[Anonymous]

8 June 2019 at 18:25:34 #822115

Dear All,

We will be in Switzerland during 1st 2 weeks of August. We are 70 years old husband and wife. I would like to see all of Switzerland. We are looking at Airbnb in Lucerne to use as base. We are planning to use trains and public transportation to sightsee mountains, lakes etc. We want to do it at our own pace which is slow. No hiking. We can walk short distances. Hubby can bike.

Questions:

Is 15 days too many days to see Switzerland. Hubby thinks that we should do 9 days in Switzerland and 6 days in Italy? Our in and out airport is Zurich.

Is Lucerne a good base to see all of Switzerland? We don’t want to be packing, unpacking from place to place. If there is another base we should consider then please let us know.

Can you please suggest a 15 days itinerary from Lucerne or any other suggestions.

Would really appreciate all your help.

Thank you

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[rockoyster]

Reply 1 of 8 • 8 June 2019 at 21:36:42 #914505

Hello NeeluGarg and Welcome to MySwissAlps,

15 days is not enough to see all of Switzerland. A good way to map out an itinerary is to visualise it using the Swiss Travel Pass Area of Validity map ( PDF downloadable from http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity).

If you confine yourself to Luzern you will be doing a great deal of travelling. I would suggest 3 bases.

• Jungfrau Region
• Luzern
• Lugano (where you will get the feel of Italy without crossing the border)

Throw in a few scenic train routes into the mix. See http://www.myswissalps.com/ac tivities/scenictrips/t rain.

I’d strongly recommend you look at getting a 15-day Swiss Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass).

[User]

Reply 2 of 8 • 9 June 2019 at 15:29:10 #914506

Hello NeeluGarg,

Nice to hear you’re coming along to Switzerland.

You can spend weeks in Switzerland, enjoying the variety of nature, food, culture, sceneries, etc. especially if you enjoy doing thins at your pace and having time to “suck things in”.

Get some inspiration about how to approach your stay in Switzerland as well as an overview of regions, towns, and activities in below links to support your planning:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ge ttingstarted
– http://www.myswissalps.com/wh eretogo
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ce ntraltownsalps
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ac tivities

Hope this provides some helpful input to support your decision.

We’re here for any further support needed.

Best,
Steph

[User]

Reply 3 of 8 • 9 June 2019 at 18:59:36 #914507

Hi Neelugarg-

You have received some reliable and polite comments about your interests:

<<“We will be in Switzerland during 1st 2 weeks of August. We are 70 years old husband and wife. I would like to see all of Switzerland. We are looking at Airbnb in Lucerne to use as base. We are planning to use trains and public transportation to sightsee mountains, lakes etc. We want to do it at our own pace which is slow. No hiking. We can walk short distances. Hubby can bike.

Questions:

Is 15 days too many days to see Switzerland. Hubby thinks that we should do 9 days in Switzerland and 6 days in Italy?”>>

Well, we don’t do Italy here, but my experience suggest about 1 to 2 months in Italy before you get past the surface.

In Switzerland, because it is smaller, with a really good transport network. I’d allow about 30 days, but that will not really get you into the culture and the special regions in the countryside.

Thanks for your general comments on what you can do. However, if either of you have specific interests, (other than no hiking) and you let us know, we might add or subtract time to that number.

By the way, many posters have asked what can be done in Switzerland in one day, two days, a week, etc.

If the ask to see it all, we suggest that such a request is not sensible.

We send them to the links that you got from Steph.

The problem is the word “all” in your post:

<<“I would like to see all of Switzerland”>>

And-

<<“We

want to do it at our own pace which is slow.”>>

Take out “all” , and it is less impossible.

Slowpoke

[Peterli]

Reply 4 of 8 • 9 June 2019 at 19:41:27 #914508

Hello,

<< Is 15 days too many days to see Switzerland. Hubby thinks that we should do 9 days in Switzerland and 6 days in Italy? Our in and out airport is Zurich.

Is Lucerne a good base to see all of Switzerland? We don’t want to be packing, unpacking from place to place. If there is another base we should consider then please let us know. >>

The simple answer to your question about seeing all of Switzerland in 15 (or 9) days is “NO”, and this is regardless of you choosing a home base, Lucerne or any other. But I suppose a whirlwind tour of some of the more popular sites is possible. In 15 days you can certainly get a good “taste” of some parts of the country, but to “see” and to really “know” a country are two different things, particularly in the case of Switzerland which, despite its small size, has an incredible diversity both from a physiological and a cultural point of view.

I don’t want to diminish your thoughts of going to Italy, as it too has an amazing variety of things to see, and it deserves far more than a quick 6 day visit. If you think you would be able to come back to Europe in a year (or possibly less time as I am wondering if you are now retired), I would do Switzerland for this trip and Italy for the next one. And then you could fly in and out of a city in Italy (Roma or Milano) instead of Zürich. If you are not sure about being able to get back to Europe, then I can understand why your husband wants to see Italy as well.

