11 day itinerary Lucerne Interlaken Paris Zurich

Hey guys,

I'm planning a 11 day trip to Switzerland/France next March, and it would help a great deal if you guys can review the itinerary and point out any redundancies.

Day 1 - Arrive at Zurich, stay for 1 night

Day 2 - Lucerne, stay for 2 nights

Day 3 - Lucerne, day trip to Mt. Titlis

Day 4 - Interlaken, stay for 1 night (maybe check out Grindelwald)

Day 5 - Bern/Paris, via TGV Lyria

Day 6 to Day 9 - Paris

Day 9 - Paris/Basel, stay for 1 night

Day 10 - Zurich, stay for 1 night

Day 11 - Leave from Zurich

Should we use Lucerne as base for Day 2 to Day 5? It seems easy enough on google maps to train in and out from Lucerne. We also want to go to Zermatt, but I'm not sure how to work that in since it's so far south, and I don't want to rush either.

Thank you for your time and input!

Hi mintycat, thanks for joining MySwissAlps!

I would leave out the first night in Zurich and the night in Basel, and add those to Lucerne, which is only an hour from Zurich, or to Interlaken. Unless you plan to arrive really late or there's something specific you want to see in those cities. Both cities are not in the mountains and your time in limited. There is enough to see for weeks around both Lucerne and Interlaken, and you need some slack to be flexible in case of bad weather.

Of course you could also have a more efficient trip if you fly out of Paris instead of going back to Zurich again.

Depending on your expectations, you may want to reconsider Interlaken: it's a practically centrally located town, but not in the mountains and not particularly scenic. If you prefer an alpine environment you could consider the smaller towns south of Interlaken, like Grindelwald, Wengen or Mürren.