Family of 5 in Switzerland

We booked a vacation appartment for a week in the Emmental region. Very rural, very authentic Swiss - you get woken up by cow bells ;-) A great way to get to see Switzerland on a budget. However, you do need a car to get around. We took day trips from there to places like Bern, Luzern ...

you may want to check out this website (it's in German but the symbols are easy to understand and some rentals have links to their own website, often in English):
http://www.emmental.ch/tourismuskultur/Tourismus/ferienwohnungen.htm

Or try this one:
http://fewo.myswitzerland.com/en/Apartments/RES-2014/mittelland/langnaui.e._.htm

For the Berner Oberland area (where the Jungfrau is located), check out the family apartment in the Chalet Fontana. I believe that this apartment can sleep up to six people. It has it's own private bath. The Chalet Fontana is rated #1 for all hotels in Muerren by www.tripadvisor.com. It's not expensive either. Great views and great things to do.

Also, if you are intending to travel around by train a bit in Switzerland, and you have children in your group between the age of 6 and 16, look into the Junior Card. A great discount as long as the juniors are traveling with a paying adult.

This is the time to start looking at accommodations on the Web. You may not need to reserve them since you are traveling early in the tourist season, but I would suggest you looking at links via tripadvisor.com or directly Googling areas of Switzerland you are interested in. Lucerne probably has a great many Family Suite accommodations, and so do other popular tourist destinations.

We're going with 4 kids, and we have had luck with apartments and family rooms. I have sent off email to B&Bs that told them how many people we have and the ages and asked what accomodations they have for our situation. Sometimes they have rooms they don't advertise on the web or can accomodate more people than are advertised. We have one place where we are staying where we need to split into two rooms (husband and son in one, myself and daughters in another), but I made the choice due to the location (Venice) to go ahead and go with that, since we liked everything else. Be careful with apartments, as they will often charge per person, so what initially seems like a bargain will be less so once you add everyone up.

Johanna: Don't forget that your kids will travel for free with you on all public transport (trains, boats, buses, gondolas, cogwheels) as long as they are with a paying parent and you either have a FREE Swiss Family card or a Junior Card for each of the kids. If you must purchase the Junior Cards they are very cheap. Last time we had to buy one I think it was around 16CHF. But the free transportation is WONDERFUL and helps the budget immensely. Even if you choose to visit places like the Jungfrau which is very very expensive - your kids still travel with you for free.

Try VRBO.com (vacation rentals by owner). That what I am using in Amsterdam for exactly the same reason.

Johanna,
We are a family of four (not five, thank God!), and are staying at the Chalet Fontana apartment in Murren and the Lucerne Backpackers in the Lucerne area. The rates for both places are very reasonable. You can get two rooms at Lucerne Backpackers and not break the bank!
Enjoy!
Lisa

We are staying at the Valley Hostel in Lauterbrunnen in a family room for 5 in June. It sounds like this would work for you and it's reasonably priced. The Lauterbrunnen Valley is lovely! Karen

We stayed at Chalet Fontaine in Murren. Nice, simple, reasonable, good breakfast included and friendly. She rents 3 or 4 rooms, for for this place, you would have to split up. It is absolutely beautiful in this little Swiss Alps town. Words cannot describe the view. It is breathtaking. The owner helped us with hiking trails fitted for our abilities-which are certainly beginner level. You will have to take a tram to get there, there are no cars that high, but you will be in for the time of your life. You can go up the Schilthorn or Jungfrau. Denise will help you with anything you need. We went to the little grocer in the morning and bought groceries to pack a wonderful lunch each day for walking--restaurants are a bit pricey if you're eating out a couple meals a day. We did spend our last day in Geneva and I would not recommend it for a Switzerland destinatino. Enjoy your stay in Switzerland, you will never forget it.

Dawn: Actually the Chalet Fontana has a Family Apartment so they would NOT have to split up into different rooms. Our family stayed in the Chalet Fontana apartment with plenty of rooms and a private bathroom, full kitchen, and breakfast included. It was a great bargain!

The apartment at Chalet Fontana would be perfect. It has 2 bedrooms, a bath, and kitchen. One bedroom has a double bed and a daybed,; the other has 2 twin-size beds. The apartment is on the ground floor with a separate entrance from the rest of the house. You go around to that side to have breakfast.

For Luzern, I don't know about accommodations in the city, but we like to stay nearby on Rigi, the mountain. It's a short trip (about an hour) by boat and cablecar, which would be lots of fun for the kids. Rigi Kaltbad is a small resort area on the train line and cablecar. Hotel Bergsonne has family apartments, if you can do a 2-night stay:

http://www.bergsonne.ch/

Our family of 6 (ages 10,7,4,1) is doing Lauterbrunnen through Eurocamp - www.eurocamp.co.uk. The campground there is called Camping Jungfrau. We've rented a 2 bedroom mobile home (not like an R.V. - like a trailer in a trailer park) and I think we paid around $500 US (250 pounds) for four nights.

We'll be there the same time as you - maybe we'll run into each other!

Thanks everyone for all your replies! We have found a reasonable B and B in Emersee to stay our first and last night. I found it on www.bnb.ch which is a bed and breakfast sight for Switerland. Then in Lauterbrunnen we have found an apartment to rent for 4 nights. I used a sight called www.holiday-rentals.co.uk. That will be our "base" and we will sightsee/hike around in the area. By the way, I checked into Chalet Fontana, but the family room was already booked for the days we were there. Otherwise, we were very interested in that place.