5 days Thun, Jungfrauregion, Lucerne and Geneva

Hi gingerjanet

If it was me I would skip the town of Interlaken and go straight to Wengen as it is a lovely village with wonderful views of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The views from the Mannlichen, reached by the cable car, are also spectacular. There is an easy hike from the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. From there you can catch the train back to Wengen.

Mountains in that area include the Jungfrau, Eiger and Schilthorn.

The ‘scenic trains’ run on the same tracks as the regular trains and almost every route is scenic in Switzerland.

If you read the links that Steph has given you in her post it will answer all your questions about the Jungfrau area, travel passes, their areas of validity and costs. My profile picture was taken in Wengen and is of the Männlichen cable car with the Jungfrau in the background.

Hope this of help.

Jane

Hello Gingerjenet,

We just did a wonderful trip to Switzerland in July. We stayed in Thun for 7 nights and did day trips from there. Coming to your question about you want to explore Interlaken and about luggage storage, since you have STP you can just leave your luggage at the reception of your thun hotel and take the train to Interlaken. It’s just 30 minutes from Thun. Once you are done you can come back and pick up your luggage and take a train to Wengen.

Hi slowpoke,

sorry for the confusion. I meant by having STP, one can ride on trains as many times and don’t have to worry about paying extra for the train from Thun to Interlaken and return. I was just suggesting that instead of paying for luggage storage at Interlaken, they can try this option.

Hi Gingerjanet –

Adding to JaneEB’s thoughtful posts, I too would tend to skip Interlaken. Except for Harder Kulm, whose valley station is close to station Interlaken Ost (IO), there is little of scenic interest. It Is good for stores, and good rail connections to the rest of Switzerland.

map.search.ch/?pos=634496,170108&z=64 &poi=bergbahn,zug

Wengen is a pretty village with wonderful views, and time spent going up to Männlichen by cable way would be much more rewarding than time in Interlaken, at least from a scenery perspective.

This page has short descriptions of each of the larger villages or towns in the area:

http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion

under the heading “Where to stay” on that linked page.

Wengen is also my favorite, as is the walk she mentions from Männlichen ( above Wengen) to Kleine Scheidegg.

http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/maennlichen-kleinescheidegg

A few images are attached.

This little bit of light reading is very informative about Wengen and the region. Since you will stay in Wengen, you may find it helpful. Some of the links are obsolete, but the information is still useful and correct:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/tips-about-wengen-and-the-jungfrau-region-by-kim

Finally, to better understand the trains in the region, the travel map named Mapsearch.ch is very useful.

I linked to it above for Interlaken. You will note that at that zoom level, the train lines are clearly visible. If you zoom out too far, they are no longer visible. This magnification at zoom level 32 ( the number near the end of the URL, z=32) is the last zoom level at which they stand out. Thus:

map.search.ch/?pos=640232,162248&z=32 &poi=bergbahn,zug

The menu is helpful. Under “Points of Interest” ( the star in a circle), then Traffic you can turn on icons for the stations and stops for various kinds of transport. In the link immediately above, “bergbahn” is for mountain transport, and “zug” for regular trains. Mouse over the icons for more information, including the exact name of each and every station anywhere in Switzerland, including tram and bus stops in the cities. Those names are useful in the timetable, linked by Steph.

Slowpoke