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My wife and I will have about 7 full days to tour in Switzerland once we complete the Liechtenstein Trail in early – mid-September. We are looking for advice on what we can and should see and if we should establish a “home base” or travel throughout the country. Having never been to Switzerland except for the airport in Zurich we would appreciate any recommendations from forum members. Thank y0u.
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Hello indigo1948,
I recommend you take a look at our ‘getting started’ section of the MySwissAlps website. Here you will find many tips and useful information to help you formulate a plan. There are some sample itineraries too.
Your time here will also depend if yourself and your wife have any specific interests? Do feel free to share and we can guide accordingly. As you will have been hiking in Liechtenstein, are you planning to hike in Switzerland or is the preference to have a more leisurely, sightseeing time?
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Hi indigo1948,
Seeing as you only have 7 days, I would strongly recommend staying in the central/southern part of the country. While the eastern part is beautiful, it requires a lot of train time to travel from the eastern regions to the central/south regions. (Again, since you have just 7 days as versus more time). If you based yourself in the Jungfrau/Interlaken area, you can easily do day trips to Lucerne, Montreux, and even Zermatt, to see the Mattrehorn. Even if you don’t do day trips from Interlaken, there are plenty of hiking/sightseeing places to see. I personally recommend seeing the Matterhorn, as it is the iconic mountain of Switzerland. (Just my opinion.) Look through the link from Yolanda and get some ideas. You can easily spend the whole time in the Jungfrau region (Bernese Overland) and not be bored. Have a great trip
Regards
Danielsan
Regards,
Danielsan
Thank you Danielsan.
Thank you Yolanda. I will explore the site and re4connect with any questions.
Thank you Danielsan.
My wife and I had 7 nights in Switzerland in 2019. Stayed in Interlaken. Day trips to Lauterbrunnen, Lucern, Zermatt, Grindelwald and Jungfraujoch. Headed back this year for a week in Italy and 3 weeks in Switzerland. Two of those weeks are in the Interlaken again. Considering making it 4 weeks. There is so much to do in that area.some places we will visit again, but mostly things we didn’t get to do last time. Went on the boat to Thun, doing lake Breinz this time. Grindelwald-First this time. Mürren this time. Lauterbrunnen again. Swiss Travel Pass is excellent! We went everywhere by train, boat or bus all included. Hope this helps.
Robert
Robert: Thank you for your response. I heard that Interlaken is quite crowded and somewhat “dirty” – I have only read this and perhaps this not the case in mid-September. We are debating staying in Lucerne or Interlaken as a home base and would like to see Zermat,Jungfraroch, Montreaux and Bern .For our 6-7 days is one of these a good choice for a home base or would be better staying in different locations as we move around?
Hello Indigo, we stayed in an Air B&B the first week of September and it was fine. We never felt crowded. This year we are staying across the river in Unterseen for two weeks in an Air B&B. Most places didn’t have availability for 2 weeks. Funny you should mention about it being dirty. We both mentioned how clean it was and just yesterday read two different articles and one said it was one of the best cities in Switzerland and the other said don’t stay there. Again, all a matter of perspective. We stayed 1 block from Interlaken West and found it very convenient. This time we will be 10 minutes walk from Interlaken west, but we are only using 1 carry on bag each, so luggage isn’t an issue. We will be traveling for a month with just a carry on. Last time, leaving Zurich Airport, the train was very crowed and the big suitcase was a hassle. Our suggestion is gather everything you want to take with you. Look at it all, then put at least half of it back! Trust me…🤣. We are spending a week in Varenna, Italy, the 2 nights in St. Moritz, Glacier express to Zermatt, 5 nights there, then 14 nights in Interlaken. Train back to Milan for 2 nights then back to the USA. There were so many things to do NEAR Interlaken and so easy to travel, we decided to do that again. Now we are debating whether or not 2 weeks is enough! We have considered staying an extra 2 weeks there. I hope that helps.
Robert
Hi indigo1948,
Interlaken is certainly more commercial/busy and larger than is either Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen. Murren and Wengen are both car-free and more laid back. If your looking for more quiet, Wengen is ideal and very beautiful. If you’re looking for convenience, Interlaken would probably be your best bet as all the places you have mentioned can be reached in the vicinity of three hours or less, depending on which train you take. Montreux being the longest of them, but the scenery descending down into Montreux has some stunning views of Lake Geneva.
A little bit about the Jungfrau region, just for some planning purposes: from Interlaken Ost to Grindelwald is approx 40 min, Ost to Lauterbrunnen is about 20 min. Wengen is 13 min from Lauterbrunnen, and from Lauterbrunnen, Murren can be approx an hour, or much longer if you hike after cable cars, train, etc. But it is the furthest village (definitely worth an afternoon visit by hiking from Grutschalp).
I hope this might help you in some way. Enjoy.
Regards,
Danielsan
Thanks Roert for the great post. I will now review with my wife and determine if we should look at Interlaken asa opposed to Lucerne. Thankyou again for sharing your information.
Thank you Danielson
I apologize for the sloppy typing – thank you again Robert.
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