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Hi,
As a part of our 6 nights 7 day trip to Switzerland, we are booked for 3 nights 4 days at Interlaken (Check in 12th July-Check out 15th July). Trying to fine tune our days at Interlaken and seek your suggestions for the detailed planning. It’s nature and outdoors that interest us. We will be arriving from Paris on 12th July.
Query 1
Since we will go for the 8 day Swiss rail Pass, we intend to buy ticket from Paris to a border town at the France- Swiss border.
Option 1
Take the 07.07 hrs TGV Lyria from Paris Gare Lyon which will reach Geneva CFF at 10.18 hrs.. It is costing us about 47 CHF per person.
Option 2
Take the 06.45 hrs train from Paris Gare Lyon to Basel SBB. The trip cost and duration is abut the same but it’s not TGV Lyria or a TGV
Which would be a better option? Please suggest.
Query 2
Our check in time at the apartment that we have booked at Interlaken is 4 pm. What according to you would be better?
Option 1
Come directly to Interlaken. Board the 10.42 train from Geneva and reach Interlaken by 13.22 hrs, drop the baggage at the apartment (it’s a 10 min walk from the station) if the owner permits or park the baggage at the lockers at the station, have lunch and set off for a boat cruise on Lake Thun.
Option 1a
Upon browsing the Interlaken link posted by you all on my earlier thread in the month of March, I realized that the “Watching the lakes from the peaks” caught my attention and got me all excited. We are interested in taking the boat from Interlaken to Beatenbucht and then proceed to Beatenberg and Niederhorn.
Option 1b
Take the full cruise from Interlaken to Thun, hang around Thun and take the evening cruise back.
Option 2
Have a stop over at Geneva/ Montreux/ Bern/ some other better destination that you could suggest and reach Interlaken sometime in the evening of 12th July and if time and energy permits go for option 1a or 1b.
Please note that we wish to allot a day for Jungfraujoch, may be the 13th.
We wish to utilise 14th for a hike.
Query 3
Please suggest which one of the options given below would be better.
Option 1
Travel to Zermatt and opt for the Rotenboden – Riffelalp hike
Option 2
Opt for the hiking trip First-Bachsee-First
Option 3
Opt for the hiking trip Grutschalp-Murren.
On the 15th we will be proceeding to Lucerne where we are booked for the night. We intend to go to Mt. Titlis on 15th.
On 16th, we plan to travel to Andematt to hop on the Glacier Express and travel to St. Moritz where we are booked for the night.
On 17th, from St. Moritz we will proceed to Zurich post lunch. We wish to do the short 1 hr 40 min hike from Pontresina to St. Moritz in the morning.
Although Glacier Express was highly recommended in my previous thread, I would still ask if I am right in planning to spend 5 hours on board Glacier Express and travel to St. Moritz. Or should I drop the idea and think of an alternative location like may be Sas Fee / Wengen/ Grindelwald ?
Please chip in your suggestions.
Regards
Mitra
P.S. We fly out from Zurich on 18th morning.
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Hi
It would be extremely kind of you if you could post a reply. Apologies if I sound repetitive or if I have made my query list too descriptive. I mentioned the itinerary once again so that you could get an overview. I just feel like taking an approval here in this forum out of the apprehension that I probably could miss out on something. I keep reading and re reading the previous posts and the links so that I don’t miss out anything. And even after doing that, I just feel assured once I discuss it here. Probably, I will post my queries and finalise things one by one.
While travelling from Paris to Interlaken, I have the option of travelling from Paris to Geneva by 07.07 hrs TGV Lyria and then change trains twice, once at Geneva and the other at Bern.
The earlier(posts of March) suggestions were for doing Paris Basel instead of Paris Geneva. But that would call for changing twice before reaching Basel, once at Strasbourg Villa and once more at Saint- Louis(Haut-Rhin)
But interesting to note that Paris Interlaken via Geneva requires 2 changes with trip duration of 6 hrs 21 mins. whereas Paris Interlaken via Basel SBB requires 3 changes but trip duration is 5 hrs 44 mins. Also there is symbol next to the route info which mentions restriction of services between Saint-Louis(Haut-Rhin) and Basel. I have attached the screen shot.
If you could chip in your suggestions, it would help me get rid of apprehensions. Once I get a go ahead here, I am confident of the choices that I have made.
Thank you
Hi Mitra and sorry for the late reply,
- The choice of traveling to Interlaken via Geneva or Basel is really a personal one. It seems the timings are similar – I would choose the train with the fewest train connections in the end (and with construction around Basel perhaps even more reason to go via Geneva, although I doubt it will affect your trip too much).
