9 days itinery Interlaken & Lucerne fine tuning

Hi chandraks,

Good to hear you’ve been able to create an itinerary that fits your wishes and expectations. I think it looks great. Each of your day trips is doable, and having just two base towns makes it all pretty easy indeed. One piece of advice I can add right now is to find some back-up plans in case of bad weather. Searching the forum and browsing our town pages, such as the Zurich and Lucerne pages, will allow you to look for bad weather tips.

An 8 day Swiss Travel Pass would certainly be a good choice. You’d best us it for day 1 to 8. In that case you need additional tickets Lucerne-Zurich on day 9, but this can be resolved if you move to Zurich in the afternoon/evening of day 8 and get a hotel there. This will minimize additional traveling costs, and it can easily be combined with a visit to the Rhine Falls on day 8. Exploring Zurich, and maybe using a ZurichCARD while doing so, would be a good fit for day 9. Please find sightseeing tips at our Zurich page.

Hi Chandra and Vasudha,

Just a note on the Jungfraujoch tickets: they’re indeed 50% off with a Swiss Half Fare Card, but in case of the Swiss Travel Pass free traveling applies as far as Grindelwald/Wengen. From there on, a 25% discount applies indeed. The trip is still cheaper with a Swiss Half Fare Card, but then again the Swiss Travel Pass offers free boat rides, a free ride up to the Rigi, a free ride in the Glacier Express (except for seat reservations), etc.

Hi Chandraks-

You have gotten very good advice from Annika and Vasudha. I do not disagree with any of it, but, as you yourself have noted, there are personal preferences involved in some of those decisions.

So, I offer a few ideas for you to consider, based pretty much on my own personal preferences (some might say “peculiar” instead of “personal.”) 😉

If I had a choice between seeing Zürich and the Rhine Falls or riding the train over the Gotthard pass, with a boat ride the length of Lake Lucerne thrown in ( The Wilhelm Tell Express), there would be no hesitation. Skip Zürich and the Rhine falls.

[Disclaimer – I live in the USA, and have seen the American and Canadian Niagara Falls. The Rhine falls, though powerful, are not as high or majestic as Niagara. And, you can see waterfalls lots of places, but there is only one Gotthard Pass rail route.]

Yes, it means going back and forth over that route on the same day. Fine by me. However, I’d study the map and the schedules in the timetable, and I’d adjust the trip a bit to shorten it. One option is to turn around at Bellinzona.

Personally, I’d go on to Locarno, walk the short distance to the funicular up to the Madonna del Sasso, go up, come back down, walk the short distance to the lake shore promenade and “restaurant row” to have lunch, then take the train all the way back to Luzern, and skip the slow boat ride on the way back.

http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/locarno.html

Flip through the images to see the Madonna del Sasso church above the city.

The “all-train” route back goes through Arth-Goldau…some trains continue to Zürich from there, other go to Luzern and on to Basel. They stop directly across from each other on the platform at A-G, and the connection time can be 30 seconds. 😉 You would have 4-5 minutes, usually.

(I might add that Zürich is my favorite city in Switzerland, but that is because I have taken many years to learn my way around. The cultural things are appealing, and that means a lot to me on repeated visits. For a first time visitor to Switzerland, I’d say it would not be high on my list of recommendations.)

I discussed this with Jane Q in a long thread a while ago….part of it relates to Zürich.

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/swiss-itinerary-for-december-2015

Scroll down to the early November posts for walking in Zürich.

I’d consider it for walking around on the last day before I go to the airport, since your flight is in the late afternoon.. You could even fit in the Rhine falls on that day if you would like to, and get up early..

Travel time between Luzern and Zürich Airport is about an hour, two times per hour. One requires a change in Zürich, the other does not.

There are about 5-10 trains per hour from Zürich main station to the airport. You could go there from Luzern, store your luggage, then go onwards later. Or, you could go to the airport, check in, or go to the airport, store your luggage, and go back to Zürich or to the falls.

Admittedly, it adds 45 minutes vs. staying in Zürich, but I’d stay in Luzern on my last night if it were my first trip to Switzerland. Actually, since I’ve been there many times, I choose to make my last night’s stay in Zürich down town.. If I had an early flight, I’d stay in Zürich and use the frequent trains or 65 CHF taxi to get to the airport.. Yes – 65 or more CHF!! Occasionally higher. Once or twice it was “only” 60 CHF. My wife prefers to leave Switzerland in comfort, at any cost. I prefer to save money and haul my luggage myself on the train. We go by taxi when she is with me. 😉

Flexibility between the Jungfrau region and Luzern –

Clear weather is critical for the Jungfrau region. Weather in Switzerland can change rapidly, and there are lots of microclimates due to the mountains. The tourist office by track # 1 in Luzern main station, as well as train stations and tourist offices near the Jungfrau, and webcams all can guide you about how to split your time between the two locations with advice on weather. . You can enjoy Luzern even if the weather is not super, but for the Jungfrau region, you will not want to spend as much time there if it is cloudy on high, so you’ll need contingencies, as noted by Annika. I like Bern for that.

