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Hello All! Happy to chance upon this forum and looking forward to receive friendly advices from gurus here!
We will be reaching Zurich 9 Mar 9.35pm, planning to stay a night at Zurich before heading to Grindelwald for at least 2 or 3 nights and back to Zurich to spend the rest of the days exploring Luzern.
May I know if that will be too much time spent on 2 places, can I explore 1 more? On the itinerary, Luzern and Grindelwald for us is a must and happy to include other sights if it’s along the way or makes more sense.
On the public transport – Will it make more sense for us to get the Swiss Saver Pass? If yes, should we be getting for 3 days or 4 days? 8 days might be too much? Or should we go for ala carte?
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Faith, and welcome to MySwissAlps,
My initial thought is a 3 or 4 day Swiss Travel Pass is your best option. It will cover nearly all trips on buses, train and boats. The only way to know for sure is to check out point to point ticket prices and compare that to the cost of the STP. There is an excel sheet to help you with that on our page: How to choose the best Swiss rail pass.
Another option could be the Swiss Half-Fare card, that will give you 50% off trips during your stay.
It’s not clear to me if you’re planning to stay in Lucerne, but if you would ask me, I would rather stay 2 nights in Lucerne than in Zurich. There’s plenty to see and do in Lucerne and the Jungfrau region. Two or three days are easily filled.
Be sure to check this:
All Swiss rail passesHi Chantal! Thanks for the information, it’s really helpful!
It’s our first time traveling to Swiz and my geography really isn’t that good.. After some reading, I came out with a brief itinerary and will refine along the way with help I can get!
Day 1: Arrive in Zurich (1opm): Stay at night in Zurich
Day 2: Interlaken (stay 1 night)
Day 3: Jungfraujoch (stay 1 night)
Day 4: Grindelwald (stay 1 night)
Day 5 & 6: Lucerne (stay 2 nights)
Day 7: Return to Zurich, return flight at 6pm
Should I start with Lucerne or Jungfraujoch? Are there places where we can deposit our luggages while we roam Zurich? I read that Interlaken is overly touristy, should we still pop by or we can skip it?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Faith,
I’m please to hear that the information is helpful.
I would skip Interlaken and stay 2 nights in Grindelwald, or Wengen. It’s a shorter train ride from Lucerne to Zurich. It would be my personal preference to do first Jungfraujoch and then Lucerne. By the way, you know that you can visit Jungfraujoch from Grindelwald (or Wengen and other little villages). It is not possible to stay at the Jungfraujoch. Read here how to get to Jungfraujoch.
The train station in Zurich has luggage storage. More information in this thread: http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/luggage-storage-3
Thanks Chantal! Noted on Interlaken and will probably skip it then!
In this case we will stay 2 nights in Grindewald instead and. If not we are not intending to ski, will there still be other activities at Grindewald or Jungfraujoch? We are happy to just take in the beautiful scenic views! Do we need a guided tour to hike up?
Would you also suggest we start with Lucerne and move on to Grindewald or we should head straight for Grindewald and end our trip at Lucerne before heading back to Zurich? If we start with Lucerne, should we take the train out directly upon arrival in Zurich or stay a night and start afresh the next day? Our flight will arrive in Zurich at 10pm.
I was also told to include Zermatt will be overly ambitious, appreciate your advise.
Lastly, based on this rough itinerary would you think a half fare pass will work better for us or the swiss travel?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Faith,
There is a lot to do near Grindelwald that doesn’t include skiing. What did you want to hike up exactly?
Any hiking in the area in March will be snowshoeing FYI :).Here are some snow shoe trails around Grindelwald: https://jungfrauregion .swiss/en/winter/see-and-do/
Click on “see and do” and tick “snowshoe trails”.I would stay in Zurich the first night personally. Then head to Grindelwald, Lucerne and back to Zurich. You can use the Swiss railways timetable to see how to trips will work.
Yes, I agree Zermattis overly ambitious on this trip – you’d need to cut something out I think.
But something like this could work:Day 1: Arrive in Zurich (1opm): Stay at night in Zurich
Day 2 & 3: Lucerne
Day 4 & 5: Grindelwald
Day 6: Zermatt
Day 7: Return to Zurich, return flight at 6pmI would lean to the Swiss Travel Pass on your itinerary…doing the math on Chantal’s link on her first page “how to choose the best rail pass” is the only way to know for sure though.
Hi Lucas,
Thanks for this 🙂
I am still in the midst of looking at the ‘to do’ for Grindelwald and saw recommendations on Lake Thun and Brienz. Will check out the snow shoe trails! Do we need to rent the snow shoes or any chance we can hike with our own boots?
