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Hello! I (21f) was hoping to get some help going over my itinerary for a 14-day trip in September that I will be doing solo. I have never done something like this before so it’s quite intimidating. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Here is what I have for each of my bases:
Day 1 Zurich
-Arrive in Zurich around 10:30am
-Visit Rhine Falls and Schaffhausen
-Use the remaining time in evening/next morning to see the city
Day 2-3 Lucerne
-Mt. Pilates, possibly do a rodelbahn
-Lake Lungern and a small hike to Dundelbachfall
-Explore town, Chapel Bridge, Museggmauer wall/towers
Day 4-6 Bern
-Explore old town and Zytglogge clock, Cathedral of Bern
-Matterhorn/Zermatt and 5 Lakes Hike
-Lake Oeschinensee and Rodelbahn
Day 7-8 Geneva
-Carouge center and market (wed/sat)
-Marché aux Puces de Plainpalais (sat/sun)
-Geneva water fountain
-Conservatory and Botanical Garden
Day 9-12 Interlaken
-Explore Interlaken/Unterseen
-Boat to Iseltwald
-First Cliff Walk and First mountain cart
-Lauterbrunnen and Staubbauch Falls
-Jungfraujoch and Ice Palace
-Sigriswil Panoramic Bride
-Paraglide Interlaken
This leaves me with 2 nights and 3 days to throw in somewhere. However, on my last day I fly out of Zurich at 1:40pm and the day before that I need to get a COVID test in order to fly back to the US. With the extra time though, I was thinking of canyoning Grimsel while in Interlaken or doing a trip to Montreux from Geneva. Or, does my itinerary have too much going on, and would it be best to spend an extra day somewhere?
Sidenote- I’m not sure if I’m happy with the Geneva section for a couple reasons: it’s a lot of city, I won’t be in town during the weekend markets, and I was debating switching it out for time spent more east in Lugano and a trip to Verzaska Valley instead. Thoughts?
I was also wondering if there were any scenic trains that might work with my itinerary?
I apologize for how long my post it! Thank you in advance to whoever read this far and might respond!
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Hi Asa C! We recently returned from a Switzerland trip that included the Bernese Oberland region, Zermatt, Luzern and Geneva (including Montreux). For those locations I think your itinerary looks very doable. The only suggestion I might make for Geneva is to include Montreux in your itinerary, possibly including a boat trip across Lac Léman from Lausanne to Montreux. Montreux is truly a lovely city overlooking the lake and with mountains and other charming little towns nearby. In fact, my husband and I agreed that we wish we would have stayed in Montreux as our base and taken a day trip to Geneva, instead of the other way around. Geneva is a beautiful city also, especially the historic Old Town, but otherwise we found it too congested for our liking and with high-end shopping being a big draw for some people (it was not appealing to us).
Good luck in your travel planning!
Hi Asa C,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for joining MySwissAlps.
I think your itinerary for the most part is doable. But I would probably rejig the itinerary a little to include scenic train trips and avoid too many switchbacks. I would also stay in Montreux instead of Geneva and just do a day trip to Geneva from Montreux. A sensible route in my opinion would look like this: Zurich – Lucerne – Interlaken – Montreux – Bern. You can travel on the Golden Pass route from Lucerne to Interlaken and Interlaken to Montreux (via Zweisimmen).
Since you have a few extra days, I suggest extending your stays in Lucerne and Interlaken so you have more time for sightseeing. Adding extra days in Lucerne will give you more time to plan interesting day trips such as to Lugano or Locarno.
Hope this gives you additional ideas for your trip. Let us know if you need more info.
Regards,
Anna
We are also planning on traveling to Switzerland from U.S. in September. Negative Covid tests are no longer required. I like Anna’s suggestions. Hope you have a great trip!
Hooray! Well done for planning some things at least slightly different to everyone else! (Lungernsee and the waterfall is really lovely, and an escape from all the overseas visitors on Jungfraujoch 🙂
<removed by moderator>. The things you plan to do in Geneva are great. There are some very quiet corners in Geneva (Carouge included)
1960man, where are those quiet quarters in Geneva, lol? We did not find them. Although it might it might have been a possibility if we had made it to the Carouge. We were thwarted by the restrictions imposed by being in the area on Sunday and Monday—either the shops, museums or the restaurants were closed. Montreux just suited us better. 😉
As per My experience in Switzerland, the itinerary should flow like this: Zurich – Lucerne – Interlaken – Montreux – Bern, to avoid long travel time.
I had my base at Lucerne, please add transport museum of Lucerne in your itinerary , worth visiting for at least half a day to explore it fully.
Journey by train on Golden Pass route from Lucerne to Interlaken is beautiful & life time experience , do not miss that.
Your plan is great, prefer to stay at Montreux.
Have a great vacations.
Thank you for your reply! I decided that I will do that, stay in Montreux and do a day trip to Geneva. I know I still wanted to see Geneva but I do think Montreux will be a better experience and more diverse from other major cities I would be seeing. Thanks for sharing with me!
Hello Anna, thank you for giving such a thorough response! I will do as you suggested, and link Montreux, Interlaken, and Lucerne so I can take the Golden pass between these locations. However, I wanted to do Bern towards the beginning of my trip and instead I will do Lucerne towards the end. That way I can also easily depart from Lucerne on my last day to fly out from Zurich. I also extended the duration of my trip so I can have one more extra day on top of the ones I already had. Also, I loved the suggestion to do a day trip to the Lugano area from Lucerne, I don’t know why but that never occurred in my mind as an option.
Now my itinerary flows like this:
Zurich 1 day
Bern 3 days
Montreux 2 days
Interlaken 5 days
Lucerne 3 days
Fly out last day
+1 more day to throw in somewhere
I’m much happier with my itinerary now and I’m very excited. Thank you 🙂
That’s great news, it seems like they changed that rule just last month. One less thing to worry about, thanks for letting me know!
Thank you for your reply! And yes, I did try to sprinkle in some other places like Lungern that will be a nice change of pace. And I definitely will see Geneva, I’m especially excited about the Carouge area because I’m interested in seeing what type of art they have on display and the overall atmosphere there.
Thank you for your reply, I plan on adopting most of those changes to my itinerary!
Best wishes to you as well
Great !
Latest itinerary is the best one.
Have a great time ahead
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