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Switzerland: Suggestion for itinerary/points of interest..

Posted by (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) on

Hi,

I will be travelling to Switzerland with my family (hubby & two teenagers) in early June. We have already booked the tickets and will be going on our own!! I have been a a regional tour (Switzerland) before and would like to explore and do it myself (abit cold feet now!) My tentative itinerary is as follows:

Day 1: Arrive Zurich (2 days + 1 day for flight home)

After that, the places that we would like to go to are:

  1. Lucerne (1 day)

  2. Bernese Oberland: (5 days)
    I can't decide where to go and also where to stay--> Interlaken?, Engelberg?, Grindelwald?, Muerren?, Wengen?, Leissigen, Lake brienz, Grimmelwald (after reading the article from this site ;)). While there, I would like to go up to Jungfrau & Schilthorn.

  3. Berne (& maybe Lausanne) 2 days

  4. Geneva with side trips to Yvoire & Annechy (3 days)

Others:
Zermat
Lugano

We would do some hiking but not like what most travellers on this site are doing.

We would be staying at the youth hostels in most of the locations.. is there any particular one I should avoid (cos of distance or a better location & deal elsewhere).

Any advice is most appreciated. Thank you!

Clare

Posted by
8 posts

Hi Clare
My family of three(teenage daughter) went to Switzerland last June, it was fantastic. We stayed in the hostels, clean friendly, really nice. We bought the train pass, and it was well worth it. We went to Vevey, it was great and you can take the boats from there on your pass. We stayed in Lauterburren and did the Jungfrau, daughter was free because of the train pass!save 108 swiss francs! We also did Locarno, it was really neat, took a bus trip up to the valley, it was really hot there! Would have liked to gone to Berne and Zermatt but ran out of time. The trains are great there and the staff is so helpful, everybody was helpful.Good Luck

Posted by
694 posts

Clare, last autumn, we stayed in Lauterbrunnen,at Valley Hostel, in was a nice, clean and it has a kitchen. We thought Lauterbrunnen was the perfect base for us, we went to Trumellback falls, near Stechelberg (i think the teens would like that!) hiked to Murren and Gimmelwald, went to the Jungfrau. On the way to Geneva from Bern, stop at the château de Chillon in Montreux. Have fun!

Posted by
38 posts

Hi Judy & Martine, thank you for both your comments. Yes, we will be visiting the Lauterbrunnen Valley.. I've heard and read so much about it!

We will be getting the Swiss Family Pass.. I do have a question as to how it works ie. my thinking is to get a 6 day pass to cover the 16 days that we are in Switzerland.. is that sufficient since for some of the places that we are visiting will be for between 2 to 5 days?

Do we need to use the rail pass to move around while in the Lauterbrunnen Valley?

That's good news (going up Jungfrau).. my son 13+ year old son will be travelling free.. some savings!!

Thank you once again!

Posted by
6898 posts

You definitely will need your Swiss pass to move around in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Note that it takes 2hrs to get up to the Jungfraujoch by cog train and 2hrs to get back. Well worth it.

Swiss passes will only cover 50% of the cost to get up to the top of the Jungfrau and to the top of the Schilthorn. With your family pass, you one child may be able to go up and back for free (I'm not sure on this one). Your Swiss pass covers your fares up to Wengen, Gimmelwald and Murren.

Posted by
124 posts

I really enjoyed my stay at Grindelwald. The train Jungfraujoch-Top of Europe was incredible. We had a clear day (this was last December just before Christmas) and the view was beyond belief. It definitely was expensive but on a clear day worth every penny.
I found Bern to be much nicer/interesting than Zurich. Also there are several other places near Bern to visit (Neuchatel and Thun). While in Bern make sure you visit the Munster Church. You can walk up the steps to the top of the tower and get an excellent view of the city.

Have fun
Rich

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