Itinerary help for Switzerland trip 15th-21st June

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    12 April 2016 at 9:52:52 #808893

    Hi guys,

    Thank you for such an informative forum, it’s been a great help in trip planning thus far!

    I’ll be going to Switzerland from 15th-21st June 2016 with my mum, and our itinerary is as follows, would be very grateful for any comments or suggestions, esp for the hiking bits. My mum is in her early 60s and I’m 26, but we’re both active and while haven’t done much mountain hikes before, are fairly physically fit otherwise.

    Here’s the itinerary:

    15th June (wed) Wengen: Arrive in zurich (flight reaches at roughly 9am)

    • Zurich airport –> Wengen (aim to reach by 3pm)
    • explore wengen and have dinner at our hotel

    16th June (Thurs) Wengen: Visit Jungfraujoch in morning (highlight of the trip!), hiking around the area in the afternoon

    • option A: roundtrip from wengen to jungfraujoch back to wengen, then take gondola to mannlichen for the hike to kleine schiedgg
    • option B: wengen –> jungfraujoch –> grindelwald –> gondola to mannlichen –> hike from mannlichen to kleine schiedegg and take train back to wengen (sounds more exciting, but not sure if this is doable?)
    • option C: wengen –> jungfraujoch –> kleine schiedegg –> hike to mannlichen, then take gondola down (but the con is that the views would be behind us!)

    17th June (Fri) Wengen : train from wengen to lauterbrunnnen –> grutchalp–> hike to murren (+ lunch at hotel eidelweiss in murren)

    • explore lauterbrunnen in the evening
    • dinner somewhere nice in lauterbrunnen (any reccomendations?)

    18th June (Zermatt)Sat : train fron wengen to Zermatt -reaching around 2pm in the afternoon

    Gornergrat Bahn with a stop at Riffelsee lake!

    19th June (Zermatt) Sun: Hopefully make it for a church service in the morning, then explore zermatt before the train from Zermatt to Montreux in the afternoon

    20th June (Montreux) Monday: Train to Gruyeres/ Broc- Fabrique for the cheese and chocolate factories!

    21st June (Montreux) Tues: Train from montreux to zurich and flight back home.

    After calculating all the train fares, it comes out to ~507 CHF per person if we were to get the half fare card, and 540 CHF if we buy the 8 days swiss pass… so I’m most likely going to get the swiss pass for the convenience.

    Some qns:

    1. Which would be the best option for the day we go to jungfraujoch and do the mannlichen hike?
    2. Is it possible to buy a ticket straight through from Zurich Airport to Wengen or would we have to buy tickets for each big change e.g at Bern, if we were to go for the half fare card?
    3. Any other must-do hikes in the Bernese Oberland area?

    Thank you so much!!

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    Removed user
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    12 April 2016 at 12:25:13 #850700

    Hello Elizabeth and welcome to the forum. Glad you are finding it useful.

    Another option to consider for your Jungfrau trip. Gondola from Wengen to Mannlichen, walk to kleine Scheidegg, train up to Jungfraujoch, back down to K. S. where you can decide whether to go back to Wengen or take detour via Grindelwald. This would be quicker and simpler and cheaper (not so many repeat legs of the journey ). You are correct in saying views are better if you do the hike in the direction M. to K.S. Be aware you will want to stop en route to admire and photograph views and wild flowers on this hike – don’t rush it!

    On 27th from Murren take cable car down to Stechelberg and do valley walk to Lauterbrunnen – nice easy walk with views of waterfalls along the way.

    The Swiss Travel Pass is my favoured Pass for convenience. Order it online so you can use it straight away on arriving in Switzerland – it will cover your whole trip from airport to Wengen. When calculating fares for comparison be aware that the timetable gives half fares by default as most Swiss citizens have a pass of some kind. So the STP may be saving more than you think.

    Enjoy your trip.

    Maggie

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    12 April 2016 at 14:25:19 #850701

    We three, two older women and the daughter of one of these, will be staying at Hotel Berghaus in Wengen 11-19 June with similar interests… In Dec 2015 we seniors were in the area and took an early trip to Piz Gloria from Stechelberg. Fabulous ride through 4 changes of cable cars. En route down we left the system at Murren and walked along the path to Gimmelwald, enjoying the smells and sights. Again on cable car down to Stechelberg. The walk proposed will be lovely and you can stop at Trummelbach falls on the way, so leave a bit of energy for that. Of course, you can take either the cog or cable to Murren on the way up as you will have a pass. They leave from the rail station. Perhaps we’ll see you on the paths…

    Removed user
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    20 April 2016 at 13:41:20 #850702

    Hi Maggie and applecroft, thank you for your replies!

    As we should probably reach wengen on our first day at around 2pm, I am now entertaining the idea of dropping our stuff off at the hotel and then taking the cablecar from wengen –> mannlichen (which would cost 11 CHF with swiss pass) and hiking mannlichen –> K.S (1.5 hrs) and then K.S –> back to wengen ~ 1 hr, just in time for dinner! Not sure if this is doable for first time hikers, haha.

    The highlight of this trip is the trip to the Jungfraujoch so we’re planning to catch the early train straight to Jungfraujoch on the second day (weather permitting!), but good idea nevertheless Maggie, thank you!

    Also, has anyone had experience with selecting the swiss pass print at home option before? Did it work well, and with that any extra costs to pay? E.g the 25 CHF for shipping costs.

    Thank you!

    Elizabeth

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    20 April 2016 at 14:40:18 #850703

    Hi Elizabeth,

    Kleine Scheidegg back to Wengen is a lot of descending; pretty tough on the knees. I guess that would be too much. But you could walk just to Wengeralp and take the train to Wengen from there, for example.

    Print the Swiss Travel Pass (not Swiss Pass, that’s for Swiss citizens only) at home works fine and there are no shipping costs. You can go to http://www.swissrailways.com/ en and they will e-mail it within a couple of working days. Be sure to select “Online Ticket” when they ask for the delivery method. Further purchase options are here.

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