MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 8 days Switzerland trip April 16-23, need advice
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I and my friend, 4 persons, at 35 yrs plan to have trip in Switzerland during April 16-23. We will be arrive Geneva on April 16 at 7.30 from Paris by night bus. We already book the apartment in Frutigen for all 7 nights and plan to buy Swiss Travel Pass 8 days.
I search a lot of information to create my detail literary plan because this is my 1st time in Europe. I would like to get your suggestion and answer some question both for Trip plan and Daylife. The avg temp in my country is about 30 degree celsius. Would you please suggest shop in Geneva where i can buy proper shoe for snow activity? How much does it cost? It’s no need to be premium and fit for purpose as i can’t not use it in my country:(
Sat, April 16: Geneva/Lausanne/Montreux .
- 7.30 Geneva 8.12 Train to Lausanne 10.17 Train to Montreux (Château de Chillon ) 12.48 Train to Geneva 15.15 Train to Frutigen 18.00 Check in Apartment
- Should cut Lausanne?
- Does it has supermarket for our food closed to Geneva station?
- Can we use bank note for our luggage locker
From April 17-21, schedule will be flexible depending weather, i plan to check it via these 2 websites: http://www.meteoswiss.admin.c h/web/en/weather.html, http://www.swisspanorama.com
Sun, April 17: Mt.Rigi, Lake Luzern
- 8.03 Train to Luzern 10.12 Cruise to Vitznau Port 11.15 Take Train to Rigi Klum 14.15 Take Cable Car to Weggis 15.05 Cruise to Luzern 16.00 CityWalk-Luzern
Mon, April 18: Matterhorn, Zermatt
- 8.00 Train to Zermatt 10.24 Zermatt to Gornergrat 12.00 Gornergrate to Rotenboden 15.36 Rotenboden to Zermatt 17.00 City Walk Zermatt
- We are interested to do Toboggan activity here,
Tue, April 19: Mt. Titlis, Engelberg
- 8.03 Train to Engelberg 11.03 Train to Titlis 13.00 Train to Trubsee 15.30 Train to Engelberg 16.30 CityWalk_Engelberg 17.01 Engelberg to Frutigen
- We intend to join Trübsee snow park. Should we prepare spare our dry cloth
Wed, April 20: Glacier3000, Col-du-Pillon
- 7.03 Train to Col-du-Pillon 10.00 Cable car to Glacier3000 16.00 Cable car to Col-du-Pillon 16.41/17.41 Col-du-Pillon to Frutigen
- We plan to Dog sled riding, Alphine Coaster, Peak Walk by Tissot, Ice Express Chairplift, Sliding Fun.
- I understand that Alphine Coaster is closed, am i right?
- I can’t find Dog sled riding price in the website, do you have any information such as price and timeable?
Thu, April 21: Zurich/Schaffhausen/Stein am Rhein
- I’m not specify timing as it’s city walk?
- We plan to buy watch here, should we?
Fri, April 22: Murren&Gimmewald vs Frutigen?
- I initially plan to go Murrren and Gimmelwald, but i’m not sure should we visit place around our place as Frutigen? Please advice
Sat, April 23: Train to Venice
All your comments, suggestion, recommendation are highly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for you help
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Welcome ornaka!
Looks like you did a lot of homework already. Here’s some feedback:
I would not count on snow activities around Trübsee in late April. Winter has been warm so far. They could still be open by that time but most probably not. They may have snow activities on the top of Mount Titlis instead. They do in summer, but I don’t know when exactly that park opens.
Dog sledding is pretty rare in Switzerland. You can do it in a few places, but in Winter only. Late April is most probably too late. Please use the search box; there should be some threads about this in the forum.
As for shoes: waterproof solid hiking shoes are useful for lots of activities in Switzerland and will work in snow as well. These are expensive though, so don’t buy them if you don’t think you’ll use them again. If you buy them, do so at home and well before your trip so you can get used walking in them. They get more comfortable as you wear them. If such an investment is not useful, then any waterproof shoe will do in a bit of snow for an hour or so. It will be cold, but as long as you don’t do anything extreme you’ll be fine. Make sure they have a profile to prevent slipping.
I don’t understand your first day, as you seem to arrive in Geneva, go to Montreux and then back to Geneva and finally to Frutigen. You can keep your luggage in lockers of the Montreux rail station (coins only I expect), visit the castle, and proceed along the Golden Pass line to Spiez and Frutigen. There’s a quicker route too, but this one is very scenic.
