[SwissTravel01]

6 July 2026 at 3:01:09 #2797761

Hi Everyone,

We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 1 kid 16 years old and 1 kid 10 years old) and will be traveling to Switzerland from the US soon.

Dates of travel:

• Arrival at Zurich airport on July 9th around 1 pm.
• Return from Zurich airport on July 22nd around 2 pm

Our Bases for Stay:

• Zurich (July 9th – 12th) – Travel to Lucerne on July 12th in the evening
• Lucerne (July 12th – July 15th) – Travel to Interlaken on July 15th in the morning
• Interlaken (July 15th – July 18th) – Travel to Meiringen on July 18th in the morning
• Meiringen (July 18th – July 22nd) – Travel to Zurich airport on July 22nd morning to catch the flight at 2 pm

I know that it’s not ideal to change the bases but I couldn’t find any reasonable rental in Interlaken for straight 8 days so had to split the stay between Interlaken and Meiringen.

Other considerations/important factors:

• We aren’t very athletic and want to keep the itinerary at a relaxed pace without putting too much physical exertion on ourselves.
• We don’t want to stay in the mountain villages as 1 family member experienced altitude sickness at Mt. Jungfrau so we want to spend the nights at low altitude places and will be traveling to mountain villages (Murren, Wengen, Gimmelwald etc.) from our bases in Interlaken and Meiringen.

Our Planned Itinerary: (pretty much finalized but I am open to critical analysis and can change it if there is a strong case for it).

Zurich: (July 9th – July 12th)

• July 9th: after arriving at ZRH, we will head straight to the hotel via train. Our hotel for 3 nights is in Zurich West (5 min train ride from Zurich HB). After checking into the hotel, we will grab lunch and will rest and sleep early.
• July 10th: leave the hotel at 10 am to visit Rhine Falls, do the boat ride and return to the hotel. In the evening we will go to the Old City area (Stroll around Limmat River, Prime Tower Area) and will take the cruise on Lake Zurich.
• July 11th: We plan on doing the reduced Bernina Express route using the local trains. We plan on leaving the hotel early, around 8 am to go to Chur station. From there we will get onto the local trains to explore the scenic areas. At the moment we plan on starting from Chur and will go to Pontresina, Poschiavo and return. If this train ride isn’t worth it, we are open to alternative options. This is not a must-do activity for us. The only reason for considering this ride was that it provides natural sceneries / viewpoints which we are fond of.

 

QUESTION: Need expert input on how to further refine this experience. We don’t want to spend 8-10 hours on the trains (the full Bernina route), and want to limit the complete travel (up and down) in 6-7 hours max. Morever we want to be back to our hotel in Zurich West by 8 pm max.

• July 12th: We have purchased the tickets to Lindt chocolate museum for 2 pm slot as our idea was to check out from the hotel and leave the bags in the lockers at Zurich HB, head to the museum and return to get the luggage and head to Lucerne. Since we have already purchased the tickets this activity cant be changed.

Lucerne: (July 12th – July 15th)

• July 12th: after returning from Zurich, check into the hotel around 5 pm. We will be staying at a hotel that’s within walking distance to Lucerne train station. After check in, take rest for an hour and walk to Chapel Bridge and take pictures. Upon return eat dinner and sleep.
• July 13th: Travel to Mt. Rigi via Weggis à Vitznaw à Rigi Kulm and return. If time permits and we have energy left, will visit Lion Monument.
• July 14th: We are open to suggestions on how to best utilize this day. We were earlier thinking of taking lake cruise and exploring the villages such as Brunnen, Vitznau, Siskon etc. We certainly don’t want to visit another mountain peak like Pilatus or Stanserhorn.

Question: Please share your suggestions about alternate activities to best utilize this day.

• July 15th: Check out from the hotel and head to Interlaken. We don’t want to do any activity in Lucerne on this day.

Interlaken: (July 15th – July 18th) + Meiringen (July 15th – July 22nd)

• July 15th: Check into the hotel in Interlaken and take the Lake Thun cruise from Interlaken West.
• July 16th: We want to do the Northface Trail (AllmendhubelàMurrenàGimmelwald). From Gimmelwald we will take the train/gondola to Lauterbrunnen.
• July 17th: Breinz Rothorn in the morning train. Come back via boat and explore Iseltwald, Giesback Falls, Saanen. We have purchased the seat reservation so we cant move this activity to some other day.

Question: Are we trying to cramp too much activity in this day? Please suggest any changes that you would recommend.

