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Hi Guys,
My wife and I will be skiing from April 01 to to 10th in Zermatt and want to spend 3 days for some site seeing. We enjoy outdoors/scenic mountains more than the city life so I was planning go to Grindelwald, Wengen. I will be exiting my trip to switzerland by train, bernina express to Tirano, boarding the train from Chur.
The concern I have is that by this time, I may have seen plenty of that stunning scenery since I will be in skiing in Zermatt for so long and I’m thinking it may be wise to spend my time in Lucerne instead, exploring the city. I welcome, and would greatly appreciate all suggestions, concerns and comments.
Thanks!
-Rob
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Hi Rob and welcome to MySwissAlps!
Yes if you think you won’t be interested in much mountain trips/scenery after Zermatt, Lucerne could be a nice option, or Bern or Zurich as well all offer great city experiences.
Of course Grindelwald and Wengen and other villages offer different, wonderful scenery and could still be nice. 🙂
Check out more details on the various towns in Switzerland and what is on offer there here: http://www.myswissalps.com/wh eretogo/towns
thanks for the reply Lucas!
I will spend my remaining time in Lucerene and based on how we like it, will either stay there or do a quick 2 day trip to grindelwald as well.
Thanks,
-Rob
Hi Rob,
You may want to keep in mind that if you decide to spend some time in Lucerne, and then Grindelwald, that you will essentially be back-tracking, and spending more time on trains that could be spent in the towns themselves. You may be better off going to Grindelwald on your way to Lucerne. But, be aware that it is so beautiful in the Jungfrau region that it may be difficult to do jsut a “quick-stop” there. Both are beautiful and offer a lot of options to see. Lucerne is a beautiful walking city and can be done in one day if you don’t see any of the surrounding offerings, and you can go virtually anywhere from there, including to Chur to catch the Bernina. I wouldn’t be concerned about the change of scenery after spending time in Zermatt as each region is rather unique, and beautiful in its own way. Just throwing it out there to think about. Enjoy whichever you choose to do.
Danielsan
Hi Danielsan,
Thanks so much for that valuable info. I didn’t know i’d be back tracking. I typed “Zermatt to Lucerne” in google, and it showed me the train route that goes through Bern which takes 3 hours 24 minutes and so I didn’t see it as back tracking. Thanks for the telling me that!
Nice to know that Lucerne can be done in 1 day if I skip the surrounding offerings.
one issue I have, which I hope you can comment on, is that the Bernina Express departure is at 08:30am from Chur. My plan is to be in Chur for at least 1 day (the day before) to safely board the train at such an early time in the morning, rather than risking going there from somewhere far away like Lucerne or Grindelwald. Does that sound reasonable to you?
Thanks,
-Rob
Overnighting in Chur is a good idea for the BEX unless you are an early riser. You would need to leave Luzern around 6:00am to catch the BEX. Makes it a long day especially if you are continuing to Milan or Lugano from Tirano.
Grindelwald to Chur by 08:30 is out of the question.
If you go to Luzern or Grindelwald from Zermatt consider going via Kandersteg. You will then travel on the Regio-Express Lötschberger train over the traditional, more than 100 year old mountain route, giving you a wonderful view along the impressive peaks and down into the Rhone Valley. The faster more direct but less scenic route between Spiez and Visp incorporates the lengthy (in distance) but short (in time) Lötschberger Base Tunnel.
thankyou rockoyster, I didn’t know that, valuable info indeed. I would prefer to take the RegioExpress for 4.5 hours if it’s more scenic vs 3 hours of a tunnel!
I’m assuming “less scenic” is significantly less so?
Thanks!
-Rob
Well you only spend 12 minutes in a tunnel. But I think it is worth going via Kandersteg if your timetable permits. There is a shorter tunnel on the old route. We don’t know what route you followed to get to Zermatt in the first place.
ah ok. Kandersteg sounds like the preferred approach then.
I’m getting to zermatt via a train from geneva airport (after arriving on day 1 from a 15 hour flight, so I won’t be in the mood to be doing any site seeing that day!)
Hi Rob,
You can find all train schedules here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable. That way you’ll get the timings from the source 🙂 You can also fill out Kandersteg in the via box as Rockoyster suggested.
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