Schilthorn and Lauterbrunnen day trip from Lucerne
A traveler is planning a four-night trip to Switzerland at the end of August, using Lucerne as a base. They intend to visit Lucerne, Mt. Rigi, Mt. Pilatus, and take a long day trip to Schilthorn and Lauterbrunnen Valley, seeking advice on their itinerary, timing, and potential wait times for cable cars, especially since it's their first visit.
- Consider purchasing a boarding pass for the Schilthorn cable car to skip long queues, which costs CHF 5 per person.
- Allow about an hour and a half to explore Murren, as it's a small area.
- With the Swiss Travel Pass, trains and most cable cars are free, but remember to pick up a card at the ticket office for transit.
- If waiting for cable cars, aim for early departures to avoid long queues; flexibility in your schedule will help.
- Trummelbach Falls is best visited before 16:00, allowing enough time for exploration.
AI-generated summary-
Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions. We will be coming to Switzerland at the end of August for four nights. We will be staying in Lucerne and using that as our base. We plan on spending a day touring Lucerne, Mt. Rigi, Mt. Pilatus before heading to Bern and Basel. In addition, we thought about going to Lauterbrunnen Valley and on to Schilthorn for the day. We realize this will be a very long day and usually have one while on vacation. (We have heard these are some of the best views in Switzerland provided the weather is good.)
Here’s what I’ve come up with using the train timetable with the current timetable:
Depart Lucerne at 7:06 a.m. via Interlaken Ost, Lauterbrunnen, Stechelberg, and Schilthorn. We arrive at Schilthorn at 10:27.
We plan on staying at Schilthorn for an hour and a half. Should we allow more time? We might want to do a small part of the Thrill Walk. But we don’t plan on doing the whole thing.
Cable car from Schilthorn to Birg 12:03-12:10 Do Thrill Walk
Cable car from Birg to Murren 12:40-12:50. Spend two hours exploring Murren. (We will either take our lunch or pick up something quick.) Enough time?
Train from Murren to Trummelbach Falls via Grutschalp and Lauterbrunnen 14:43-15:12
Hike Trummelbach Falls, Staubbach Falls and Lauterbrunnen Valley for three hours. Enough time?
Take train from Lauterbrunnen to Lucerne via Interlaken Ost. 18:32-20:55. (We will pick something up to eat on the train back to Lucerne.)
We will have a Swiss Travel Pass. I believe all the cable cars and trains will be free. But I’m having a hard time finding how much the Thrill Walk and exploring the Schilthorn -Piz Gloria.
Since this will be in August, I imagine the cable cars will be very busy. Will there be long waits to board the cable cars. I’ve read the tour groups have first priority. I don’t mind waiting. However, if we have to wait an hour at each cable car, this trip won’t be possible.
(We have another day trip option from Lucerne to Lauterbrunnen to Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald back to Lucerne. But someone suggested Schilthorn instead.)
This will be our first trip to Switzerland so we aren’t exactly sure what to expect. (We drive wherever we want to go.) Your experience and suggestions are greatly appreciated. What should we add or delete?
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For Schilthorn, apart from a ticket or pass, you can optionally buy a boarding pass, to skip the queue at a guaranteed boarding time. The price is CHF 5 per person (free for children up to 5).
You’ll find all the prices at schilthorn.ch/en/Infos /Timetable__and__Tarif f/ It’s a great deal with the Swiss Travel Pass.
As far as I know the James Bond Brunch it the only optional extra.
You wrote “Train from Murren to Trummelbach Falls via Grutschalp and Lauterbrunnen 14:43-15:12”.
I would actually go the other way round; Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp (cable car), Mürren(train), Gimmelwald (cable car), Stechelberg (cable car), Lauterbrunnen (bus). In between Stechelberg and Lauterbrunnen the bus stops at the Trummelbach Falls.
Two hours is more than enough to “explore” Mürren. It’s pretty small. About 500 metres end to end and you will cover most of that walking from the Mürren station to the Schilthorn cableway.
I’m guessing you will find the Swiss public transport network better than anything you have experienced before.
Enjoy. 😎
Rockoyster, thanks so much for your insight and suggestions.
Here’s what I have now going the way you suggested using the SBB timetable.
Depart Luzern 7:06, via train to Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen with arrival at 9:25.
Depart Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp via cable car at 9:38 and arrive at 9:42.
Take train from Grutschalp to Murren at 9:44 and arrive at 9:58.
Walk to Murren cable car for 10:40 departure and arrive at Schilthorn at 10:57.
