[Anonymous]

5 February 2020 at 18:44:23 #825118

Planning a trip to Paris and Switzerland in May from India. Following is the tentative itinerary. We are four adults in late 30s and two kids.

Day 1 Mumbai Paris, Paris sightseeing, night in Paris

Day 2 Paris sightseeing, night in Paris

Day 3 Disneyland, night in Paris

Day 4 Paris sightseeing or day excursion, night in Paris

Day 6 Paris to Lucerne, Lucerne sightseeing, night in Lucerne

Day 7 Mt Titlis, Lucerne sightseeing, night in Lucerne

Day 8 Rhine falls, Zurich sightseeing, night in Lucerne

Day 9 Lucerne to Interlaken, Interlaken sightseeing, paragliding, night in Interlaken

Day 10 Jungfraujoch, night in Interlaken

Day 11 Thun and Bern, night in Interlaken

Day 12 Interlaken to Montreux, Chateau de Chillon, Montreux to Geneva, night in Geneva

Day 13 Geneva sightseeing, night in Geneva

Day 14 Geneva to Mumbai

Need suggestions and input on some questions.

1. Should we go to Switzerland first and then Paris?

2. Would like to include some Swiss countryside town to the itinerary. Which town to include and where?

3. Where can we visit a cheese factory and a chocolate factory?

4. Are we rushing too much?

5. Can we put luggage at Montreux station and collect it for onward train to Geneva?

6. Any other suggestions for places to include?

Skipping –

Zermatt because we aren’t particularly interested in skiing or hiking. Apart from those two is there any reason we should include it in our itinerary?

Glacier Express because 8 hours of train journey would be too much no matter how beautiful the surroundings. We’ll anyways be going from Lucerne to Interlaken and Interlaken to Montreux so hopefully it will make up for some of it.

💡 Save time and get daily forum questions & answers by e-mail

[User]

Reply 1 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 2:38:42 #929558

Yash, your programme looks ok to me. Regarding your queries:

1. Your itinerary is ok.

2. At Interlaken you can stay at Wilderswil which will not hinder your movements as it is enroute to Jungfraujoch and also just 5 minutes away from Interlaken town.

3. Lindt Chocolate factory at Zurich can be visited. But I do not know the timings.

4. Yes a bit slower will let you enjoy the places more.

A suggestion: instead of Paris to Lucerne you can visit Geneva first as it is nearer and then Montreux etc invert your programme a little.

5. Regarding lockers at Railway stations this forum has link for the same which you can use: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/luggage.

6. Mt. Titlis is excellent but too crowded why don’t you try Mt. Pilatus, if it is open.

Going from Zermatt to St. Moritz by Glacier Express and travelling from Lucerne to Interlaken is a totally different experience which cannot be compared.

[User]

Reply 2 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 4:31:22 #929559

Thank you Amitrp. Helpful tips.

I am also thinking of inverting the trip, starting from Geneva and travelling north and taking flight home from Zurich.

TItlis would be crowded but it has the Gondola ride up the snow capped mountains. Since we are skipping Matterhorn, this would be the place to experience it. Might go to Pilatus if time permits.

I will check out Wilderswil.

[User]

Reply 3 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 14:07:13 #929560

Here are some ideas for you:

1- in response to question 1 you may want to check for events and festivities scheduled in may in Paris and Switzerland, then decide if you want to miss or hit them (and endure the crowds). Then shop for air tickets, pick the cheapest / most convenient combo and build your itinerary based on your starting and ending points and event dates.

2- in response to questions 2&3: Gruyeres, not far from Montreux,has a cheese and a chocolate factory and other great attractions, can be considered a countryside town and is surrounded by lots of other less touristic towns.

3- is car rental on the table? Because it is off the main railway corridors, train travel to Gruyeres is more time consuming than driving (check on google maps). As a bonus, you can visit more towns straddling the french-german linguistic border and overnight in Lavaux winecountry and do an early morning traffic free drive around Vevey and Montreux.

4- I hope not to stir controversy here, Chamonix (Mt Blanc) is a better alternative to Zermatt (Matterhorn) and is only slightly further away from Geneva than Titlis is to Luzern. And you can shortcut to Montreux on your return trip. However a day trip to Chamonix will be too little, you should overnight at least one night.

5- On Jungfraujoch, consider staying the previous night in car-free village of Wengen or in nearby Lauterbrunnen, with paragliding and gondola ride opportunities.

6- I concur with Amitrp, you should re-arrange your dates to better align your destinations: Paris- Geneva (Chamonix) – Montreux (Gruyeres) – Interlaken (Bern) – Luzern (Mt Titlis) – Zurich (Schaffhausen). That would make your itinerary a little less rushy.

7- In addition, I would consider stripping out day trips to Bern and/or Rhine Falls (or Geneva-Montreux altogether) which demands time and money on return train travel and leaves insufficient sightseeing time.

[User]

Reply 4 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 14:40:04 #929561

Thanks Paulus, some really use tips. I definitely want to go to Bern hence dropping Geneva-Montreaux.

