I am planning a 2 week trip to Switzerland and Venice--one week in each place--in mid-August. Is it feasible to use Bern as home base for one week and take day trips to Interlaken/Jungfrau, Zermatt, Gimmelwald, Lake Geneva, Lucerne, etc? (Possibly ride one of the shorter scenic train rides?) I am most interested in hiking and seeing Switzerland's natural beauty.
Thanks for the advice!
Dear Michelle,
If your CH goal is " hiking and seeing Switzerland's natural beauty ", I suggest making the Lauterbrunnen area your base.
I'd definitely suggest making the Lauderbrunnen area your home base! If you want to see more natural beauty and less city that's the place! You can easily spend a week there with a six day train local train pass riding all through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. The hiking there is awesome also. Then if you have rainy days, or really want to see more cities travel out from there.
I agree with Bob and Patti. Bern is nice but it sounds like you wish to to a lot in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Note that the train ride up to the Jungfraujoch takes 2hrs. It takes 2hrs back as well. From nearby Interlaken, you can take the Golden Pass scenic train to Lucerne as a day trip and return via Bern. Or, since Interlaken is in the middle of the Golden Pass run, go the other way to Montreux (its more scenic in my opinion) and return via Bern. Tons of hiking in the Berner Oberland. CLICK HERE to see a list of hiking trails.
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, looking at some of the hostels and hotels in Lauterbrunnen, it's cheaper for me (with 2 other guests) to book flights and hotels through Expedia (the vacation package would include flight to Bern and hotel, hotel in Venice and flight back to US). Some of the cheaper hostels are already booked up for the days I want to go.
So, would it be okay to stay in Bern and do some hiking/scenic tours on 4 of the 7 days? If not, I can change the itinerary to be more city-oriented. Thanks again!
You should play around with the Swiss rail site to decide if it is worth it to you to travel to the hiking places. www.rail.ch You'll see that from Bern to Zermatt is 2 hours each way; to Wengen or Mürren a little less; to Luzern one hour if you take the right train (but there's no hiking right at Luzern).
I would recommend you consider hiking at Kandersteg---one hour to the town, then hike up to the lake or ride a lift up and hike from there: www.oeschinensee.ch
I don't think any one place is a good home base for all of those towns. Use a rail site to see how much your train travel will cost if you did stay in Bern, and add up your travel time. I don't think this package will seem like a very good value after that (and it's not a good value if it doesn't allow you to see what you really want to see!).
Michelle,
There is no airport in Bern, Zurich and Geneva airports handle most transatlantic flights. Even though Switzerland is a small country and it has one of the world best train systems, the mountainous geography makes traveling a bit time consuming. Take the advice of others and stay in one of the mountain village like Lauterburnnen. Even Interlaken is better than basing yourself in Bern. I think you'll be a bit disappointed spending most of your time in any of CH's cities; Switzerland's big appeal is it's natural beauty.
