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Visit Zurich- Interlaken -Jungfragoch-Lucerne ) Lucerne-Vienna-Linz- Salzburg-Munich May /2018

We are family of 4 going for a trip on Mid May/2018. We will be landing on Zurich and will be staying in Zurich for 2 nights ( one full day and 1/2 day ) from Zurich we will go to interlaken stay there for 2 nights and will cover Jungfragoch from Interlaken, One day Interlaken and one day Jungfragoch. From Interlaken we will go Lucerne stay the full day and night at Lucerne and next morning we will take the train to Vienna. We will take the day trip to Vienna for seeing the route. In Vienna we will stay 2 nights and from there we will go Linz ( 1 night) from there we will go to Salzburg ( 2 nights) and from there we will go Munich( 3-4 nights) plan to see Neuschwanstein castle and if time permits we will go to Black forest. Please help me with my following questions:
My questions are:
1. Is that travel plan is good or should be modified in better way?
2. We are planning to travel by rail and we didn't book the rail tickets, like to buy there (EU-rail and Rail Europe is confusing and seems very expensive) please suggest,
3. I book the hotel (apartment) in Zurich and will see the last minute deal in Lucerne and Interlaken and other places too? is it a good idea or should I book it through website now for my entire trip?
Please suggest and we are looking for some real good suggestions to make our 1st Europe trip a success.
Thanks In advance to all

Regards
Tania and Indra.
(Canada- Calgary)

Posted by
740 posts

Skip Interlaken and keep going to either Lauterbrunnen, Wengen or Murren. Lauterbrunnen is on the valley floor; Wengen is on Jungfrau side and Murren is on the Schilthorn side. Any of them are better than Interlaken.

Nothing wrong with Interlaken, but when you are so close to the Lauterbrunnen Valley, it would be a shame to stop short of overnighting there.

Posted by
7209 posts

Why stay in Zurich when Lucerne is so much nicer? Why stay in Interlaken when Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren are SO much nicer?

Posted by
21117 posts

What is you family make-up? Everybody's ages. That is important deciding what type of pass/tickets to get.

I would skip Zurich altogether and go directly from the airport to Interlaken at the very least. It is 3 hours from the airport on the train. Mid May is a bit early for the mountains. I am not sure, but they had record snow year, so hiking may be limited. Hard to say at this point. Lodging will get more expensive the higher up you go. You can find an apartment in Lauterbrunnen.
https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-travel-pass.html

I would buy tickets for Zurich to Vienna now to get nonrefundable train specific tickets. That will get you the best price.
https://tickets.oebb.at/en/ticket

If you want to maintain flexibility, you can use the Westbahn trains to go to Linz and Salzburg. They have good anytime prices.
https://westbahn.at/en

Salzburg to Munich, and Neuschwanstein, You can use regional trains and travel cheaply with a Bayern Ticket. Travel after 9 am weekdays.
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/regional-day-tickets.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0060_REGIO-INDEX-LAENDERTICKETS-UNTEN_LZ01

Posted by
6404 posts

I agree with what is being posted. We LOVED Luzern. We spent three days there. If the weather is clear, a boat ride and then the cog train to Mt. Rigi is marvelous.
I stayed in the Lauterbrunnen Valley and its spectacular. From there we visited Gimmelwald and Murren and Schilthorn several times. Highly recommended. We also took a trip over to Grindelwald and determined that we liked it better in the communities we could access from the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

Posted by
6404 posts

Regarding the Bayern tickets. I agree, they are quite a bargain. I've used them a couple times, for Munich to Neuschwanstein Castle and from Salzburg to Munich (both round trip). Make sure especially in Salzburg that you use the correct machine to get the Bayern ticket. I want to say it was something like 50Euro roundtrip for three people. It sounds a little complicated, but just ask around a little bit or make sure to read the information on the machine.