Three days in Switzerland

If your main goal is scenery, I would pick one location and stay there for the duration. Alpine weather can be fickle. What happens if the mountains are draped in clouds on the one day you have chosen?

Agree with Tom. William, the reason you want to spend the night in Zurich instead of Luzern is?

So much depends on your expectations & criteria for the 3 days but in general Switzerland doesn't disappoint in terms of scenery, culture & history....in my view, only the weather & high prices might be problematic. Therefore whatever itinerary you choose should be fine.

Thanks, everybody, for responding to my posting. Zurich got into the mix early in our planning of this trip. At first, we were going to go directly from Varenna, Italy (Lake Como) to Paris. We never even thought of spending time in Switzerland. Then we read an article in the National Geographic Traveler Magazine about the Bernina Express which was easily accessed from Varenna. In looking at the map of Switzerland, I decided this made it a necessity to stop in Chur for one day (Itineraries 1 & 2 above) and Zurich for two days (going to Lucerne as a day trip from Zurich). Recently, however, I read an article about the William Tell Express. I thought that this itinerary (actually Itineraries 3 & 4 above) would allow us to stay in Lucerne for two or three days (depending on whether we were going to go to the Jungfraujoch area for a day trip or not). Then we would depart for Paris from either Lucerne or Jungfraujoch, completely bypassing Chur and Zurich. The only negative in doing this, as I see it, is that we would not take the Bernina Express. Still, I thought this itinerary would save us a lot of time (actually Itineraries 3 & 4 above). In essence, we would be substituting a day trip to Jungfraujoch instead of the Bernina Express. At this point, I guess it's a win - win situation but having all these alternatives has left me confused. Thanks, again.

William,
Luzern and the Lauterbrunnen area are wonderful. Each is worth at least one night. You can get from Interlaken to Paris in a bit over 5 hours on three trains a day. You can get from Lauterbrunnen to Luzern in 2.5 hours and from Luzern to Paris in a bit under 5 hours. I cannot find a timetable from Varenna to Lauterbrunnen because there is apparently a timetable change in process. Same for Varenna to Luzern. It appears that you can get from Como to Luzern faster than to Laterburnnen - 3.5 vs. 5+ hours. I would probably recommend Varenna to Luzern, Luzern to Lauterbrunnen, and Lauterbrunner to Paris. The split of 1 night and 2 nights would depend upon the arrival times in Luzern and Lauterbrunnen.

You don't have to combine Bernina Express with Zurich and William Tell with Luzern. From Varenna, the Bernina Express is way the best option-more scenic, and you are right close to the start at Tirano. To get to the William Tell route you have to first travel to Lugano, either via Menaggio by ferry and bus, or via Milan by train. Then you go "through" the Alps via the Gotthard tunnel, insted of over them as the Bernina Express does. And the boat ride is a long one (2.75 hours). Instead, you can take the Bernina Express as far as Chur (first night) and then use one of several routes to reach Luzern from there, so you can spend your 2 nights at Luzern. You can see the routes on the Swiss rail map: http://www.railguide.jp/routemap/pdf/015.pdf One option is to take the Glacier Express route from Chur (the regular train is fine) to Andermatt and pick up the Gotthard route to Luzern there. Or you can continue toward Zurich from Chur and cross over farther north. If you're feeling adventurous you can ride from Arth-Goldau up and over Mt. Rigi, dropping down to the lake at either Weggis or Vitznau, and ride the boat from there to Luzern. You can even spend a night up on Rigi if you like. Seeing the sunrise from the top of Rigi was popularized by Mark Twain but is truly a special experience if the weather cooperates.