Advice needed for my itinerary

Hi,

Appreciate your advice and review. My itinerary is as followed (22 Oct to 3 Nov)
Day 1 - Arrive in Zurich, train to Lucern. Explore Lucern attractions
Day 2 - Golden Round trip to Mt Pilatus
Day 3 - Golden pass train to Interlaken
Day 4 - Day trip to Jungfrau (Good Afternoon Ticket)
Day 5 - Day trip to Zermatt / Matterhorn
Day 6 - Golden pass train to Lausanne
Day 7 - Day trips to Montreux and Geneva
Day 8-11 - Paris
Day 12 - Return to Zurich, stopover for lunch at Basel
Day 13 - Zurich Rhine Waterfalls / sights
Day 14 - Explore Zurich for morning/afternoon. Evening flight.

I will be getting one Swiss Pass for Day 3-6 and one Swiss Flex Pass for Day 1, 7, 13 and 14 (have 4 people in my group, so will be taking Swiss Pass promotion). Questions/doubts/advice

1) Day 1 - is it possible to squeeze in Mt Rigis and spread out the visiting of Lucern attractions in Day 2 and 3?

2) I'm torn between taking a route via Bern to Lausanne and the Golden Pass route. Is it possible to visit Bern enroute to Interlaken? If I take the Golden Pass route, I will like to consider stop over at Montreux for few hours.

3) As I'm considering Good Afternoon ticket for Jungfrau, do you have any recommendations around the area before I board the train at Kleine?

4) I will actually prefer to go to Rhine Waterfalls on my last day before taking flight home so that i can still enjoy the Swiss Pass benefits till the last day. Is half a day sufficient?

5) As the period I'm going will be the low season, is it really necessary to reserve tickets where required? Can I board the train if I have no reservation?

Any comments on my itinerary are also appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to review and reply my questions.

Cheers
CY

Hi Arno

Thanks for the prompt response. Appreciate much for the advice. Once back, I will follow up on a report =).

Cheers!
CY

Hi, I had booked reservation from Lucern to Interlaken. Unfortunately, the train is not running during that whole week! I'm told to go via Otlen which I cant get any results from raileurope website. I checked the www.sbb.ch and it indicated as Otlen-Bern. I cannot ascertain any reservation required, but I will think this is a regional train so there is no need for a reservation?

I think I can take a regional train to Brienz following the same route as GoldenPass line then to Interkalen. But I'm wondering are the trains under maintenance or the railway line under maintenance? Should be latter since I'm told to go via Otlen. I check up the map and this route will take a different direction. So it looks like I'm missing out some great scenery along the way.

hello Cy, I have looked at sbb website and there are through trains running to Interlaken at 5 mins to the hour, every hour - there are trains via Olten in between so I guess it depends on which time train you chose when making the reservation. I see no indication of any maintenace work on the line between Lucerne and interlaken during the week of your stay. There is no need to make reservations on regional trains. If reservations are required it says so on the timetable. We have travelled that route many times without making reservations.
Hope you manage to sort out the problem and enjoy the trip.
Maggie

Hi Maggie

Thanks for response. I tried doing reservations direct at Golden Pass website and I succeeded in getting my reservation from Lucerne to Interlaken. Also, another timing I was trying to reserve from Zweisimmen to Montreux was not available in raileurope website and I again succeeded in doing it in the Golden Pass website. I'm really puzzled and had written to Golden Pass to confirm whether the reservations are valid. The reservation fees from the Golden Pass website are half of what I'm paying through raileurope, not factoring in booking fees!

I'm keeping fingers crossed I don't need to change my trip plan again.