MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 9 day Switzerland in May by car plus rail pass
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Hello Friends,
We are so excited to visit Switzerland in late May for 8 days. We’ve been looking forward to this vacay for months and would like your expert advise on the itinerary. We’re family of 4, 2 kids ages 15 and 10. I’ve reviewed so many posts on your forums and have incorporated your feedback from other posts into my travel plan.
We’ve a rental car to drive from cities to other cities and have bought 8 day swiss travel (family) card as well. Here’s our itinerary:
Day 0 – Landing in Geneva at night so will be getting to the hotel and sleep
Day 1 – Whole day in Geneva: Need some ideas on what places to visit so kids can enjoy too
Day 2 – Driving for Bern in the morning around 9 am and spend the whole day in Bern and drive to Beatenberg. We are staying in Beatenburg for 4 nights (10 mins drive from Interlaken).
Day 3 – Going to Zermatt from Interlaken. will park our car at Interlaken. Can you please suggest good parking lots (whole day), preferably free or cheap. We’ll be parking for atleast 4 days.
What else can we can visit with Zermatt?
Day 4 – Going to Jungfrau (bought the train tickets), we’ve booked for 10:15 am train, so at what time should we leave from Interlaken? We’ll be spending a couple of hours on the top of Europe and come back to go to wengen for a quick trail. From Wengen we’ll go to Grindelwald. What will be the best way to go from wengen to grindelwald? and coming back to interlaken.
Day 5 – Going to Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus. What will be the best way to do Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus from Interlaken? Is there anything else nearby that we could visit?
Day 6 – Driving from Beatenburg to Zurich. Travelling in town
Day 7- Rhine falls. Can you suggest other places nearby that we can visit on that day?
Day 8 – Tamina theme bath – ragaz. Can you suggest other places nearby that we can visit on that day?
Day 9 – Taking train from zurich to Chur. Can we use the railway pass? Is there any reservation needed?
Taking Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano. Already made the seat reservation. Bernina express starts at 8:32 so we are planning to reach Chur by 8:00 am, so for that we’ll take train from Zurich around 6:30 am. Do you think this schedule will be fine?
I would appreciate if you can provide feedback on the plan. Thank you so much.
HP
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Hello SwissVacay,
Nice to hear you’re coming for a visit to Switzerland.
Before I go further into answering your questions, I have one too.
“Is there any specific reason why you want to travel by car?”
Read this post for input.
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrainThe Swiss rail system is utterly well worked-out and covers practically all of the country.
I believe, if you travel by car, the Swiss Travel Pass is not needed, and a regional pass might be more practical for you. Check regional passes here:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/re gionalpassesIf you travel with the Swiss Travel Pass you will have coverage of practically all your destinations, find details of validity here:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validityTo get an idea of how long travelling times are by train and which connections you can expect use our timetable. Make sure you read well how it works, it’s an invaluable tool for planning.
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metableOnce I’m sure how you will travel I will happily provide input about your itinerary.
Best,
StephHi Steph,
Great to hear from you! I know I’ve debated that same question in my head multiple times but at the end came to conclusion that since we’ve some extra luggage it would be more convenient to travel by car from one major city to another major city where we’ll be staying and then for local excursions and travelling from there we’ll use the swiss pass.
Also I love to drive in mountains and take scenic pictures of mountains and streams with nature’s wild life.
Thank you,
HP
Hi HP,
Not wanting to object, but have you seen this service of the Swiss railway. Could be a valid (and cheaper) solution for you:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/practical/luggageI’m just thinking of costs when adding car rental, long-term parking and a Swiss Travel Pass!
Best,
StephThank you Steph for the information, I appreciate that.
Can you also provide the information that I requested on the original post?
Thank you once again…
HP
Hi HP,
We can’t always answer all questions, we try to help as good as we can; I hope the provided information so far has been useful. Perhaps one of the other forum members will see this and join the conversation. If you use the search bar in the top of the website, or the main menu, you’ll find a wealth of information to help you plan your trips.
For things to visit near Lucerne, for example, look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne. You’ll find a link to a detailed Pilatus page there as well.
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