Annika said-

<<“Of course you could consider either Wengen or Lauterbrunnen instead of Interlaken. I wouldn’t split your stay in the Bernese Oberland into two nights in Interlaken and two in Wengen/Lauterbrunnen though, as the towns are all located pretty close to one another and I don’t think it’s worth the extra time spent on checking in and out, packing and unpacking your stuff. So I’d say you should pick either Interlaken or Wengen/Lauterbrunnen for all 4 nights, before moving over to Lucerne. Interlaken’s great advantage is its central location, allowing you to easily travel to several directions. Lauterbrunnen and Wengen are smaller villages, closer to the mountains and more scenic than Interlaken. Lauterbrunnen would be more central than Wengen; Wengen on the other hand offers great views over the valley in clear weather. So it’s all a matter of personal preferences and convenience, and you really can’t go wrong with either choice.”>>

She is 100% correct in describing the tradeoffs. . Personally, I like to spend as much time as possible near the Jungfrau, because the region is full of magnificent views, easy hikes, cableways, etc.

So, i stay in Wengen, and accept the longer time needed to get out into the rest of Switzerland. Wengen,because you are in a mountainside village with unique views, and have faster access up to Männlichen has a more “Swiss” feeling to me, and I love the views that greet you ever morning or all during the day ( in good weather…..)

By the way, with light luggage, it is not a big deal to split your stay between Lauterbrunnen and Wengen.. But, I’d probably not do it unless I were on my own with almost no luggage.

Kim likes Wengen, too.

Here is her short report, which covers more than Wengen.:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/tips-about-wengen-and-the-jungfrau-region-by-kim

Slowpoke

Hi Vasudha-

If you do not have to haul a lot of luggage ( and, maybe even if you do) you can check out in Lauterbiunnen if your hotel is near the station, and be checked in Wengen in well under an hour.

Two trains per hour taking 14 minutes. More on busy tourist days, between the regularly scheduled ones.

Better hotels in Wengen will pick you up at the station….Even if you have to walk, it is possible, but heavy luggage could slow you down.

A half day is unlikely, even from Interlaken to Wengen.

Slowpoke

Hi Chandra –

That itinerary will certainly work for you.

If i were doing it, I would not switch to one night at the end for Zürich, because i could do what you said you want to do from Luzern, without the bother of changing hotels for a one night stay.

But, certainly, if you want to spend time in the Zürich area, it is a good option.

Regarding your question about time in Lauterbrunnen…..Lauterbrunnen is only a half an hour from your hotel in Interlaken,

See attached screen grab.

Use the timetable, as linked by Annika to get answers to that kind of question.

If you wish to visualize the journey, this map will be helpful:

map.search.ch/?x=-26448m&y=-22224m&z=32

Zoom in and out. You can use the menus to find train stops, under “Points of Interest.”

Since you will go up to Jungfraujoch, you can choose to pass through either Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen on the way up. See map linked above. That will let you see the lay of the land, since you perhaps have not yet understood it. It will become very clear once you are actually there.

Usually, it is better to go up to Jungfraujoch in the morning, because clouds sometimes come in in the afternoon. If you do that, you would have time to stop on the way back down.

If you go up via Grindelwald, for one example, you could choose to come down through Wengen and then Lauterbrunnen.

You could get off a Wengen for a tea or coffee on the terrace of the Hotel Silberhorn, near the station with wonderful views, and/or, when you change trains at Lauterbrunnen, take a break and explore the valley a bit.

The attached picture is taken from a balcony in the Hotel Eiger ( now an apartment building) and shows a bit of the terrace. To the right of the image, the train station is only about 25 meters away.

Study of the map and the timetable plus this link will help you plan those kind of stops.

http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion

For your trip to Brig from Interlaken, check the time table to see if you can use the Lötschberger scenic train from Spiez to Brig ( use Kandersteg in the connections or via box on the timetable to force the selection through that route.) Don’t know if fit will fit your day, but is a really nice trip, and a lot more scenic than the inside of the new, faster “Basis tunnel” that runs under the mountains to Visp thence to Brig.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ L%C3%B6tschberg_railwa y_line

If you have time, avoid the new tunnel:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ L%C3%B6tschberg_Base_T unnel

An engineering marvel, but the scenery inside lacks something.

Slowpoke

<<“so it is all by Bus from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen? , will it be scenic as well bus ride ?”>>

It is all by train from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen.

This map will clarify- zoom in and out-

map.search.ch/Interlak en?x=126m&y=-782m&z=64

You have selected a hotel that is near Interlaken West, which is a bit out of the way for most connections, which are more convenient from Interlaken Ost. So, you have to take a bus to Wilderswll and pick up the train there to go into the valley.

Please practice with the timetable. it will help you immensely when you are in Switzerland.

http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Once you have selected a route and time, journeys will appear. Expand any one of them by clicking on the “+” sign to the left of the specific journey, as I have done in my example.

That lets you see that the routes shown in my screen grab all have a bus component for you, to get from your hotel to the train line into the valley.

Slowpoke