• July 18th: Check out from Interlaken around 10 am and check in to the accommodation at Meiringen. OR check out and put the luggage in the lockers at Interlaken OST and head to Lauterbrunne. to spend rest of the day until evening there and then check into the accommodation at Meiringen. Open to any other recommendations on how to best utilize this day.

From July 19th – July 22nd our base will be Meiringen

• July 19th: Explore Grindelwald, Wengen, Mannlichen
• July 20th: Rosenlaui Valley + Aare Gorge
• July 21st: OESCHINENSEE + BLAUSEE
• July 22nd: Head back to Zurich airport to catch the flight at 2 pm

Travel Pass Strategy:

• Based on this itinerary and the places we want to see/visit, we are thinking of purchasing:
  • We will purchase tickets for our travel from Zurich airport to our hotel on July 9th (the day of our arrival)
  • Swiss Travel Pass Flex (6 days) – activate it on July 10th and use it on July 11th, 12th, 13th , 14th.
  • Bernese Oberland Pass (7 days) – activate it on July 15th and use consecutively until July 21st. Use Swiss Travel Pass Flex on July 22nd to travel from Meiringen to Zurich airport.

• Do you see any issues with this?
• Would you recommend some other alternatives? We don’t want to go through the hassle of buying separate tickets by using Half Fare Care to get the discount and are ok with paying some extra for the Swiss Travel Pass Flex for peace of mind.
• I would greatly appreciate any input / expert suggestions on this itinerary and how to tweak it further to optimize it.

Looking forward to hearing from the experts on this forum!

 

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[Anna]

Reply 1 of 3 • 6 July 2026 at 22:00:55 #2797783

Hi Swiss Travel 01,

Welcome to MySwissAlps.

Thank you for sharing your itinerary. Your strategy of combining the Swiss Travel Pass Flex and the Bernese Oberland Pass is sensible as long as you stick to your original plans.

Swiss Travel Pass Flex: https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/swiss-travel-pass-flex/
Berner Oberland Pass: https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/berner-oberland-pass/

Here are some suggestions to some of the activities you mentioned:
– Day trip on the Bernina Express train (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/bernina-express/): A single journey from Chur to Tirano takes at least 4 hours. So if you include the extra travel time from Zurich to Chur, plus the return journey Chur-Tirano-Chur, that will take you more than 8 hours. If you want to keep it under 6 hours, my suggestion would be to just do a section of the Bernina route. Maybe Chur to Alp Grüm, or Chur to St Moritz.
– Activity on July 14th from Lucerne: I recommend a lake cruise with excursion to Burgenstock (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/burgenstock/). Or you could plan a city trip to Bern (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/bern/) or Basel (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/bern/), both just 1 hour by train away. Or take the train south to Lugano (about 2 hours).

Hope this helps!

Anna

[SwissTravel01]

Reply 2 of 3 • 7 July 2026 at 14:12:13 #2797785

Hi Anna,

Thanks for the reply. The more i research about the Bernina express route, i m thinking of dropping it altogether because that’s essentially 7-8 hours of train ride (on the same route while going and returning) and with stops, photo sessions and lunch it could become 10 hours journey. Do you think it’s a must due to its picturesque nature?
If I were to drop this train ride, what would you suggest we should do on that day while we are in Zurich?

I will certainly look into spending a day in Burgenstock.

What do you think about rest of our journey / itinerary in Interlaken and BO area?

Is there a way to squeeze Montreux, Geneva, Annecy, Lausanne, Bern and Basel into this itinerary during the days in Meiringen? We can pick any of these cities to stay while our majority of the stuff stays in our accommodation in Meiringen?

Do you have any other suggestion regarding the travel pass if we were to incorporate these additional cities?

Thanks!

[Anna]

Reply 3 of 3 • 7 July 2026 at 19:43:00 #2797800

Hi SwissTravelO1

If you skip the Bernina Express, then you will have an extra day that you could use for a combined day trip to Bern and Lausanne/Monteux. Zurich to Bern by is about 1hour, and Bern to Lausanne or Montreux 1 hour.

Lausanne: https://www.myswissalps.com/town/lausanne/
Montreux: https://www.myswissalps.com/town/montreux/

On July 15, please note that you can travel on the scenic Lucerne-Interlaken Express train to Interlaken. This is part of the GoldenPass route (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/goldenpass/).

Looking at your original itinerary, your plans while based in Meiringen already looks quite full.

Regards,
Anna