Please comment on Switzerlan Itinerary

chris---what I see here is a lot of time on trains and a lot of one-night stands. Where do you have time to walk through villages and get to know a place? It seems like you are focusing on quantity not quality.

I would recommend utilizing night trains on any ride lasting more than 6 hours. This way you are not wasting daylight in a train. I would recommend doing the loop from Interlaken to Grindelwald to the Jungfraujoch and down through Lauterbrunnen and then taking the cog train to Murren and walking from Murren to Gimmelwald and then taking the sky tram back down to Lauterbrunnen. The walk is incredible as well as the views and photo opportunities. But, this loop is exhausting. Partially because of the thin air at the top of the mountains.

Wow! This itinerary is mind boggling and very hectic. First, upon arrival in Zurich, I would not take a 4 hour train ride. You need to recover a bit from the flight. A one to two hour trip would be better. I would also try to stay at each destination for at least two nights. Since you have 9 days on the ground, maybe plan on staying in 4-5 towns. Otherwise, you'll be seeing Switzerland from the window of the train.

My main regret from my Switzerland trip was the places where I only had scheduled a single night. Arriving early-mid afternoon and leaving the next morning doesn't leave much time to get to know a place (it's even worse if you haven't prebooked your hotels, but I'm assuming you'll have that done). You really need two nights in Zermatt to benefit from the length of the ride in and out.

Me again...

With 9 nights, I'd suggest (off the top of my head):

2 nights Lucerne;
2 nights Pontresina (or 1 night Chur);
Glacier Express here;
2 nights Zermatt;
2 nights Wengen or Murren (3 if you only had 1 night in Chur);
1 night Zurich.

Chris, in looking at your itinerary, it is possible that the posters are missing the point. I note that you have included all four of the special Swiss train trips. If your plan accurately reflects your desires, I would read it to be a train trip through the heart of Switzerland. If that is your intention, you have accomplished it. If this is the case, night trains would totally defeat the purpose. If your intent is to get out and feel the area, then the posters are entirely correct. We took the Golden Pass trip last spring and it was nice. However, in looking at our pictures, it is clear that hiking the trails around Muerren and Wengen produced far better scenery than the train.

There aren't any "night trains" on these routes, so tht's not what I was suggesting. It does lok like an itinerary geared toward riding four scenic routes. But in the original post Chris said "We are interested in the scenery, walking through the towns, and taking boat rides on the lakes." I see little time for walking through towns and no time for boat rides in this itinerary. The only places they have more than a single night at Lausanne and Interlaken---neither is a particularly pleasant walking town, at least compared to some of the other places they will see.

But yes, if the goal is to ride four scenic train routes, this will do it.

They do have a lake cruise as part of the William Tell journey. But that route does not rank up with the others for scenery, and by going to Lugano they then have to do the tedious 3.5 hour bus trip to Tirano for the scenic part of the Bernina Express.

If I were helping a friend devise an itinerary that included the most scenic train routes as well as time for lake boats and strolling through towns, I would suggest something like this:

Skip the William Tell and Lugano entirely. Take the train from Zurich to Pontresina (around 3.5 hours). They would get there in time to walk around a bit and enjoy the mountains (a good thing to do after a long flight). Spend 2 nights in Pontresina and on the intervening day ride the Bernina Express to Tiraon (lunch stop) and back--2 hours each way. If they didn't want to spend the second night in Pontresina they could head for Chur to pick up the Glacier Express this day. Then ride the Glacier Express but not all the way to Zermatt in one day. Stop for the night in Brig, or better yet, take one of the regional trains that stops at all the stops; get off in Betten and ride the cablecar up to the village of Bettmeralp for the night. The next day continue to Zermatt, getting there early enough to spend some time stolling the village. Ride the Gornergrat the next day and depart for Lac Leman. Spend 2 night in Vevey and use the intervening day to ride a lake boat, visit Chateau de Chillon, and stroll this small village (nicer walking that the busy cities like Lausanne and Montreux).

Then head over the Golden Pass route and spend 2 nights in Lauterbrunnen, not Interlaken. Use the intervening day for the Jungfraujoch or Schilthorn/Muerren/Gimmelwald and Trummelbach Falls.

Next continue on the Golden Pass route to Luzern and spend 2 nights. Use the intervening day for a loop excursion up Rigi via Weggis And Vitznau, using lake boat, cogwheel train, and cablecar. Take the train to the aiport from Luzern.

Lola, you are correct, I missed the part about town strolls and lake steamers. It looks like the first 6 days would be mainly train rides. However, days 6 and 7 could be largely spent in the Lauterbrunen valley with time to explore Wengen and Muerren and take a hike or two. Days 8 and 9 could be largely spent in Luzern including a lake cruise.

Thanks to all for the posts, but especially to Lola and David for your detailed suggestions. We have had a very stressful past few years and are in need of a vacation that doesn't involve a lot of pounding the sidewalks, visiting cathedrals and museums, etc, which is what we usually do. And although hiking would be wonderful, we are not able to do that for more than a couple of miles on fairly level ground. Though we have never actually ridden on a long-distance train, the idea of sitting back and watching the countryside go by sounds very relaxing. We weren't particularly interested in the William Tell line but weren't sure how to do the Bernina Express without backtracking, though the suggested itinerary makes it sound like it would be OK to do that. After reading the initial responses, we considered leaving out eastern Switzerland altogether, and perhaps picking it up on a trip to northern Italy (which we hope to do Spring of 2011) or Austria. But your suggestions give us hope that we can get at least a glimpse of the whole country. We really like to explore one city/area in depth, but have also found it sometimes works to "survey" a larger area and find a favorite place to return for a longer vacation. (We "discovered" Cozumel on a cruise and returned the following summer for a wonderful week.) Anyway, it's great to get advice from those who've already been there.