[Beauty]

7 July 2014 at 2:52:16 #806489

Hi,

i find your forum very helpful.

we are going to Switzerland next week.

Reaching Basel late night. Next day in Basel. Reaching Interlaken the following day and it will be our base for 5 days and nights. On the day 7th, we will go from Zermatt to St. Moritz by the Glacier Express. Staying there for 2 nights. Reaching Basel on the 9th day and on the same day evening returning to Ireland.

As I have read too many opinions of too many people, I’m also too much confused about how to cover maximum places from Interlaken. I know there are too many places to see and I want to do the maximum :-). We have also booked our 8 days Swiss pass.

Would you please help me finalise a practical plan so that we can cover maximum places within those 5 days. We are travelling with our 11 year old son.

I have few places in mind which we must cover:

1. Jungfrau – top of Europe

2. Lucerne, mt. Titlis, Rigi / Pilatus etc.

3. Brienz boat trip, cogwheel train to Hothorn, Lauterbrunnen / Murren / Grindelwald / Schiltorn ( can’t decide which one)

4. Bern and what else?

5. Zurich or Geneva? We are not very keen on roaming around commercial areas unless something really worthy to visit.

My husband has to visit the Reichenbach falls as he is a big Sherlock Holmes fan as we all are 🙂 but don’t know how to punch that in between.

We also want to take the walking trail to Kleine Scheidegg but how to combine that with other things?

If possible we want to visit the Château de Chillon, but do not know how to combine with other things.

I love photography, so hoping that I’ll have enough opportunity for that.

Also, if you can give us a good plan for our St. Moritz’s trip over one and a half day.

Thanks very much in advance. I know It’s a long list but hoping that you will come up with a good and practical plan 🙂

kind regards

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[Annika]

7 July 2014 at 19:39:41 #840400

Hi Beauty,

My general advice would be to read this guide, don’t do too much on one day, and be flexible as the weather in the mountains can change quickly (for the better or the worse).

You can combine Bern with a boat trip on Lake Thun. Lake Brienz can be combined with the Aare Gorge (Aareschlucht) and the Reichenbach Fall. Your 9 days already include Basel, Bern and possibly Lucerne. I would not add more cities to the list, but rather focus on the Alps. The Chillon castle is too far away unless you want to spend a full day on it. There’s plenty to see closer to Interlaken.

See our St. Moritz activity page for tips in that region. There are many similar pages on our website where you can find all the details of various attractions and hiking trails.

I hope this gets you started!

[Beauty]

8 July 2014 at 23:46:07 #840401

Hi Annika,

thanks for replying so quick. Appreciate that!

after taking notes from your post, I am thinking of dropping the Chillon castle plan. Instead, we will probably spend another day in the valley. So, this is my revised plan for the 5 days stay in Interlaken. Please
me know, if I can squeeze these places in shorter time and can get the time for the castle, otherwise it’s dropped for sure.

Day 1: reaching Interlaken from Basel mid morning. Taking the lake Brienze boat trip, from there aare gorge and Reichenbach falls. Back to hotel

Day 2: Interlaken to Jungfrau. On our way back, we will get down at Kleine Scheidegg and walk down to Grindelwald and then take the train back to Interlaken . Do you think it’s possible in in one day? Also, how can we get back to Kleine Scheidegg from Jungfrau ? And, is the walk from Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald very strenuous? Otherwise I might have to drop it as I have little knee problem. In that case, is there a train or bus to get back to Interlaken ?

Day 3: Interlaken to Engelberg. Then to Mt. Titlis. Back to Engelberg and to Lucerne. In the evening back to Interlaken.

Day 4: lake Thun and Bern. How do we Plan this day. Please give some idea.

Day 5.: Interlaken to Brienze Rothorn by the steam engine train. Does this trip take a full day? Also, do I need to book the tickets for this train in advance? And will I get any discount on this as I have the 8 day Swiss pass? What else we can do if it’s a half day thing?

Next day we are going to Zermatt to take the Glacier Express.

Does my plan sound good to you? I also wanted to go to Mürren but don’t know How I can do that.

Do you think, we should also go to Schilthorn? As we are already thinking of doing Jungfrau and Mt. Titlis, will this really make sense or it’s altogether different than the other two mountain tops? Or which one should we really go?

Another thing, if we get bad weather for one or more days, what are the alternate plans?

I appreciate your patience to read my post in advance 🙂

Looking forward to your reply.

Many thanks and kind regards

[Annika]

10 July 2014 at 13:06:17 #840402

Hi Beauty,

Day 2: It can be done in a day, but don’t do this walk if you have a knee problem. It’s a huge descent. If you want to walk that route, then shorten it by starting at Alpiglen and be sure to walk with two sticks. Walking from Kleine Scheidegg to Männlichen is much easier. From there you can take a cable car to Wengen or Grindelwald.

Day 4: Take a boat from Interlaken West to Thun, then go to Bern by train, and by train back to Interlaken.

Day 5: This can be a full day if you like, see here. Also you can visit the open air museum in nearby Ballenberg, or look into Maggie’s tip.

Of course Chillon castle is unique, but there are several ones on Lake Thun you may want to visit instead on day 4. There are castles in Thun, Spiez, Oberhofen and Hilterfingen. Plenty of options that do not require a full day of traveling.

As for bad weather: day 4, and even day 1 can be done when it’s drizzling. More bad weather tips are on the Interlaken page.

There’s really no time to add the Schilthorn or anything else. Most things operate until the late afternoon so you can’t do many activities in the evening, with the exception of some boat trips and a visit the Harder Kulm in the early evening. I would recommend to just enjoy what’s on your list and come back another time to see more 🙂