MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 9 nights/10 days Swiss family trip in October
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Hello,
My family (2 adults,one child and one toddler) are planning a 10 day trip to Switzerland in the second week of October. We will be buying 2 Swiss travel passes (older one is yet to turn 6) for 8 consecutive days (plus 2 day travel complementary
As much as we want to explore the maximum places, we are trying to be realistic and practical with 2 kids. Here is our rough itinerary-
- Day 1 Morning- Land in Zurich, head to Chur, Explore the town at leisure giving kids time to recover from flight fatigue.
- Day 2 Take the Bernia Express day trip from Chur till Tirano and back. (Long journey but Bernia express has been on our wishlist for a long time!)
- Day3 A little confused here..
- should we take Glacier express 5 hour direct journey from Chur to Zermatt and stay there for 2 nights
- or head to Interlaken (short journey but 3 changes) and stay there for 4 days
- Day 4 Zermatt or Interlaken
- Day5 Zermatt to Interlaken / or Interlaken
- Day 6 Interlaken
- Day 7 Interlaken to Lucerne in GoldenPass Panoramic, explore old town in Lucerne
- Day 8 Lucerne -Mt. Pilatus
- Day 9 Lucerne- lake Lucerne cruise
- Day 10 Lucerne to Zurich airport ; flight back
- Does this itinerary look doable?
- We are buying the Swiss travel pass from from this site- http://www.raileurope-gcc.com/pass/swiss-travel-pass-82. Is this website legit?
- What does the forum suggest for Day 3?
- If we skip Zermatt and stay in Interlaken for 4 days, we would like to visit Montreux for a day. Is that practical?
- Though it’s not easily predictable but still, how much rain can we expect at that time of the year.
PS- We are not sure about including Jungfraujoch or Titlis in our itinerary as our little one is 18 months. Read too many suggestions against taking infant to that height.
Will be grateful for any suggestions/advice. Thanks a lot 🙂
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Hello Gitz, and welcome to MySwissAlps!
Let’s have a look at your questions.
1. Yes, it surely does to me.
2. It’s perfectly legitimate, as are all retailers listed at http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/price.
3. That’s a tough choice. It really depends on our personal preferences. Skipping Zermatt means you’re leaving out an additional base town and hotel transfer, which might make your itinerary a bit more relaxed overall. Note that you can visit Zermatt as a day trip from Interlaken (please find details in the SBB timetable at http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable), so you don’t have to give up on a visit to Zermatt completely if you move to Interlaken on day 3. I suggest you study http://www.myswissalps.com/ze rmatt and http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion and then try to decide which region or town deserves most of your time and attention.
4. Interlaken-Montreux takes about 2h20 for a single journey, or even over 3h00 if you use the Golden Pass route (http://www.myswissalps.com/go ldenpass). So you could spend some hours there (please refer to http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux for tips), but whether it’s worth the journey is up to you to decide.
5. I’m afraid that can’t be predicted at all :-). There are only general seasonal patterns, but that doesn’t mean anything for the specific dates you’ll be visiting. Please read http://www.myswissalps.com/be sttimetovisit and http://www.myswissalps.com/we ather for more information and links.
Thanks a lot Annika for your detailed and informative response.
- A big reason to include Zermatt in the itinerary was to be able to experience the Glacier express. However if the scenery is similar to the one seen from Golden Pass, we could skip that. What do you suggest?
- As mentioned in earlier post we are a little sceptical about visiting high peaks with an infant in tow. But are we just being paranoid and missint out the best attractions. We would have loved to visit the peaks otherwise.
- Are the views from Sunnega comparable to those from Gornergrat?
- Can you recommend any places where kids can have fun around animals – zoo/petting farm in any of the mentioned locations.
Thanks again!
Hello Giz,
Nice to hear you’re thinking about the little one. From my experience as a tour guide small children sometimes can “suffer” from the altitude to a certain degree, so can adults.
I’ll recommend the medical recommendation of the Jungfraujoch for guidance.
