6.5 days Lucerne and Zurich itinerary with teens
A traveler, Priti20543, is planning a trip to Switzerland from California in April. They have 6.5 days, with plans to spend 3 days in Lucerne and 3 days in Interlaken, and are looking for advice on day trips, accommodations near train stations, and itinerary suggestions. They aim to buy a Swiss Travel Pass for 8 days and are curious about the weather during their visit.
- Consider staying in one place, like Lucerne, for most of your trip to save time on moving hotels.
- April weather can be unpredictable; many mountains close for maintenance after ski season.
- Use the SBB timetable app to efficiently plan your day trips and transport in Switzerland.
- Attractions in Bern are charming; explore the old town for a delightful experience.
- The Swiss Travel Pass is a great choice for extensive travel, covering most trains and some attractions.
AI-generated summary-
Hello,
We will be travelling to Switzerland from California for the first time in April 2019 from April 14 to 20, and leaving on early morning April 21. Round trip from Zurich.
So we have 6.5 days. We will be travelling two teens 15 and 13 years. Need help with planning the itinerary.
I was thinking of 3 days in Lucerne and 3 days in Interlaken and them last day in Zurich.
Would like to do nice days trips from these places. I am planning to buy swiss rail pass for 8 days.
Please recommend what to do and where to stay in these places which are very close to train stations.
If there is a better itinerary, please recommend.
How is the weather in April?
Any help / tips will be greatly appreciated.
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Hi Priti20543 and welcome to MySwissAlps!
April can be hit and miss for weather in Switzerland. Still very much winter in the mountains buy the start of spring at lower elevations (most cities). See here for more details: http://www.myswissalps.com/be sttimetovisit // http://www.myswissalps.com/we ather
Picking the best base towns will depend more on what you decide to do. So plan out where you want to visit first, and then pick the towns that are most convenient for you.
For ideas on what to do in Switzerland look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ac tivities and then use the Swiss railways timetable to plan trips between towns and mountains/attractions/other towns: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
We have information pages on most towns in Switzerland: http://www.myswissalps.com/wh eretogo/towns – you can click on each town’s Hotel tab to see our hotel recommendations and details on how close the hotel is to the local train station
For details on hotels in Lucerne and Interlaken for example, look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/in terlaken/hotels // http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne/hotels
Hope that helps get you started on your planning. Do note in April some mountains close for maintenance (ski season ends in early April and hiking season doesn’t start until r early June). So some mountain towns will be very quiet in April once the ski season has ended.
Mountain details can be found here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ac tivities/naturalsites – once on the web page for a mountain you want to visit, click the route tab to see details on closing dates (if any).
Hi Priti20543
I am also travellig from CA to Switzerland April 2019 (12-17) & look forward to seeing how your planning goes. After a lot of research time, with great guidance here, we’ve decided to base in Luzern with 2 days in a hotel in the city & rented a home in a small lake town for the remaining 3 days. Each day I made a plan & mapped out using the SBB timetable but also made a list of alternate plans in case of TOO rainy weather. My hope is to balance exploring a new culture but having time to relax & enjoy the memories made. So far, learning to correctly use the timetable to pick the correct travel pass has proven the most difficult but with time it’s makes sense. Good luck on your planning!
Hello Lucas,
Thank you for your reply. I am still trying to figure out what we are going to do. We will not ski but would like to visit some mountains such as Mt. Titlis, Schilthorn etc. Also, would like to go to Bern.
Would it make sense to make base in Lucerne central area for 6 days and do day trips from there. I feel that changing hotels in between and travelling with luggage will eat up our time for sightseeing.
Please advise. Thanks much.
Priti
Hello Hestesh, Please share your research and plan if you don’t mind. This will save me a lot of time.
Where are you staying in Lucerne?
I totally agree with you there is so much time involved in moving from hotel to hotel that you lose some ability to experience where you’re at. We were originally just renting a house for 3 nights but found we wanted to see more so we added the 2 days in a hotel where we could easily leave the area though for day trips. We’re traveling just my husband & I, mid 40’s & relaxed type personalities. I’m no professional and have no experience in Switzerland so take my plans with a grain of salt but here you go 🙂
Day 1 Arrival from Frankfurt via train to a hotel in Luzern. No other plans as we expect to get to our hotel about 7pm.
Day 2 Golden Pass to Interlaken & on to Brienz for Ballenberg open air museum. Stay the night at a hotel in Luzern.
