3 weeks in Switzerland – itinerary planning advice

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    15 February 2018 at 8:05:54 #814366

    Hello, We (myself, wife and 9 year old son) will be spending 3 weeks in Switzerland. We arrive on the 14th into zurich, staying 2 nights then to lucerne for 7 nights, we plan on using lucerne as our base to travel for day travels, will spend 1 day in bern, Mount Tiltis, Mount Pilatus, Jungfraujoch top of Europe day trip and for the extra day, Day trip to Heidiland and Liechtenstein tour, of course a day to see lucerne. we then travel to geneva for 4 nights, which i think might be too much based on what i am reading, we plan a stop in Montreux on our way via the goldpass rail to montreux then to geneva, from there we go to zermatt then take the glacier express and getitng off at Chur and connecting to Zurich to return home on august 3, 2018. My questions:

    1. Is going to Jungfrau form lucerne for a day trip advisable or do we have to stay in interlaken ost(or wenger or grindelwald), if so any suggestions for hotel.

    2. is is worth going to tiltis and pilatis or is one better over the other

    3. how many days should we stay in geneva, we anticipate leaving lucerne on the 23rd stopping in montreux and getting to Geneva at night. Any other thought s where we could go form geneva if 4 days is too much, we were told Paris is 4 hours away and we would consider a day or overnight trip, any thoughts

    4. In Zermatt we plan on a 2 night stay going to the matterhorn mountain then taking the glacier express to chur then zurich where we have another 3 days before heading back home. Should we go to St. Moritz,

    5. Any other places we can go for those extra days i think that we don’t need in Zurich anymore and also maybe 1-2 days in Geneva, we are open to traveling nearby countries on an overnight trip or day trip

    6. What kind of clothing, should we bring for the summer, knowing we will be up the mountains a lot. Understanding that we will be traveling with a young son and 2 suitcases with backpacks, we want to pack what is the least amount of clothing as possible. Do we need winter coats, if we need to buy winter clothing are they available during the summer months.

    7. Lastly, i am getting confused with all the different rail passes, since we will be in Switzerland for 21 days, should we buy a 15 day and a 8 day travel pass or should we buy a 15 day flex pass and buy local tickets for the days we go sightseeing locally.

    Will be awaiting your expert inputs. Thank you

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    15 February 2018 at 9:30:18 #876309

    Hi Moorjani,

    Welcome to MySwissAlps and thanks for starting a new thread. 🙂

    1. You can do a trip from Lucerne to Jungfraujoch but it is a very long day – 4 hours each way plus time on the mountain. Interlaken, or other towns in the Jungfrau region would be much easier.

      Use the Swiss railways timetable to plan out all your trips.

    2. If you don’t have a lot of time to do both mountains I think you’d be happy with just one. Which one is personal preference really. View information about the mountains her: Mt. Pilatus and Mt. Titlis.
    3. Geneva (and Zurich) aren’t very popular towns for tourists – at least on their first trip. Is there something specific you want to see and do there? I’d stay in Montreuxover Geneva.
    4. I’d use those extra days to stay in the Jungfrau region rather than St. Moritz or Zurich. Especially if your focus is on mountain scenery and hikes? St. Moritz certainly has outdoor activities though!
    5. See above
    6. It is usually best to dress in layers. It should be quite warm/hot in the lower altitudes. At the mountain tops it could be around 0 degrees or maybe up in the high teens with a lot of sun. You wouldn’t need a winter coat I don’ think but best to pack a few sweaters and a wind breaker etc.
    7. Those two rail pass options are probably the best for you. In order to know which is the most economical though, you’ll need to plan out all your trips within Switzerland and do the math. We have a page here to help: how to choose the best rail pass.
    Removed user
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    15 February 2018 at 18:13:47 #876310

    Thank you very much Lucas, for your response, it is really helpful, the only reason we chose Geneva over Montreux was we were using our hotel points for our stay otherwise it would all expire and become worthless, would definitely re-look at our itinerary

    Removed user
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    15 February 2018 at 19:29:40 #876311

    That’s a fair enough reason! Let us know if we can be of more help. 🙂

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