In any case I can say that the view is not always most spectacular from the peak, as you’re often surrounded by many more peaks when on slightly lower altitudes, so don’t worry about the scenery. E.g. Kleine Scheidegg vs. Jungfraujoch
Spontaneously I can think of the Wildlife Park in Arth-Goldau, near Lucerne, where you see, touch and feed native animals to Switzerland, a place I loved as a kid! 🙂
– http://www.tierpark.ch/englis h/#And putting your first question at the end, it IS the scenery that’s scenic in the first place, not the train, so if you’re looking for mountain scenery you’ll be fine in Switzerland on all the trips you plan.
Best,
StephThanks a lot Steph for your suggestions. It really made me think…step back and reassess our plan. After much deliberation we have decided to drop the Glacier Express and Zermatt stay. ( Sigh…maybe some other time! )
I tried to extend our stay in Interlaken hotel but could not so we will be staying at Bern for 2 nights. Though this does not reduce the number of hotel transfers but the journeys involved ( Chur-Bern and Bern-Interlaken) are shorter now. These 2 days will be purely to explore Bern at leisure without any excursions. I believe there is a zoo in Bern too so that should make the kiddy party happy.
I read the Jungfraujoch medical advice…gives me confidence that it should be fine. However am a little confused between this and Titlis. Which one will you recommend ?
Many friends are suggesting Rhine falls but since we r not spending any time in Zurich can you suggest any good waterfalls around Interlaken that can be visited with a toddler?
Thanks again for all your help. 🙂
Hello Gitz,
You’re very welcome! We’re glad if we can support!
It’s always good to have a reason to come back, so don’t worry about “missing out the Glacier Express and Zermatt”, you’re replacing it with really lovely scenery and some variation, adding the Capital city of Bern to your trip. Very nice idea indeed.
See suggestions in and around Bern in the following link, as well as a link to the Zoo you mention in the city:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/be rn/activities
– http://www.tierpark-bern.ch/index-en.php?frameset=1You will have more than enough waterfalls in the area of Interlaken, especially the area around Lauterbrunnen (can be translated as “lots of fountains” or “lots of waterfalls”) is famous for it’s waterfalls:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/la uterbrunnenThe Rhine Falls are quite close to Zurich Airport, so you could visit them on the day of arrival or departure, but that’s just a suggestion. From Zurich you can take guided tours with “drop off” options at Zurich Airport, either at 12.15 or at 18.15, if this should be of any help:
http://www.myswissalps.com/rh inefalls
Rhinefalls Tour with Airport drop off, 12.15
Rhinefalls Tour with Airport drop off, 18.15Best,
StephThanks again Steph for your detailed response once again.
Have been busy these past few days figuring out our tickets and bookings. So seems like we will be doing The Rhine falls afterall since our departure flight from Zurich is now in morning ( not afternoon as earlier planned) so we will be staying in Zurich ( airport hotel) the night before. Though this adds one more hotel transfer and reduces one night in Lucerne.
We will reach Zurich around mid morning. What is the better time to visit Rhine falls…afternoon or evening?
We are also keeping open the option of a day trip to Montreux from Bern. ( depending upon our energy levels :P) What do u think?
Will come back with more queries for you in my next post.
Till then, Cheers!
Hi Gitz,
there’s illumination at the Rhine Falls in the evenings every night (except a couple of nights like full moons – 13th and 14th of October for example). It starts in October around 7 pm. So I guess it is depending on your preferences and itinerary. It is nice in evening and afternoon too. If you would like to go on a boat trip, make sure you check their timetable. Also read this: http://www.myswissalps.com/rh inefalls
I love Montreux, so yes I would suggest to visit it. It is a very beautiful city, my personal favorite is the Promenade with the lake and mountains view: http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux. You can also take a boat trip with 100 years old steamboats on Lake Geneva: http://www.myswissalps.com/bo atlakegeneva
<<“However if the scenery is similar to the one seen from Golden Pass,”>>
It is not, and the Glacier Express is better for mountains. Golden Pass is equal, but more lakes and vineyards, as well as mountains. Less high Alps.
slowpoke
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