I managed to get some really helpful info from SwissAlps’ forum on the hiking trails for Wengen and is considering Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, Grütschalp to Mürren or Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg. Not sure how many can we do in a day?
Day 1: Arrive in Zurich (1opm): Stay at night in Zurich
Day 2 & 3: Lucerne
Day 4 & 5: Grindelwald
Day 6: Zermatt
Day 7: Return to Zurich, return flight at 6pmOn Grindelwald, most of the recommendations are to stay in Wengen so I’m quite torn now on where to set the base, Grindelwald vs Wengen.
Noted that Zermatt is quite a distance away from Lucerne or Grindelwald, would you still suggest I proceed to stay in take in more of Grindelwald?
Are there any hiking out of bounds areas we can’t visit during March?
Noted on Swiss Travel Pass 🙂
Thanks in advance!
Hi Faith,
You may be able to hike in your boots….depends on snow levels. I think renting snow shoes would make the hike easier and more fun though.
I would limit yourself to two hikes in one day…depends on how eager you are of course & fitness levels.
I think you’d be happy at either town (its easy to visit one town from the other so you won’t miss out on one if you don’t stay there). The knock on Grindelwald is that many people find it too touristy but it looks like a lovely town (I haven’t been there).
I would only add Zermatt if you want to see the Matterhorn. If your goal is to be up in the mountains in general and don’t want to travel around the country too much on your trip here rest assured you will be quite happy to stay in and around Grindelwald.
Thanks Lucas! This is really helpful 🙂 Will rework my itinerary again and post it in the forum.
Hi All!
Drafted out our itinerary for the 6 nights stay, let me know your thoughts!
Day 1 (Fri): Arrive in Zurich 10pm, stay for a night
Day 2 (Sat): Wengen from Zurich Airport (Swiss Travel Pass) and do a half day trip to Interlaken (Lake Thun and Lake Brien)
Day 3 (Sun): Hiking (Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg ) and Grütschalp to Mürren
*3 nights stay in Wengen*
Day 4 (Mon): One day trip to Jungfraujoch
Day 5 (Tues): Lucerne – Pilatus – Lucerene Town / Lucerne Boat Trip
Day 6 (Weds): Lucerne – Titlis – Rigi
*2 nights in Lucerne*
Day 7 (Thurs): Zurich, flight to SG will depart at 6pm
Will the above work? I noted there are alot of guided / unguided tours available at all the places but will it be do-able if we do it ourselves?
I did some comparison of the Swiss Travel Pass vis a vis the Half Fare Pass seems like the STP works better for us but they only have 3 days, 4 days and 8 days and essentially I am only needing them for 5 – 6 days maximum, getting the 8 days will not be cost effective. Any suggestions? Should I top up with a one day pass?
Thanks!
Hi Faith,
Seems nice to me. You might want to just leave your luggage at Interlaken rail station while you explore one or two lakes. So you avoid the trip to Wengen and back after checking in.
I don’t think you’d have any problem getting around Switzerland on your own. It is very easy to use the train system etc. Use the Timetablehere to plan out all your trips and pay attention to train connection times – they can be quite short but they are designed to work (and the trains here are on time).
Are you sure the 8 day STP isn’t cost effective after doing the math? It is very convenient which helps offset some cost to most people.
Hello Faith,
You have settled on a good plan. Wengen is a good choice.
Note: Lake Brienz cruises do not operate at that time of year. Lake Thun cruises are limited to one per day in each direction. See Winter timetable at http://www.bls.ch/-/media/bls/pdf/fahrpla ene/schiff/fahrplan-sommer-2018.pdf?la=en&vs=1
Thanks Lucas! Will look at depositing our luggage at Interlaken while we explore the area.
Will do my math on both passes and make a comparison. Can I confirm as long as the train routes are reflected on the ‘Timetable’ it will be fully covered by Swiss Travel Pass and 50% for Half Fare (price reflected will be before discount)?
@Rockoyster – I will only be heading over in March, Lake Brienz will be closed? 🙁 Noted on Lake Thun and will check the schedule.
Thanks both!
When you go to buy a ticket the fare you see on the right hand side of the page will already be the half-fare price. Double it to get full fare. With A Swiss Travel Pass it is free unless you are on one of the mountain railways or cableways not fully covered.
As Rockoyster said the price you see next to the train route is the 1/2 fare.
But just because it is on the timetable doesn’t mean it is covered by the Swiss Travel Pass (I think that was your question?). Use the validity map here to see what routes are and aren’t covered.
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