Best of Switzerland Trip Report, Fall 2025

Packing:
I followed the RS packing list with a few exceptions. The following worked either exceptionally well or I didn’t need.

Merrell hiking shoes/sneakers: I blessed these shoes every day. My feet and legs were much less tired when I wore them compared to my regular Nikes. I've even bought a waterproof pair since then, I loved them so much.
Duluth Dry on the Fly Shirts. I bought four and ended up packing two long-sleeve and one short-sleeve. They were comfortable and did indeed “dry on the fly.” I wished I would have packed the other short-sleeve as they made great first layers to absorb sweat.
Eddie Bauer Horizon Pant. Water resistant, comfortable, roomy pockets and light enough those days the weather was warmer. When it was damp and cold I wore long underwear underneath.
I took a carry-on bottle of shampoo which I never used as every hotel we stayed in supplied shampoo/body wash. Also never used the small umbrella I packed. On the few days the weather was a bit drizzly, I just wore a hat or pulled up my hood.

Speaking of a hood: I love my L.L. Bean 1912 Sherpa-lined zip-up sweatshirt. It makes a great warm layer and it has a hood in case of rain or wind. Also loved my rain resistant Land’s End packable down jacket.

Laundry:
I did wash out some things in the sink the first few days. I looked for a laundromat about halfway through the tour but decided I’d rather walk around than spend time doing laundry so I paid the hotel in Lausanne 30 francs to do it for me. Worth it.

The tour was amazing and I highly recommend it. We had a great group of people; our tour guide Nico was funny, patient and knowledgeable; the weather was great and I enjoyed every minute.

I'm so glad I read your post! I'm also a figure skating fan but not enough to know about their presence in Lausanne. I've been thinking about going there next year and will now have another impetus to do so.

Thank you for taking the time to do this! We’re headed out on this tour the beginning of June and you answered some of my questions. I take the lead on details and the logistics of getting to Mt Pilatus sounded a bit daunting. We are arriving two days ahead of the tour, so whether we do Pilatus or Rigi will depend on the weather. We’re backing this on another tour, so today I was checking out laundromats - having it done in Lausanne sounds like a plan. I decided to head us to Lucerne directly from the Zurich airport and it sounds like that will fit us better than spending the time in Zurich. I did wait to long to book extra days at the tour hotel, so currently we have a reservation at another hotel pre-tour.

I’ve also been using my math skills to try and figure out what pass is most economical for us, but since we get a Visitor’s card for most of Lucerne, and doing either Pilatus or Rigi is weather dependent, I think we’ll just buy as we go.

Again - thanks

Another nice report. I like that you share the positives and negatives. Thanks for putting the time into this.

@Patty, I thought the logistics of Pilatus would be too daunting as well. I looked at my Facebook post from then and this is how I traveled there: "I took the train from Lucerne to Alpnachstad. From there I took a cogwheel up the mountain to Pilatus Klum. I had made a 10:30 a.m. reservation on the cogwheel but the nice woman let me go up before my timed entry as there was room on the earlier cogwheel. After I spent some time at the top, I took the cable car on the other side of the mountain down to Frakmuntegg where I stopped for a few other amazing views and to ride the mile-long luge run. Besides the luge there was a ropes course, zip lining and other activities for adults and the kiddies. From there I hopped on a gondola down to Kriens and then took a bus back to Lucerne." Between my trust City Mapper app and the instructions in the Rick Steves' guidebook, I managed to make it there and back with no issues. The bus is a bit of a walk from Kriens but between the signs and my CM app, I made it to the correct bus stop.
And there might be other hotels besides the one in Lausanne that would do laundry. Ask your guide as they will know.

@Janet and @Dave: I'm so happy my report was helpful. I've gotten a lot of good information from this site and am glad to return the kindness of others.

We were also on a late fall 2025 "Best of Switzerland" tour with Nico. He was so kind to us and managed to capture us in several good portraits using our cameras.

The Hotel Bären in Bern was so helpful to us. We stayed a few extra days before continuing on to our second tour in Spain. They have a washer and dryer that guests can use provided they buy the laundry soap pods at their desk. We were able to start our next tour with a completely clean wardrobe.

We also found the Mt. Pilatus trip doable and enjoyed a climb to the very top even though it had become rather icy at several points. The Rosengart Art Collection in Lucerne is worth some time.

In Spain we found a local laundry in Cadiz with the most helpful attendant. She helped us through all of our loads of clothes. That way we started off for our time in Paris with complete clean set of clothes.

We've decided in the future that we are not going to use any of the RS hotels for dropping off laundry. Invariably everything is returned very wrinkly even with clothes that NEVER wrinkle. They always make an attempt at folding but it never removes the wrinkles. We had the same issue when we trudged to the drop off laundry in Keswick. We can pull the clothes out of the dryers quickly enough to keep them wrinkle-free when we do it ourselves. I recall so many of tour mates making the same comments especially in Dingle.

Thank you Pearzee for your post. I also loved your things you could have skipped. That is so helpful, I may have to do that when we take our trip. One question I had about Lucerne. How did you like the city and what made you decide to do Mount Pilatus vs Mount Rigi. I am disabled and bringing my wheelchair so it looked like Rigi would be more ada amenable and still the sights looked great . We are at a choice point as we cant do both mountains. So I was just curious about your decision for Pilatus. Thanks....

@Pamharris35, I loved Lucerne. It was beautiful and absolutely don’t miss going on a lake cruise. Originally I had read on the forum Mt. Rigi was great, too, and as I said above, the logistics of getting to Pilatus seemed more complicated. But a friend had been to Pilatus and encouraged me to go to that one instead of Rigi so I decided to give it a try.

@Silas Marner, the hotel in Lausanne returned my clothes nicely folded but I’m sure they didn’t take as much care with them as I would if I were washing them myself. But besides not wanting to take the time, I’ve never been to a laundromat in my life and so was a little intimidated to try to use one in a foreign country. 😁