Advice for a 1-day scenic road trip from Bern
Albee Chua plans to visit Bern at the end of September with a group of six, renting a car for a 2-day, 1-night trip across Switzerland, focusing on scenic views and activities. They’re looking for suggestions on day trips that won’t break the bank, especially since they won’t be visiting the mountains directly due to budget constraints.
- Consider driving along the northern shores of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz for stunning views.
- The Swiss Travel Pass offers unlimited trips on trains, boats, and buses, making it a good alternative if you decide against a rental car.
- Parking fees in Switzerland are generally comparable to other European countries, but be mindful that they can add up quickly.
- For scenic high points, Grimsel Pass is accessible by car and offers beautiful vistas without needing to pay for cable cars.
AI-generated summary-
Hello, I will arriving in Bern in end September and will be renting a car (there’s 6 pax) to tour around switzerland for scenic view and some activities.
Any recommendation of the day trips to go from Bern? We will only be stay 2D1N and really wish to cover as much ground as possible.
We won’t be visiting the mountains as it’s out of our budget :(.
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Hi Albeechua,
Welcome to MySwissAlps! I’m not sure how many hours you’d prefer to drive, but the roads on the northern shores of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz are very pretty. You could take a side trip up to Beatenberg for a better view. That’s about as high as you can get with a car.
If you’re only renting the car for the purpose of this day trip you may want to consider a Saver Day Pass instead: http://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass. It gets you unlimited trips on trains and boats, and even buses if needed. That would make for a much more varied trip. The price is CHF 52 per adult if you buy well in advance. A 6-seater car/van might even be more expensive.
You say you won’t be ‘visiting the mountains’.
However of course you can visit the mountains and see great views without actually paying for any mountain railways or cable cars. A car allows you to reach some very high places in Switzerland , easily equivalent to the summit of many mountain cable and railway routes.
The highest point closest to Bern that I can think of which is easily accessible by car from Bern is above the summit of the Grimsel Pass (2146 m altitude). Driving time from Bern approx 1 hour 45 minutes
Take motorways A6 then A8 towards Interlaken via Lake Thun, Spiez, by pass Interlaken and follow Meiringen, Innertkirchen to Grimsel Pass road. You can go even higher using the Panoramastrasse Oberaar through ‘moonscape’ type landscape to a high point (2500m) at Oberaarsee . The fun here will be that the Oberaarsee lake and glacier (as the name suggests) are the headwaters of the river Aare which you will have seen a big river in the centre of Bern.
You could also complete the circuit of the ‘big 3’ passes, by continuing over the top of the Grimselpass down to Gletsch and over the Furka pass to Andermatt, then Wassen and back over the Sustenpass to Meiringen
Hello,
Thank you so much for your reply! The route you suggested looks awesome! Do you think it’s over ambitious for us to stop by either Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald? Or do you recommend a straight drive to the submit of the Grimsel Pass?
Do you happens to know if there’s any activities along the way like Mountain Coaster or Slides? Saw those on the internet and it looks fun. But the nearest I was able to search on in the internet are at Jungfrau. Is that true?
Sorry, just one more quick question, is it easy to park the car there? 🙂
Thank you so much for taking your time and replying me on this!
Hello,
Thank you for taking your time to reply me on this! Not sure if we did the calculation correctly, but we thought renting a car will be cheaper as compared to getting the rail pass as there’s 6 people splitting the rental fee and petrol!
Do you happens to know the range of parking fee and the accessibility of parking in Switzerland?
Since we will be staying for 2 night, the second day we are thinking of traveling up to Lucern from Bern. Do you think is a good idea? Any recommendation along the way that we should see or do? 🙂
Thank you so much!
Albee Chua
Unfortunately you can’t have it both ways really.
You will need to decide if you want to go to the Jungfrau area, like just about everyone else… or use a car to go somewhere you can’t easily go by public transport , as per my suggestion
The Jungfrau region attractions are better reached by public transport than a rental car
Parking is plentiful in Switzerland and fees are no higher than in any other European country.
Bern to Luzern is not a long distance so you can easily see the Luzern area in a day by car from Bern.
HI Albee Chua,
at http://www.myswissalps.com/jungfraujoch/gettingthere you’ll find the links to the car parking options in the Jungfrau region. Look for the box on the right side of the page, called ‘Information on other websites’.
In my opinion parking fees are high in Switzerland, for example in a bigger city (like Lausanne) in the downtown the fee is 4 CHF per hour. This adds up fast if you are staying a few hours.
Ildiko
Hi Albee Chua,
You’ll find more information about parking and rates here: http://www.myswissalps.com/car/parking.
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