Mount Rigi: if you take the train down to Arth-Goldau you can see the other side of the mountain as well.
I hope this helps!
Thank you, Annika
Titlis, I think the activity that you mention is at Glacier Park. We also love to do it, but i read from the titlis website http://www.titlis.ch/en/glaci er/glacier-park, opened in May. While Trübsee snow park is opened in April. Does it possible that both are closed in April? If yes, it’s absolutely my bad news:(
Dog sledding activity, if it’s not available in Glacier3000, we are fine to don’t do this activity. Our schedule is quite tight already. I don’t think we will have time to do other places
For my first day in switzerland, i will adjust trip as per your recommendation which means that we have use luggage lockers both Geneva and Montreux station.Hopefully i can find coin for our lockers. Also, Mt Rigi, i will adjust my plan to Arth-Goldau.
Currently all of my shoe is not waterproof. I plan buy waterproof spay or if i can find the interested shoe i will use during i’m in Paris (April 13-15). Hopefully it can help for better experience trip in Switzerland.
If you have any comments, or recommendation, please let me know.
Thank you.
Hi ornaka,
Yes, it can certainly be closed in April. If there’s enough snow they’ll keep it open, just don’t count on that.
There are lots of shops inside the Geneva main station, so you can easily buy food there. There are take aways and a Migros supermarket as well.
Please see myswissalps.com/swisst ravelpass/price for where to buy your Swiss Travel Pass.
Thank you, Arno
It seems to April is not the good time for us to visit Mt. Titlis as snow park is our main reason.
Now i’m thinking to change plan from Mt Titlis to be Grinderwald first and hiking lake bachalpsee.
And we still can enjoy the snow activity at Glacier3000. That could be enough.
What do you think? Please share your thought.
Thank you for yr info on supermarket. It can help us prepare our meal cooking at apartment.
Thank you also for swiss pass info. We can buy 8 days pass at 295euro in our country. I think it’s a good price for us.
Please feel free to let me know for any your comments and recommendations
Hi ornaka,
The most important thing to keep in mind is that April is low season, and all outdoor activities depend on the weather of the day and the season. So it’s best to check the timetable, have a wish list, and decide what you can actually do while you’re there. You might be lucky, or you’re not so you need to pick something else from your list.
You should not count on hiking to the Bachalpsee either. The trail is most probably inaccessible due to snow or mud. As far as I know the cable car to get there is closed during the entire month of April. Jungfraujoch is open all year round and there will definitely be snow there.
Where can you get an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass for just € 295? Are you sure it’s an adult pass, not a youth pass?
Thank you for your suggestion.
How can we check the accesibility of each activity of each mountain in the morning before we decide trip of thay day?
I can’t it in the official website of each mountain. I actually just want to know for Titlis and Glacier3000.
For swiss travel pass, it’s the promotion of credit card company who also run travel services. But i just realize that at the end, we have to pay about 320-330 euro from currency exchange rate and other fee.I think this is normal price of swiss travel pass, isn’t it?
Availability can be found on the websites of each mountain (here and here), and also the local tourist agency or rail station can help you out. The map on the Glacier 3000 site, for example, shows that all installations are closed today due to a storm. That’s the kind of stuff you need to be aware of. It does not happen that often, but you need to be flexible just in case.
If you buy the pass through the official Swiss railways site at http://www.swissrailways.com/ en it costs CHF 363, which is € 328 (today’s exchange rate). So there does not seem to be much of an advantage if you buy through the credit card company. They may issue a pass type that needs to be validated by Swiss railway staff, while the pass from the official site can be validated by yourself so you can board your first train without loosing time. You can print the pass at home (choose Online Ticket) and there are no shipping or processing fees.
Thank you very much, Arno
Your link is very helpful for me:)
Thank you also for your suggestion of swiss travel pass. I think it will be same cost everywhere and yes, i will consider to buy from http://www.swissrailways.com/ en as your suggestion. I will depart from my country in 12April, can i wait swiss pass promotion until 8 April. I understand that i will get the pass within 1 day after payment. Please correct me if i’m misunderstanding.Thank you,
You’re welcome ornaka! If you buy it there they will e-mail the pass within 3 business days (see here for all the options and details). If you order well in advance they may only e-mail it about 2-3 weeks before your travel date. I think they do so to make cancellations and changes easier.
I don’t know whether any promotion will be available before April. As soon as there is one we’ll post about it and list it on our Swiss Travel Pass page.
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