So I am now thinking of following itinerary

Paris – Geneva – Bern – Interlaken – Luzern – Zurich

Or if I go to Switzerland first then I’ll go

Zurich – Luzern – Interlaken – Bern – Basel – Paris

Titlis is more attractive to me also because I am from India and the Bollywood connection of Titlis is difficult to ignore. I want to go to less touristy places as well but also don’t want to miss out on some obviously touristy places. 🙂

But if I am giving Montreaux a miss then I will have to find the cheese and chocolate factories somewhere else.

There’s so much to see in Switzerland, it seems one trip won’t be enough. I’ll have to come again, especially for the many museums that I am skipping this time.

[User]

Reply 5 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 15:42:11 #929562

Those two new itineraries look fabulous. Consider low cost flights to/from Paris as well. Maybe you can book a return flight to Zurich, do the Switzerland first, leave some luggage at your hotel in Zurich, fly low cost with little luggage to Paris and back, have your left behind bags transfered to the airport and get them checked into your return flight. You would be saving time and, maybe, money.

Enjoy.

[User]

Reply 6 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 15:47:53 #929563

Humm, that’s an interesting option. Will have to see if cost savings are worth the additional hassle.

[User]

Reply 7 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 16:52:05 #929564

If you don’t mind a little more packing&unpacking, this itinerary feels significantly smoother, less stressy, more time/cost effective (and you have an extra day to add wherever you want)

Day 1 fly Mumbai Zurich, train to Bern

Day 2 Bern sightseeing- afternoon train to Lauterbrunnen via Interlaken

Day 3 Jungfraujoch, night in Interlaken

Day 4 Interlaken & Thun sightseeing & paragliding, afternoon train to Lucerne

Day 6 Lucerne sightseeing, night in Lucerne

Day 7 Mt Titlis, train to Zurich OR Lucerne sightseeing, night in Lucerne

Day 8 sightseeing in Zurich or Lucerne, train to Zurich (if applicable) night in Zurich

Day 9 fly Zurich-Paris, Paris sightseeing, night in Paris

Day 10 Paris sightseeing, night in Paris

Day 11 Disneyland, night in Paris

Day 12 Paris sightseeing or day excursion, night in Paris

Day 13 fly Paris-Zurich, fly Zurich-Mumbai

At this stage I think I could join you as well 🙂

[User]

Reply 8 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 18:47:59 #929565

Wow! Thank you so much! Let me process this, I can pick up a few things from this. I hate packing and unpacking. If I could, I would stay at one place and go all over Switzerland and come back by night.

[User]

Reply 9 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 19:41:05 #929566

Hi Yash and welcome to MySwissAlps!

I would travel by train from/to Paris to Switzerland, so you could see more from the countries. With TGV it is just around 4-5 hours from Geneva, Lausanne or Basel, see the timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/timetable). This page also helps you to choose the best train ticket: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/france. Actually if you travel by plane it would take around the same amount of time maybe even more if we are calculating that you need to be there 2 hours prior to departure.

Montreux is one of my favorite cities, I would not miss it: http://www.myswissalps.com/montreux/activities. I know, you already skipped it as you did also skip Gruyere (which is also a lovely medieval town with a castle not just the cheese and the chocolate factory in Broc).

From Lucerne you can visit 4 mountains:

• Titlis: http://www.myswissalps.com/titlis/gettingthere
• Pilatus: http://www.myswissalps.com/pilatus/gettingthere
• Rigi: http://www.myswissalps.com/rigi/gettingthere
• Stanserhorn: http://www.myswissalps.com/stanserhorn/gettingthere

On those pages you can also see how the cable cars/trains etc operates.

Regarding the luggages please read: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/luggage.

Ildiko

[rockoyster]

Reply 10 of 14 • 6 February 2020 at 19:45:41 #929567

“I would stay at one place and go all over Switzerland and come back by night.”

You could. You could do day trips to all the places you list from Interlaken for example. Or from Bern, or from Luzern. Read http://www.myswissalps.com/forum/topic/checking-train-timetables to figure out how much to and fro travel time would be involved.

Before contemplating a car please see http://www.myswissalps.com/carversustrain.

Before contemplating flying Paris to Zurich please see http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/france.

Based on your personal itinerary you should read “How to choose the best travel pass” (http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass), download the handy spreadsheet calculator and do the math. The spreadsheet also includes links to the “Where it’s valid” page for all available passes. Be sure to check those pages for each pass you are considering. Study the map AND read all the text on those pages to fully understand what is covered by the respective pass.

[User]

Reply 11 of 14 • 7 February 2020 at 7:10:28 #929568

Thanks, I’ll check out those links.

[User]

Reply 12 of 14 • 7 February 2020 at 10:10:33 #929569

Thanks rockoyster. I am definitely taking the Swiss pass. Don’t want to rent a car at all. The amount of traveling we are going to do everyday, we will more than make up for the travel pass.

[Anna]

Reply 13 of 14 • 7 February 2020 at 14:50:22 #929570

Hi Yash,

I hope all these useful information will help you finalise your itinerary.

If you are considering getting the Swiss Travel Pass, you can find all the details and list of resellers here:

http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/price

Regards,

Anna

[User]

Reply 14 of 14 • 8 February 2020 at 17:36:47 #929571

Thank you Anna. With all the information and helpful people here, hopefully I’ll be able to finalize my itinerary soon.