- Personally, after a long day of travel from Paris I would lean to option 1 or 1b. But if you like the mountain idea (option 1a) it is doable if you have the energy. 🙂
- Here I lean to option 2 and the hike to Bachalpsee. I wouldn’t go all the way to Zermatt as a day trip – look at the train schedules and timings here.
- I still think the Glacier Express is a nice trip to make. 🙂 You can board the train in Andermatt at 10:54 and arrive St. Moritz at 15:58
I hope this helps! Let us know if you have more questions.
Lucas
Hi Lucas,
Can’t thank you enough for your perseverance in answering all my queries.
I am now super confident of the choices I am making.
The 07.07 hrs TGV Lyria via Geneva is what we go for, no stop over, come to Interlaken and then decide the day depending on how energetic we are. I think the very fact that we will be in a beautiful country, in a destination of my dreams, will be the fountain head of unlimited energy. Moreover hailing from India, we are used to long train journeys, 5/ 6 hours should be a cake walk for us. But is Niederhorn worth taking this much trouble?
My elder daughter is looking for a hiking trail that will take her through forest area. That is how she had shown her inclination for the Grutschalp-Murren hike. Any suggestions? Of course we are not regular hikers, just people overloaded with enthusiasm. So we are looking for easy to moderate hiking trail.
Thank you and have a fabulous day ahead.
Regards
Mitra
I haven#t spent too much time in the area – I#m not sure how thickly forested the hiking trails are – but they will be great either way!
For some ideas on hiking in the area – go to our town page here and click on each town you will be visiting and then click on the what to do tab…there will be a list of hiking trails that are popular and with good details on how easy or hard they are etc.
Have a great trip!
Hi Lucas,
Repeating my oft written words once again, THANK YOU.
Lucas, I am indeed going through all the pages of your very informative website. I am reading each and every link that your website offers. The link, “more on other websites” on the right of the screen is particularly interesting. Guess what? I discovered that the restaurant on top of Mt. Titlis even has Indian Chicken Curry on the menu. Not that we will be trying it out, but it was surely very interesting to unearth this piece of information. All the hiking trails that I have mentioned in my posts are taken from the section “Regional Hiking Suggestions” under “What to do” .
What an informative website!!!! Extremely helpful!!!
Well Lucas, I wished to know the time that will be sufficient on top of Mt. Titlis. Pls remember that we are from the tropical region of India and hence we go crazy when we have snow around us. In fact my daughters are just waiting to be on the Ice flyer, the glacier cave etc. Hence we don’t want to be in a hurry to come down and shouldn’t regret spending lesser time up there. We wish to do all the activities as long as our pocket permits. Keeping these points in mind, pls let me know the time frame that is required up there on Mt. Titlis. I have read that the last gandola from Klein Titlis is at 17.00 hrs. Considering that we will opt for the last Gondola, by what time should we reach Titlis. 4 hrs on Titlis is enough?
Pls revert.
Regards
Mitra
Hi Mitra,
Glad to hear our website is useful for you! I’d recommend to go to the Titlis early-ish (in the morning) and then just spend there as long as you need. For some people an hour is enough just to enjoy the views and touch the snow, others want to spend most of the day. There are several cable car stations before you reach the top, so you can get off and explore a bit there as well. Do the walk around the lake at the Trübsee station for example.
I think 4 hours is a good guess for what you want to do. But why risk it. Just make a day out of it, and if you have time left at the end of the day there’s plenty to see in Lucerne.
Hi Arno,
With every passing day, my family and I are brimming with excitement over the prospect of being in the beautiful country Switzerland. And the planning for this trip wouldn’t have been possible without the highly informative website My Swiss Alps and its wonderful experts. I can’t stop myself from bragging about this website to my family and friends whenever there is a discussion on our planned trip to Switzerland. Here, people mostly plan with a travel agent or a tour operator. People are wondering how I could manage doing everything without the help of a tour operator or travel agent. I could have never been able to do it without you all here at My Swiss Alps. Thank you. You all are doing a wonderful job.
Arno, we too have planned to walk from either Engelberg to Trubsee or at least from Ober Trubsee to Trubsee. Thank you for your inputs.
Also, I would like to know if carrying USD would be fine or do we specifically need to carry Swiss Francs.
Thank you once again.
Regards
Mitra
Hi Mitra,
I’m glad to hear MySwissAlps has been useful for your planning! That’s what we aim at. Great that you’re all so excited. I hope you’ll have a wonderful trip to Switzerland!
USD is not an accepted currency in Switzerland. You do need some Swiss Francs in cash. Please see myswissalps.com/swissf ranc for more information.
Hi Annika,
Thank you so much for your response.
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