Detailed summary of 2 weeks summer Swiss trip

Thank you so much as this site was the basis of my planning! I enjoyed reading the trip reports, suggestions, etc., so I have kept detailed notes in the case it might help others with their planning! Most of this was completed on my phone through Google Docs on trains during transit, so please forgive spelling, etc.

Cost Break Down– From my records, our trip cost $7,400 USD (about 7,200 chf), not including airfare. With airfare, we spent about $8,800 USD. We stayed at 3-4 star hotels(about 230 chf nt) and had a mix of nice meals and quick bakery/coop meals. For planning reasons, we estimated about 80 chf pp per day. This was a very accurate estimate. Some days we didn’t spend nearly this much, but other days we splurged with a bottle of wine, or stopped for chocolate. I strongly encourage to stock up on hotel breakfast buffet with a light coop lunch sandwich/fruit, and a nice dinner. An average day was about 30 chf for hotel breakfast, 30 chf coop lunch, and 100 chf dinner. We paid about 950 chf for the 2 week Swiss Travel Pass (Highly recommend so you don’t have to worry about buying separate tickets) and we budgeted 500 chf in tourism items, 250 chf for misc expenses that came up (like wash n fold laundry halfway through our trip), and 300 chf for mountain travel not included is Swiss Travel Pass. Our original budget was $9,400 and we came in about $600 under budget by saving on meals here/there, not doing many extra mountain travels (like top of Europe-Jungfraujoch), etc. This is a bucket list trip for us, and this trip was a mix of conscious budget and indulgent splurging. I feel like this is a very good idea of a typical travel cost.

15 day Basic Itinerary

Part 1-Lucerne 3 nts

Day 1 Zurich arrival, Zurich tour, travel Lucerne

Day 2 mt rigi day

Day 3 mt titlis day

Part 2 Wengen 7 nts

Day 4 tour lucerne, travel Wengen

Day 5 klein scheidegg hike, trummelbach

Day 6 mt schilthorn

Day 7 lake thun, oberhofen Castle, caves

Day 8 bern day trip

Day 9 brienz cruise, geissbach falls, aare gorge

Day 10 hike murren area or 1st area

Part 3 Montreux

Day 11 travel to montreux, chillion castle

Day 12 cern and geneva visit

Day 13 lavaux vineyards walk, thermal spa

Part 4 travel back home

Day 14 travel to Zurich hotel, enjoy zurich

Day 15 early flight home

Actual Switzerland 15 Day/14 nt Schedule

Day 1-Arrival Zurich 8am

• Travel to passport control
• Luggage
• Exit customs
• Pick up traveler wifi device
• Train to zurich main
• Store luggage
• Atm withdrawal
• Change to smaller bills at change office
• Exit station
• Cafe breakfast
• Free walk tour
• More explore

Travel to Lucerne (3 nts)

• After dinner Walk old town/chapel bridge
• Day 2 Lucerne-Boat Cruise to Fluelen
• Train to vitznau
• Cogwheel to rigi
• Hike to rigi kaltbad
• Mineral spa
• Cable car to weggis
• Boat to lucerne
• Dinner
• Explore lucerne and old city walls and climb tower

Day 3 Lucerne – To Titlis

• Train to engelberg
• Walk to titlis station
• Cable car up past trubsee station
• 2nd station change to roto cablecar
• Top of titlis!
• Explore level 5-observation deck, walk up snow embankment to observation walkway, walk back down for cliff walk (walk across then back again).
• Took ice flyer across glacier to snow park/got off and went snow tubing/back on ice flyer to top of titlis.
• Went down to level 1 for glacier cave…walked it twice!
• Lunch at self service station- do not recommend! Pack a lunch!
• About 1 hr trip back down to get train to lucerne.
• After dinner walked lucerne and saw lion monument.

Day 4-Lucerne-

• Jesuit church
• Rosengart art museum
• Hotel checkout
• Reception held luggage
• Lunch
• St.Maria church
• Pick up luggage
• Train to wengen sit on right side!
• Hotel check in
• Walk wengen
• dinner

A note on Wengen- our hotel was lower the train station. Didn’t have much of a view of snow capped Mts. We only saw a nice view from the train station. We loved the view from Murren. We booked Wengen as many said the views were “heaven on earth”, that’s how I felt about Murren. I was a little let down on the views from Wengen (at least our hotel)- although still beautiful. I liked Wengen a lot, but the view that we were expecting of the snow covered mountains right in front of you was more in Murren. I would stay in Wengen again,but thought I’d mention this as my initial reaction at the view as like “this is not what I was picturing”, and when I went to Murren I said, “this is what I thought the view would be like!”