Once you decide whether it is 15 days in Switzerland or 9 days in Switzerland, then you must decide the places you want to go to during your visit. You have mentioned mountains and lakes and Lucerne is right there in a very scenic area for both of these. Other “mountain” areas are the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt, and there are, of course, lakes all over the place. Among the most scenic lakes are Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee), Lac Léman (in the French-speaking part of Switzerland), and Lago di Lugano in the Italian-speaking Ticino.

[Shroffchetan]

Reply 5 of 8 • 10 June 2019 at 14:33:16 #914509

Kudos to couple who are enthusiastic visiting Switzerland in their 70s. You are my inspiration to be active

Few years back I faced the same problem when I wanted my parents in their 70’s to visit Europe and I could think of only one country Switzerland. Experts in this forum can critically evaluate my suggestions but I wish to give itinerary which will substantially cover Switzerland but may not be “ALL”. Before that I have few suggestions:

• Your accommodation should be close to train station
• You should have at least 4 base cities for having fewer travel time
• You can leave one place and go to other after check-out so that you may reach check in in next base city
• If possible, bring one person who is younger in age
• Have plan where you will have food it is more important that having sight seeing plan
• Stick to one country – Switzerland. This is perhaps the only country where public transport stops are so strategically located that you alight transport and in 5 minutes reach attraction

Now suggested itinerary

Day 1: Fly to Zurich and transfer to Luzern

Day 2: Luzern : Old Town, Lake Cruise, Chapel Bridge, Lion Monument

Day 3: Mt Titlis (Try to start early to beat crowd, check live webcam for weather)

Day 4: Mt Pilatus or Mt Rigi (Try to start early to beat crowd, check live webcam for weather)

Day 5: Day trip to Lugano (Lake cruise on Lake Lugano and see Italian flavour of Switzerland, this will be slightly long day trip)

Day 6: Transfer to Interlaken and lake cruise on Brienz or Thun

Day 7: Day trip to Bern

Day 8: Jungfraujoch (Try to start early to beat crowd, check live webcam for weather)

Day 9: Day trip to Zermatt and visit gornergrat (check live webcam for weather, this may be slightly longer day trip)

Day 10: Leisure day for visit – Interlaken or Wengen or Murren or Lauterbrunnen valley

Day 11: Transfer to Lausanne and stroll at Ouchy

Day 12: Olympic Museum Lausanne and Lavaux-vineyards (train)

Day 13: Callier Chocolate factory and Chateu de Chillon

Day 14: Transfer to Zurich and Limmat river cruise and old town walk

Day 15: Day trip to Rheinfall

Day 16: back to your base

Sorry for my spelling mistakes in names of places / attraction. Now experts please critically evaluate my itinerary. But I vouched for happiness my parents had when we were back home

[User]

Reply 6 of 8 • 11 June 2019 at 0:28:30 #914510

Thank you everyone for your quick response. I realize it is not possible to see all of Switzerland in 15 days. But, when you are young and restless at ripe age of 70, you want to do as much as possible. Considering our physical limitations and minor health issues, we will do whatever we can.
Chetan special thanks to you for detailed itinerary. Now I can convince hubby to stay in Switzerland for 15 days.
Day 1 – Arrive in Zurich late night. Overnight stay.
Day 2 – 11 _ Lucerne at Airbnb. Haven’t planned places to go. Got lot of info from forums. Still working on it.
Getting places to stay during peak time is horrendous. Prefer Airbnb so that we can cook some of our vegetarian meals. Travel light and be able to do laundry.
Day 12 -15 Not decided. Hubby wants to go to Italy. I’d rather see Swizerland. My high school wish.
Day 16- Zurich
Day 17 – Early morning flight back home.

Question for all – If I had to choose – Mt. Pilates or Mt. Titlis. Which one?
Concerned about altitude, cold and walking. Want to be prepared.

[User]

Reply 7 of 8 • 11 June 2019 at 9:49:56 #914511

At that time of the year for me clearly Mount Pilatus, the Golden Roundtrip, including cable cars, cogwheel train and boat ride.
– http://www.myswissalps.com/pi latus

We’re here for further support in mapping out your itinerary.

Best,
Steph

[User]

Reply 8 of 8 • 11 June 2019 at 14:01:49 #914512

NeeluGarg, husband and I are in late seventies and have visited Switzerland 3 times in recent years and I assure you that you will have an enjoyable time.

We always stay in Lucerne and will again later this year as personally we don’t want hassle of changing hotels and also Luc is central.

We don’t organise a strict daily itinerary but do write down details of places we want to visit using SBB and apps suggested by the experts and moderators. I find MySwitzerland website very useful.

Interesting places near Lucerne are Transport Museum and Fortress Furigen. Also Postbus tours from Meiringen.