Splitting time between Lucerne and Wengen
A family of four is planning a trip to Switzerland and France in mid-June, spending 4 nights in Switzerland. They want to know if it's better to split their stay between Lucerne and Wengen or stay in one place, and they enjoy mountains, hiking, and lakes.
- You can split your time between Lucerne and Wengen if you have at least 2 full days in each place.
- Consider high-altitude hiking routes that may be closed due to snow in mid-June.
- Look into purchasing a Swiss Travel Pass to save money on trains and mountain excursions.
- Plan your itinerary carefully and think of the two areas as 'Lake Luzern' and 'Berner Oberland' for better organization.
AI-generated summary-
Hello—my family (2 adults/2 teenagers) will be traveling to Switzerland and France in mid June. Switzerland is our first stop and we only have 4 nights, sadly. Currently, we have 2 nights in Lucerne and 2 in Wengen. Originally, I wanted to stay just in Wengen but started thinking that we should try and see Lucerne on the way from Zurich. Am I too ambitious with this and should we just stay in one place for 4 nights? And which place would you recommend for first timers? We do love mountains and hiking and lakes. Thanks so much!
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Hi Allysonwambl and welcome to MySwissAlps.com!
If you have at least 2 full days in Wengen and also in Lucerne, then it makes sense to split the 4 nights. From Lucerne you need to go to Pilatus (http://www.myswissalps.com/pilatus), Rigi (http://www.myswissalps.com/rigi), Titlis ((http://www.myswissalps.com/titlis)) or Stanserhorn (http://www.myswissalps.com/stanserhorn) to hike. You’ll find hiking routes at http://www.myswissalps.com/lakelucerne/activities, just scroll down until you see ‘Regional hiking suggestions’ part. Use the filter, to narrow down your search.
Lucerne is a nice town, too, you can easily spend a day there – I recommend this self-guided walk within the town: http://www.myswissalps.com/hiking/lucerne
Similar page for the Jungfrau region can be found at http://www.myswissalps.com/jungfrauregion/activities. The Jungfrau region is also wonderful and you can easily spend even a week there just visiting the towns like Grindelwald, Mürren and Wengen and hiking, not to mention the mountain tops like Jungfraujoch or Schilthorn.
You can find accommodation in Lucerne here: http://www.myswissalps.com/lucerne/hotels and http://www.myswissalps.com/lucerne/rentals. Same for Wengen: http://www.myswissalps.com/wengen/hotels and http://www.myswissalps.com/wengen/hotels.
One more thing to consider – some high altitude hiking routes may be still close during weather and snow conditions in mid-June.
More practical tips regarding hiking: http://www.myswissalps.com/hiking.
As you are going to France from Switzerland, this might be useful for you: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/france.
I hope this will help you to decide. I think you cannot lose in this questions, meaning whatever you decide it will be a pretty nice holiday.
If you already know your itinerary, I recommend buying a rail pass, so you can save some money on the trains and mountain trips. We have a great guide here, that will help you to choose the best pass for your trip: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass
Take care,
Ildiko
With limited time you will need to think carefully about how to arrange your trip, but visiting the Luzern area and Wengen will get you the views.
However the first thing I think you should do is think of the two areas as ‘Lake Luzern‘ and Berner Oberland‘ (this might help you when reading the tourist information for planning). Study maps carefully to see what each area has in terms of lakes, mountains and walking routes
One problem I can foresee is that when you get to the Berner Oberland you might wish you had stayed all 4 nights in the Luzern area because the Vierwaldtstattersee (correct name for ‘Lake Luzern’) can easily draw you in with its beauty and size. Also the paddle steamers on the Vierwaldstattersee are much bigger and more imposing than the ones on the Thunersee and Brienzersee.
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