10 day Switzerland trip report late September

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    8 October 2017 at 17:46:47 #813468

    Me and my wife did a 10-day trip during September end/1st week of October
    10 days aren’t enough – that’s the summary.

    Some details about the trip

    • We stayed in Thun for 8 nights and in Zurich for 1 night (we did Airbnb). We had to go to Interlaken only when we had to go to the Jungfrau region so staying in Thun really helped us in terms of train connectivity. It also is a very beautiful place and we felt it was a good call.
    • We could visit more places than we thought we could, due to the easy and efficient train services/connectivity.
    • Grindelwald First/Pfingstegg – Really nice place + the Tobogan run is fun. Overall a nice place to visit.
    • Mt. Titlis – Extremely crowded when we went, good panoramic views at the top but I would skip this if I were to re-plan my itinerary.
    • Lucerne – Nice city to walk around and explore. The train journey from Lucern to Interlaken Ost is really nice. This is part of the Golden Pass line too.
    • Jungfraujoch – We walked from Mannlichen to Keine Scheidegg. Really liked Wengen and Lauterbrunnen so we did this twice. We skipped Jungfraujoch as we saw a lot of people were heading up for it and thought it would be too crowded.
    • Zermatt – For all those who ask should they visit Zermatt or Jungfraujoch – visit Zermatt instead !! Fantastic views on the train ride to Zermatt and the glacier paradise is really vast compared to Titlis (don’t know how it compares to Jungfraujoch). You can also do the 5 lakes trek – we just did 1 (to Stellissee) and the view was great. There were quite a few people skiing in the glacier paradise at Zermatt but other than that tourists like us were handful. Great views and definitely recommended.
    • Montreux / Lausanne – The Chillon Castle is really good. Also, the Golden Pass Panorama train from Zweissimmen to Montreux is fantastic, has splendid views.
    • Bern – Really good place to walk around. While other cities had buildings too which had some old architecture style, felt that Bern was distinct. Recommended to spend a few hours around the city definitely.
    • Murren – We went up to Murren from Stechelberg and walked back to Gimmelwald. Had a light drizzle that day and it made it much better. Fantastic walk through the village. Took the cable car down to Stechelberg. Walk from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg would be good too but we didn’t do that. We walked to Trummelbach falls from Lauterbrunnen and on the way back we walked the other side till Trummelbach. Definitely recommended !! We didn’t go up to Schilthorn.
    • Schynige Platte – seemed to be a good train ride but it was raining that day so it was too cold and couldn’t see anything. This was our last day at Thun so we wanted to do a short trip and this fit the bill. Must be better in good weather.
    • Zurich – Last day before the flight. Busy place and we did the usual – Bahnofstrasse, Kilchberg etc.

    Some things to consider

    • We did eat out a few times and it was pretty expensive.
    • We took an international SIM card from India. It had both local and calls to India + data included. If you don’t need calls then what is suggested by myswissalps – the Traveller's WiFi seems to be a good option.
    • Check weather daily and have the SBB app installed.
    • We were lucky to have clear weather for 9 and a half days out of 10. It rained only at the time we went to Schynige Platte.
    • Keep checking the offers section for Swiss Travel Pass at myswissalps !! We had planned for a 8 day Swiss Flex Pass but we got a 8 + 2 day free offer for the consecutive days Swiss Travel Pass which is cheaper than the Flex + got the 2 days free too ! This was a fantastic offer for us. And yes, the Swiss Travel Pass is really useful.
    • Top picks for us 🙂 Bern and Lucerne for cities, Zermatt for mountain and Murren/Lauterbrunnen/Wengen region. The autumn colours made it even better.

    Big thanks to myswissalps and Arno, Lucas, maggiehorswell, SlowPoke, Annika for the suggestions. We had a really good time thanks to the planning advice here.

    Hope to visit Switzerland once again to visit St.Moritz and the South-East part sometime 🙂

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    Adelaidean
    Participant
    121 posts
    8 October 2017 at 21:18:53 #870764

    Always good to read how people base themselves and plan their time, Thun is a pretty town and as you said, connectivity is amazing.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    8 October 2017 at 23:36:28 #870765

    Hi there Intransit

    So glad you liked Thun! We have always liked it as a base because it has given us more choice of day trips because of its connectivity to wider areas than staying in Jungfrau region which is easy to access from Thun anyway.

    Because we do self-catering we tend to eat out at lunchtime as it is easier to find cheap alternatives than in the evenings when we eat salads and cooked meat and cheese or the occasional microwave meal!

    It seems as though you had a great time and managed to fit in a wide variety of interesting places so well done with your planning!

    Thank you for letting us know how things went – people do find these trip reports very helpful when making their own plans. Even after our many trips to Switzerland we still pick up a few new ideas from what other people have done.

    Maggie

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    9 October 2017 at 11:36:09 #870766

    Grreat report InTransit,

    Thanks for taking the time to write this – some useful and good-to-know hints!

    Happy to hear you had a great trip. 🙂

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