town..

Both Thun and Spiez have very scenic bits and some pretty blah bits too. I have visited both many times, and have stayed in Interlaken and Unterseen over the years. Now I stay up the hill...

Thun is a very nice small city on the lake and I agree, views can be great. We have gone there for a day or less a few times. The castle is worth visiting, the city is charming, shopping is good. Convenient to boat trips on the lake and easy to get to Beatenberg, Speiz, and Interlaken, and a set enough to get to the towns of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. If you want to chill, it’s probably a good place but not really the small-town/mountain village experience most of us seek.

Why are you doing a day trip to the Bernese Oberland from Luzern, if afterwards you plan on moving your base there? That is like doing a day trip to NY from Philadelphia, and then the next day moving to a hotel in Brooklyn.

If you want to visit the Bernese Oberland, by all means do so. Concentrate on central Switzerland while you are in Luzern, then move bases, and explore a new area...

WengenK: Perhaps you misunderstood my question. We are not "moving our base" to the Lauterbrunnen area. We are taking a day trip there, as I stated in my post.

Yes. I understood you correctly:
You are doing a day trip to the Bernese Oberland from Luzern.
then later you want to move base to somewhere in the Bernese Oberland.

I am wondering why.

Why not just move base to the Bernese Oberland first, and then do your Lauterbrunnen/Wengen day trip?

Thun, Spiez, Unterseen, Lauterbrunnen. Wengen, are all in the Bernese Oberland. From Unterseeen to Lauterbrunnen for example is just half an hour.

When I was on the train from Interlaken to Luzern recently, we went through a lovely village called Lungern. It looked like such a nice place to stay, I took a photo of the train station so I wouldn’t forget. It’s in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains, there is a big lake, a large old church, and it looked active and fun.
It would be an easy train ride to Luzern or the Interlaken area, and could be more affordable as it’s not as close to the city.