Day 5-Wengen planned itinerary-Mannilichen to klein scheidegg

• Cable car from wengen to mannilichen
• Royal walk uphill for views 1 hr
• Walk panorama trail to Kleine Scheidegg 2 hrs
• Buy train ticket to Wengen (Skipped trip to trummelbach today as we were tired)
• Lunch take away from coop
• hotel resting
• Spa jacuzzi 4-630 @Silberhorn hotel
• Dinner at hotel

Day 6-Wengen Mt. Schillthorn /Gimmelwald

• 833 train out of wengen to lauterbrunnen
• Cable car up to Grutschalp
• Train to murren
• Walk through town to schilthorn cable car
• Up to Brig on cable car- skywalk
• Cable car to schilthorn-views and 007 exhibits
• Down to brig/switch cable car back to murren
• Walk through town to hotel bellevue for lunch
• Walk path to gimmelwald
• Cable car to stechelberg
• Bus to trummelbach falls/explore
• Back to Wengen
• Note…too tired to walk back through lauterbrunnen and stop at staubbach falls, but was planned activity.

Day 7-Wengen Lake Thun Original Plan

• Wengen to St. Beatus Caves 8:33- 10:00
• Caves 10:15-11:20
• Take bus to oberhofen 11:30-12
• Castle 12-145(Closes 5pm)
• boat 2:03-4:19 or Bus (:16 or :46) 2:46-4:19
• Back to hotel 430

Actual

• Train to Oberhofen Castle 8:33-10:24
• Castle gardens/park walk 10:30-11
• Castle 11-12:30
• Grab sandwhich at Volg 12:30-1240
• Bus to caves 12:46-1:07
• Caves Only 1:10-215
• Bus/train back Wengen 237-3:49
• Hotel 4pm
• Note: We were going to go to Aare Gorge after, but we were tired!

Day 8-Wengen (Bern Day)

• Train to Bern 8:33-10:33
• Turn in laundry to 5asec
• Bus to rosengarten
• 11-1:30 city free walk tour
• 1:30-2 walk to see US embassy
• 2-3 lunch
• Bus to history museum and visit 3-5
• Bus to train station 5-5:15
• Pick up laundry 5:15
• Train to Wengen 530-730
• Hotel dinner
• Note…very rushed day….didn’t go into cathedral, or touch aare river, or see bears, and museum rushed (90min).

Day 9- Wengen-Aare Gorge and Lake Brienz

• Hike 820-930 from Wengen to lauterbrunnen (mostly all significant downhill slope, not particularly recommended…rather do other hikes)
• Train to aare gorge 10-11:20
• Visit/walk gorge 11:30-1230
• Train from ost exit to brienz 1230-1
• Lunch coop 1-115
• Boat cruise/lunch picnic 120-140
• Boat 1:40-150 Giessbach falls
• Funicular up and hike up 1:55-2:30
• Funicular 2:40 and boat to interlocken 2:51-3:51
• Back to Wengen

Original Plan

• Trains to interlocken
• Interlocken Ost Brienz Boat Cruise 10:07
• Giessbach Waterfall Funicular http://www.giessbach.ch/en/ti metable.html
• Waterfall Visit 10:30-11:30
• 12:09 -1220 Boat to Brienz? Then train to Meiringen , grab lunch in meiringen..migros
• To Aareschlucht West 1:45
• Visit Aare Gorge 2pm-3:30pm
• Reichenbach Falls 4-5
• Home to Wengen 530-7

Day 10-Wengen

• Went to gutschalp
• Hike to murren 9-1045
• Up Allmendhubl 11
• Hike blumental panoramic 11-12:15
• Lunch 1230-130
• Back to wengen 1:45-230
• Shopping wengen 230-3
• Pack 3-4
• Spa time 4-6
• Dinner 730

Day 11 Montreux

• Wengen depart 8:33 to Montreux via Zweissmen…arrival 1pm.
• Train at spiez wrong train!
• Train spiez to visp to montreux 10-12
• Hotel check in 12-1
• Lunch 1-2
• Walk Chillion castle 2-3
• Castle 3-4:30
• Rest in room
• Dinner

Day 12 Montreux- Geneva/cern

• 650am-830 to cern
• 830-noon cern
• 12-12:30 to geneva
• 12:30-1:30 lunch manora
• 1:30-3 cathedral/ruins
• 3-4 walk geneva (flower clock, fountain)
• 4-5 back to montreux
• Dinner coop picnic/rest in room

Day 13 Montreux Vineyards

• Train/bus to chexbres
• 10-noon walk to cully
• *espresses good stop, our path to cully wasn’t in vineyard…lakeside through parks and campground
• Train to hotel
• Visit queen exhibit (in casino)
• Lunch
• Chocolates, macaroons, souvenirs
• Resting (swimming lake is 72 degrees, pass)
• Dinner

Day 14-travel back to Zurich

• Hotel breakfast
• Train 9-noon
• Check in hotel
• Train to Zurich city
• Lunch
• Museum/souvenirs
• Back to airport hotel
• Dinner
• Day 15
• 630 wake up
• Hotel breakfast 7:15-8
• Check out 8
• Airport check in 830
• 10am flight (long lines, no time for shopping! Got to gate as it was boarding)

Overall, the trip was amazing! Thank you so much to all the people that were so kind to answer my many questions to help make this a dream trip that went smoothly!