Day 3 Explore city of Luzern & Aeschbach Chocolatier in Root (10 mins train) & move to a rental house in Gersau on the lake.
Day 4 Engelberg cheese factory & Mt Titlis. Sleep Gersau.
Day 5 Explore the lake with stops at Brunnen swiss army knives, Hergiswil glass factory (and Mt Rigi if time & weather allow). Sleep Gersau.
Day 6 train to Munich
*Depending on scheduling &weather our alternates are Bern, Swiss travel museum, extending the Golden pass to Montreux, Mt Pilatus and/or Fluelen – Erstfeld – Andermatt – Oberalp Pass and back
We are flying in to Frankfurt (double miles & a direct flight!) and taking a train down to Luzern. We will leave via train to Munich and then onto Berlin before returning to fly out of Frankfurt again FYI. We are staying 2 nights in Ibis Styles Luzern & then 3 nights in a house through Air B&B in Gersau where the lovely owner is even making us a home-cooked traditional meal for our anniversary night. We are purchasing the Swiss Travel Pass for 4 days (after a long process using the spreadsheet for our transpiration needs as well as what museums etc. we want to see that are free with the pass. We considered the Tell Pass since we’re just staying in the Luzern area but it still would be more expensive ultimately with the entrance fees. I also found checking website for where we wanted to see because being in between seasons, some things are only open certain days. An example is that the open air museum opening day is the day we will attend. If we had wanted to go earlier than Saturday 4/13, we would have been disappointed.
I hope this helps get you started and again, I look forward to seeing what you plan as well!
Hi Priti,
6 days would be one or two base towns maximum for sure. For a good central town with good rail connections, I would consider Lucerne or Interlaken.
Lucerne is the nicer town, I think – but it depends on your final itinerary.
Use the timetable link to find travel times to the towns and mountains you want to visit from those two towns (I’d choose the town closest to most of the mountains/towns I plan to visit).
This looks great. My tentative plan is:
April:
14Th – Arrive Zurich from Los Angeles in the afternoon, Take a train to Interlaken. Overnight in Interlaken. Would like to find a place central in the town, where you can walk around late evening.
15th and 16th – Stay overnight in Interlaken. Do day trips to Jungfrau and Schillithorn on 15th and 16th and possibly combine some close by villages to roam around in the afternoon and evening (Dont know which ones yet) May be Grindlewald or Lauterbrunnen.
17th morning – Take train to Lucerne, overnight in Lucerne for 3 nights 17th, 18th and 19th.
Will do day trips such as Titlis, Pilatus, Rigi, Bern, Boatrips in between.
It would be helpful if someone can suggest which day trips can be combined to save time.
20th morning : Checkout from Lucerne, and check into hotel near Zurich airport and then spend the day around Zurich – still need to figure out what to do and how to spend the day there.
21st morning – catch really early morning flight back to los angeles
I am not sure what else I can add. I still need to do some more research. Discussions on this forum is really helpful.
Also, please excuse any typos with names of the places.
Thank you
Lucas, whats the link?
Ha sorry! link: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
With the timetable you can plan out your trips and see which ones fit together in one day. From Lucerne, for example, each mountain is about a 1/2 day so if you start early you could do 2 mountains in one day if you wanted.
For things to do in the different towns, use the links from my first post. Each town page has a “what to do” page for our suggestions.
PLease advise if this make sense:
14Th – Arrive Zurich from Los Angeles in the afternoon, Take a train to Lucerne. Overnight in Lucerne for 6 nights . Would like to find a place central in the town, where you can walk around late evening.
We will have 6 full days with Lucerne as base and do these day trips on each days
Day 1 – Mount Titlis and any nearby villages / Town – EngleBerg ?
Day 2 – Day trip to Interlaken and Grindlewald and possibly combine some close by villages to roam around
Day 3 – Pilatus, boat ride, any closeby village
Day 4 – Day trip to Bern. (need Ideas on what can be done in Bern for day trip)
Day 5 -Day trip to Lauterbrunnen or Wengen
Day 6 20th morning : Checkout from Lucerne, and check into hotel near Zurich airport and then spend the day around Zurich – still need to figure out what to do and how to spend the day there.
21st morning – catch really early morning flight back to los angeles
I am not sure what else I can add. I still need to do some more research. Discussions on this forum is really helpful.
Also, please excuse any typos with names of the places.
