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Which itinerary is the best for the first-time visitor to Switzerland?

Hi! After hours of research online, I came up with 2 possible itineraries for 5 nights in Switzerland. Could you please take a look and let me know which one would be better/realistic and if there are any changes or suggestions you would make? Which sites would you highly recommend or eliminate? I would be using the rail system to travel. The arrival and departure times are actual times based on web search. Would it make the most sense to purchase the 4-day Swiss rail pass?

Itinerary A:

1 Night in Zurich
7/27 (wed) Arrive at Zurich from Milan (4:30PM)
7/28 Explore Zurich and train to Lucerne in the afternoon (3PM)

2 nights in Lucerne
7/28 Arrive at Lucerne (4PM) and explore the town and surrounding towns
7/29 Mount Rigi or Mt.Pilatus (which one?) and visit Murten and Bern
7/30 Leave for Berner Oberland region (11AM)

2 Nights in BO area
7/30 Arrive at Lauterbrunnen or Murren (1:30 PM) and explore the area
8/1 Schilthorn, and explore the BO region (Possible sites: Grindelwald, Murren, Trummelbach Falls)
8/2 Leave for Milan (1:30)

Itinerary B (does not include Zurich)
2 Nights in Berner Oberland region
7/27 Arrive Lauterbrunnen from Milan (by 3PM)
7/28 Schilthorn (pending weather) and explore BO region (Possible sites: Lauterbrunnen valley, Grindelwald, Murren, Trummelbach Falls)
7/29 Schilthorn (alternate date), and explore BO region leave for Lucerne leave for Lucerne (2:30 PM)

2 Nights in Lucerne
7/29 Arrive at Lucerne by 5PM/ Explore Lucerne
7/30 Mount Rigi or Pilatus (which one?) and check out surrounding areas
8/1 Morning trip to Bern and Murten. Train back to Milan at 4:20.
Add a night to either BO region or Lucerne
For itinerary B, I would like to add an extra night, but where should I add the extra night? Lucerne? or BO?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond!

Posted by
8889 posts

Skip Zürich, spend the time saved in the mountains.
From Luzern, the mountain day trip to do is Titlis ( www.titlis.ch ). This is a higher mountain than Rigi or Pilatus. It has a small glacier at the top you can go in and over. See the website.

When you are travelling between Luzern and the Berner Oberland (via Interlaken Ost), whichever direction you do it in, make sure you take the scenic Brünig Pass route (via Meiringen).
Bern is actually easier to get to from Interlaken than from Luzern.

For route planning, use the Swiss Railway map here: https://www.swisspasses.com/railpass/overviewmap_en.pdf

For tickets there are actually 3 options:
1) Normal tickets.
2) Half price railcard and half price tickets.
3) Swiss Pass, which will cover the normal trains, but only give you a discount on mountain railways (Titlis, cable cars above Mürren etc.)
You will have to do the arithmetic yourself to see which is best.

The best place for rail times and prices in Switzerland is the Swiss Federal Railways website: www.sbb.ch
I suspect you may not have been using the SBB site, because you quote time in AM and PM, and Swiss railways (and every other transport company in Europe) uses the 24 hour clock.

Posted by
768 posts

I agree, skip Zurich. Nothing much there, at least compared to Luzern or Berner Oberland.
Further, if you have an extra night, definitely stay in Berner O.
Here are 3 easy trails where you can't go wrong:

There are loads of great trails in the area, but 3 that I consider "classic",
and they follow the 3 great ridges. The first goes
from (Lauterbrunnen cable car to) Grutschalp to Murren. From Murren one can also hike uphill on a diagonal from the
Murren cablecar station, and eventually end up at the restaurant at
Spielbodalp. There you can get a drink and sit at a picnic table and watch the
cows. You can see that trail and others here:
http://www.gimmelwald.com/pics/gimmelwald/hikemap.jpg

The second goes from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. The walk itself is
about 2 hours, and we save this for the sunniest day, because of the panoramic
views. (Leave in the morning--most afternoons the peaks cloud up!) Take the
train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, then a 5 min walk to the cable car
station, where you take the cable car up to Mannlichen. Once up, you can look
left at a 30 min up and back trail to a lookout point. If you look right
there is the main tra‎il that leads toward the Jungfrau mounta‌in, which takes
1.5 hrs and you end up in Kleine Scheidegg, where you can catch a train down
to Wengen and finally Lauterbrunnen. Great panoramic views all along the
route. On a clear day you will absolutely love it.

The 3rd classic trail is from First to Bachalpsee. Take the Lauterbrunnen
train down to Zweilutschinen. Get off to switch to the train going up to
Grindelwald. Once in Grindelwald, walk about 20 min further into town to get
to the cablecar station, where you take it all the way up to First. From there
walk south to Bachalpsee. There are trail signs, and it is about 45 min each
way. On a sunny day, you can get great pictures of the mountains reflected in
Bachalpsee, which is a small lake. Just Google image "Bachalpsee" and you'll
see what I mean.
Finally, if you get a foggy or misty day, you can walk further up the Lauterbrunnen valley to Trummelbach Falls, which is about an hour each way from Lauterbrunnen (or take the PostBus). Google image it to see why it is worth seeing, and the nice thing is you can actually see it just fine on a dreary and foggy day.

Posted by
2 posts

Awesome suggestions! Thanks!

I'll research more information about what you mentioned. I think my itinerary is starting to come together!