Thank you in advance for reading this. I find this website so helpful, as I find navigating Europe a little like a maze, with so many choices, that it's great to get feedback from others that have traveled these areas!
We are doing the final planning for our Switzerland leg of our Europe trip. 4 people (2 adults, 18 year old, 21 year old). We will be traveling from the Zurich Airport to Lauterbrunnen July 7th, arriving in Lauterbrunnen early afternoon, and staying in Lauterbrunnen for two nights. Sometime on July 9th, we will leave for Lucern and then on July 10th we head back to Zurich. Then on July 11th we will take a train to Vienna (I already bought those tickets without looking to see if I should have bought a EuroPass, so I guess I'm stuck with that, not even sure if that would have saved much anyway. I've read it's best to be on the left side of the train leaving Zurich for the best views, but we could only get on the right side of the train in first class with a table.) We will be staying in Vienna for 5 nights/4 full days.
We want to go the Shilthorn. I see you can make reservations for having brunch in the restaurant that covers the cost of the round trip lifts to get up and down. (https://schilthorn.ch/cmsfiles/Tarif-Einlageblatt2015_1.pdf) Cost is 120CH or 86 Half price card, or 76 Swiss Travel Pass. Looking at the website, it usually shows 999 people for availability, even looking at today, so I am assuming you don't need to get these reservations early? Is this a trip you can just decide to take the morning of and not reserve anything? Just wondering because our plan was to go up to Shilthorn the morning of July 8th, but if the weather is bad we'd like to have the option of going up early July 9th instead. We are hikers, so plan to take our time on the way down, stopping in Murren and Gimmelwald. From what I understand, at least some of the hikes at Birg are closed due to the construction of the new lift.
Then for Lucern, any thoughts on what to see there if we are there for only an afternoon/evening and early morning?
We won't be in Zurich long, just the afternoon and evening of July 10th. Anything thoughts on what to see there?
And of course the same question many have....With our train rides from Zurich to Lauterbrunnen, Round trip travel from Lauterbrunnen to Shilthorn, Train from Lauterbrunnen to Lucern, and train from Lucern to Zurich, which pass combos should I try to price out?
Also, is it good to have Swiss Francs on hand for visiting these small towns, or do they take credit cards?
Thanks!