I like this uphill journey and see that I can purchase tickets for the cable car from Murren to Schilthorn. (Thanks for the link.) Since this trip is in late August, how likely is it that we will get on the cable car in Lauterbrunnen right away at 9:38? Does the train in Grutschalp wait for the cable car to arrive? I’m just wondering if I should purchase a later time for the cable car from Murren to Schilthorn. The next one would be thirty minutes later. I’m not sure what the chances are of making the cable car and train right after we arrive at each station. I don’t mind spending the ten dollars if it saves us a lot of time. (I realize we might not be able to take this trip if the weather doesn’t cooperate.) We wanted to tour Murren anyway, either on the way up or the way down. I’m not sure if we should try to get to the top of Schilthorn as early as possible for better views. I would appreciate your thoughts.
Also I don’t see anywhere to prepurchase a downhill ticket from Schilthorn back to Murren. Is this possible or is the uphill ticket the only option?
We plan on spending an hour and a half to two hours at the top of Schilthorn with doing a part of the Thrill Walk. This would put us at a departure of 13:00-13:30. With this departure we would arrive at Trummelbach Falls around 14:17 (without stopping at Murren if we did so in the morning). Are there things to see in Gimmelwald and Stechelberg or should we concentrate spending more time in Lauterbrunnen Valley. We plan on taking the 18:30 train from Lauterbrunnen back to Lucerne.
Everyone’s suggestions and expertise is greatly appreciated. We truly are looking forward to this trip.
You have given this all some serious thought and raise some good questions.
Let me tackle the easy one’s first.
The Schilthorn “ticket” you refer to is the boarding pass, right? Also note that even if you have a Swiss Travel Pass you still need to show up at the ticket office to get a card to transit the turnstiles along the route.
I’m pretty sure the boarding pass only works for the uphill trip. See boardingpass.schilthor n.ch/webshop/whatisabo ardingpass.en.pdf.
The connection at Grütschalp cable car to train should be fine.
There is not much to see Gimmelwald (except the view) or Stechelberg. I just transited Gimmelwald from one cable way station to the other.
When I visited it was the end of May so fairly quiet. Boarding passes where not even a thing in 2017. This thread talks about there introduction http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/new-schilthorn-cable-car-reservation-process.
It will be busy in August but I can’t predict the probability of you making the connections. Someone with more experience of the peak period action may chime in here.
Rockoyster, I truly appreciate your time and assistance with sharing your expertise. I was able to devise a plan that should work for us (providing the weather is good).
Train from Lucerne to Lauterbrunnen (via Interlaken Ost) 7:06-9:25
Cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grustchalp 9:38-9:42 (alt. 9:53-9:57 or 10:08-10:12)
Train from Grustchalp to Murren 9:44-9:58 (alt. (9:58-10:13 or 10:14-10:28)
Walk from train to cable station and explore Murren on the way. Show Swiss Travel pass and get card at ticket office. (Google maps shows this is a fifteen minute walk. We have an hour and 10 minutes if we make the first set of connections. If we have to wait and get on the third option, we will still have 40 minutes to get to the cable car.)
Cable car from Murren to Birg 11:10-11:15 (We will purchase the ticket for this guaranteed departure.)
Spend an hour here and do part of the Thrill Walk.
Cable car from Birg to Schilthorn 12:23-12:27 (We will purchase the ticket for this guaranteed departure.)
Spend an hour and a half on top of Schilthorn.
Take the cable cars and bus from Schilthorn to Trummelbach Falls. 14:03-14:47.
(alt. 13:33-14:17 if finish early or 14:33-15:17 if we have to wait)
Tour Trummelbach Falls for an hour and a half.
Walk back to Lauterbrunnen and view Staubbach Falls or take bus.
Take train from Lauterbrunnen to Lucerne 18:32-20:55 (alt. 19:32-21:55)
Your tips and links were incredibly helpful. Going this way gives us some flexibility to tour Murren if we have time or we have to wait for a connection in Lauterbrunnen or Grutschalp. We can also get off and tour more of Murren on the way down if we want to. Being able to prepurchase the guaranteed departure ticket way really helpful. We decided to get off at Birg on the uphill journey, since we could also prepurchase the time for the journey from Birg to Schilthorn. (Your link here was awesome. I’ll purchase these tickets which may save us a lot of time. If the weather doesn’t cooperate and we can’t go, the most I’m out is 10 dollars. A small price to pay for convenience.)
Coming down I know we might have some queues for the cable cars. Hopefully no more than thirty minutes at each. I imagine that the longest queues are at the top of Schilthorn and also at Murren. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with route in August?
Trummelbach Falls is open until 18:00 in August. Most reviews I’ve read said touring the falls takes between one and two hours (tops). Thus as long as we make it to the entrance by 16:00, I think we will be good. Ideally we would like to take the 18:32 train back to Lucerne. However, if we need to take the one at 19:32 we won’t mind. I’m sure the scenery will make up for it.
This site and the people on it, have been extremely helpful in making our plans. I can’t thank everyone enough. Feel free to keep the suggestions coming.
Sounds good Mrschiefood. It’s always a pleasure trying to assist someone who is keen to do the research and plan their trip to get the most out of it.
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