Hi Priti20543,
Days 1 and 5 can be combined in 1 day. The villages you mention to on day 2 would be Lauterbrunnen and Wengen. What to do in the Jungfrau region for other ideas on day 5: http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion/activitie s
You could also visit St. Gallen (http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/st-gallen-voralpen-express-from-zurich) or Lugano (http://www.myswissalps.com/lu gano) somewhat easily from Lucerne on day 5 instead.
You can visit Pilatus and a Lake Lucerne cruise in one day but it isn’t as convenient in April as it is in the summer months. In the summer you can take the boat to Alpnachstad and then the cogwheel train up to Pilatus but the train doesn’t operate in April.
Bern is a nice city with a wonderful old town to explore. Though there are not too many specific activities in Bern: http://www.myswissalps.com/be rn/activities – what made you decide to visit it?
What to do in Zurich: http://www.myswissalps.com/zu rich/activities
Thank you soooo much Lucas. Your feedback will help me refine my itinerary.
My husband wants to go to Bern because we heard its a charming city. My husband likes to visit old towns, charming villages etc.
I will continue to review and refine the plan. Thanks again.
I would definitely keep one base to stay in Lucerne and plan to go out from there, and not waste time in checking in and checking out from hotels every 2 days.
HI,
I am by no means an expert, but we just came back from a wonderful 5 days in Switzerland in December and I thought I’d share a couple things from our trip. We are also form California and were traveling with a 16 and 20 year old. We stayed in Luzern as out base the entire trip and flew in and out of Zurich.
We spent 3 days on the mountains near Luzern as we wanted to hike and ski ( and Luzern was under the clouds, the mountains were sunny- I’m sure this may be different in the spring).
We stayed at a great hotel Ameron near the main train station. Wonderful staff, very good breakfast ( 17chf, which may seem a lot but unless you are buying your food at a grocery and making coffee in your room, there is not much cheaper- all food quite expensive compared to US , but also very good). Its steps away from the chapel bridge and very convenient
We did a great hike(really a walk) with St Bernard’s – we are all big dog lovers and were missing our 3 dogs at home- on Rigi. This is the winter link but they do them all year. We had wonderful crepes as a snack at the little creperie below Hotel Alpina at Rigi Kaltbad First, also.
We also had great days on Titlis ( skiing for us) and Pilatus. All the mountains were different, so we enjoyed all 3. I think there might be some great hiking , if you are into that, when you are there. The hosts of this site would be better able to tell you.
We did short little trips to a chocolate factory .It was a short 10 minute ride by train.Great self guided tour: you can make your own chocolate, taste samples, watch factory workers and get a 5 chf complimentary coupon to use in the cafe or chocolate shop
and a short trip to local glass factory: http://www.glasi.ch/en/
We spent time seeing the sites in Luzern as well and had some lovely meals. Here were our 2 favorites:
http://www.taube-luzern.ch/de/ – for more traditional swiss.
madeinsud.ch/ – wonderful Italian, not in old town,but really excellent, lots of locals eating here
I would not recommend relocating to Zurich for a hotel the night before your flight home. The train goes directly from Luzern to the inside of the Zurich airport. We had fairly early flights ( 1030) and were easily able to catch a ~ 7 am train .
I would recommend the SBB mobile app for your phone. You can search all the transport options by just putting in the cities or places between which you wish to travel, date and time, and it brings up all your options. You can also buy your ticket on the app and it goes directly to your phone. We had Tell passes for the train, so did not need to buy tickets ( except for our trip to airport) but the app was wonderful for knowing when we needed to get to stations or docks to get our transport, and even gives walking directions between where a train or boat lets you off and the next portion of journeys via gondolas or cogwheel trains.
If you don’t have an international data plan,which we did not, then the travelers wifi is terrific. It is a little box you carry with you ( fits in a pocket) and gives wifi for up to 5 ( perhaps more) devices for about $6/day. Order it and pick up at airport ( or have it sent to your hotel, I think) return at airport or any swiss post box.You can find info about it on this MySwissAlps site too: http://www.myswissalps.com/si mcard
Lastly a big thank you to all the experts on the MySwissAlps site. You are wonderful . An especially big thank you to Arno, who emailed me back when I was in a panic on Christmas night and found our Tell passes had not arrived at our hotel for our travels the next morning( it all worked out- but how incredible to have that support on Christmas night!)
Pogo
Hi Pogo,
Thanks for all those suggestions. Glad to hear your trip went fine and you enjoyed it. Feel free to post to the Trip Reports section for more people to enjoy your tips: http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/tripreports.
Oh my word, this walk with the St. Bernard’s looks like something my 13 yr old daughter would love. Thanks for sharing this.
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