6 day visit - Seeking suggestions for things to do

Hi,

Planning to visit in early August. I will be travelling with my elderly parents and kids. So we will be skipping hiking and lots of walking. Planning to focus on Trains and buses and boat, cable car and gondola rides :) My parents' primary interest is the lovely Swiss scenery - not big on museums or buildings etc.

Here's my planned itinerary with a lot of holes at the moment. Somewhere between Day 1 and Day 2, I would like to visit Jungfraujoch as well if the weather cooperates.

Day 0: Arrive in Geneva at night. Hotel in Geneva

Day 1: Train from Geneva to Montreux and then on the GoldenPass to Interlaken. Staying at Interlaken hotel for 4 nights. Afternoon and evening - Open to ideas :)

Day 2: Read a suggestion on here about taking the train to Lauterbrunnen, gondola to Grutschalp, train to Murren, gondola to Shilthorn & Piz Gloria, back to Gimmelwald and then cable car to Lauterbrunnen and then train back to Interlaken hotel. Q: How long would this excursion take? Should I budget the whole day for this? or can I plan something else the same day?

Day 3: Train from Interlaken to Lucerne. Looking for suggestions on what to do in and around Lucerne. Have seen suggestions of taking a boat / cruise that sound interesting.

Day 4: Train from Interlaken to Chur. Glacier Express from Chur to Zermatt. Back from Zermatt to Interlaken hotel.

Day 5: Checkout and head to Geneva (hotel). Considering a half-day (or full day if appropriate) excursion between Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux. Seeking suggestions for possible things to do.

Day 6: Flying out of Geneva in the evening. So likely local excursion during the day. Again seeking suggestions.

Plan to take the 4-day Swiss Travel Pass for days 1 - 4 - 2nd class. And likely will upgrade to 1st class for the Glacier Express.

Thank you in advance for your advice and suggestions.

Hi weetea, thanks for joining MySwissAlps!

Here are some thoughts:

• theoretically, you could add the Jungfraujoch trip to your plans, although either day 1 or 2 will become quite full that way. You may get up in the afternoon of day 1, after arriving in Interlaken, but only if you plan to get there quite early in the afternoon. Mind though that clouds often tend to come in in the afternoon, so do check weather conditions carefully before making the trip up to the Jungfraujoch. An altnerative is adding it to day 2. Both the Schilthorn and the Jungfraujoch trip take approximately half a day, that is, if you don't spend hours at the tops. I'd personally prefer to do just one of them in one day, but if you can't choose, you will manage to visit both. The journeys are described here and here, and the timetable allows detailed planning. Further tips for the Interlaken area are listed here;
• tips for the Lucerne area, including the boat rides you referred to, can be found at our Lucerne page;
• a 1 day Glacier Express tour from Interlaken will be long. You could cut down traveling times a bit by ending your tour in Brig rather than in Zermatt, as suggested under "Don't have time to do the full route?" at the page I just linked to. Please check travel times carefully. As long as you and your travel party think they're acceptable, it's all fine. Another option would be not to return to Interlaken, but head for the Montreux/Geneva area from Brig, as that's where you intend to stay on day 5-6 anyway.
• tips for the Lake Geneva region can be found here, and for the city of Geneva here.

A 4 day Swiss travel Pass with regular tickets for day 5-6 is likely to be a good choice, but it depends on your exact plans for the last few days. The price difference between a 4 and 8 day 2nd class Swiss Travel Pass is CHF 112, so if regular tickets would cost more than that, the 8 day Swiss Travel Pass would be the better choice. That's not impossible. Just an example: let's say you end your Glacier Express tour in Montreux on day 4 and plan to visit Rochers-de-Naye, make a boat trip over the lake and head for Geneva all on day 5. Those three trips could amount to about CHF 140 for full fare tickets per person, and excursions in/from Geneva (such as a museum visit) on day 6 will add more. Also, mind that children would still travel for free on day 5-6 if you'd still have a valid Swiss Travel Pass. You'll have to calculate your plans to find out whether the 8 day variant is worth your consideration.

Hii WeeTea -

Day 2.

The trip you describe should take about half a day, and you definitely could do something else in the afternoon, if you go up to Schilthorn in the morning.

Please use the timetable linked by Annika to see about the travel times.

On the way back, the cable car will take you to Stechelberg, and you get the bus to Lauterbrunnen,

This map will help you visualize the trip:

map.search.ch/?x=-21376m&y=-26768m&z=16

Zoom in.

By the way, the buffet up there is said to be nice.

Slowpoke