[Removed user]

9 October 2019 at 20:37:16 #824136

Hi Everyone,

I am planning a Switzerland trip end of September 2020 for 10 days. My tentative plan/idea is to fly into Zurich and go directly to Lucerne.

There we would go up to Mt Titlis and tour Lucerne for the remainder of the day.

Next day we will plan to go to Interlaken area and stay 4 nights. There we plan to go to Schilthorn, do couple of hikes (Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg & from First to Bachalpsee Lake.

I have not decided on doing Jungfraujoch yet. I was thinking if we get to go to Schilthorn and Mt Titlis, would it be too much of the same? Instead of Jungfraujoch, we could tour Bern, go to Schynige Platte and or the Aare Gorge. Any advice on this?

From Interlaken, we plan to go to Zermatt for 2 nights and do the Gornergrat Bahn, the 5 Lakes Hike, and maybe the Suspension Bridge. and spend time in Zermatt.

From Zermatt, we plan to go to Geneva, do some sightseeing there and fly out next day.

I have not booked any flights, hotels, etc as I am in the planning stages. I see great tips and comments on this forum and thought to use this forum to plan our trip.

Would love to get some feedback as to weather expectations during end of September, does this itinerary make sense, any other options, towns or things to consider.? I am open to any suggestions as this is my first time in Switzerland.

Thanks so much and so glad I found this forum.

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[Removed user]

9 October 2019 at 23:51:34 #923411

Beware of following the ‘trend’ that I see on this forum of ‘going up every possible high peak’. There is a school of thought that that this means missing some lovely sights and sounds of Switzerland. Don’t forget there is a lot more ‘quintissential Switzerland’ to see in the valleys and lower altitude areas of the country. There is an argument that suggests and that once you’ve seen one snowy mountain you’ve seen them all.

There is also a school of thought that the Jungfraujoch is now an over priced (especially as so much of the journey is in tunnel) excursion to an over-commercialised tourist trap.

Another personal (related to the above comment) view is that I feel many visitors to this site have very rigid plans, arguably too rigid. The beauty of Switzerland is that because of its small size you can reach many places easily in a few hours, so it is comparatively easy to change your mind day to day plan and ‘go with the flow’. This is especially easy to do if you have a Swiss Travel Pass.

For example staying in Lauterbrunnen, it is just as easy to take a trip to places as ‘far away’ as Basel, Bern, Luzern, Zurich as it is to go to Mürren– on the hillside above.

Nearly all railways in Switzerland are scenic in some way, and it’s a small country so you can start anywhere you like.

A good publication to start with is:

http://www.bradtguides.com/sh op/europe/switzerland/ switzerland-without-a-car-3302.html

A look at this relief map will show you where the high Alps are and it shows the railways in context with the mountainous regions very well:

http://www.citymetric.com/sit es/default/files/artic le_body_2018/02/switze rland_without_trains.p ng

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 4:04:06 #923412

Thank you so much. I was thinking same that if weather permits and we get to do Titlis and Schilthorn, then will probably skip Jungfrau and visit some town(s) instead. Thanks for the guide book recommendation, I will look into that.

[Slowpoke]

10 October 2019 at 8:50:48 #923413

Hi UKGIRL –

Welcome to the My Swiss Alps –

<<“I am open to any suggestions as this is my first time in Switzerland.”>>

If you have not looked through the various links available under “Getting Started” on the home page, you’ll find those general guidelines quite useful, in my experience.

Your plan makes good sense , in my opinion. If it seems to become too “mountain-focused” as you refine it, you might consider more time around Luzern. And, depending on your arrival time on your first day, the schedule you suggest could leave little time to explore Luzern itself. You might consider Pilatus as an option nearer to Luzern.

http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne

http://www.myswissalps.com/ce ntralswitzerland

Further comments would be helped by a perspective on your personal interests. As far as I can tell, your plan is to go to different places, look at the sights, and move on. Anything more?

This comment from the Forum Rules is there for a reason:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/rules

<<“Please provide enough information. For example: the question “What can I do in 7 days in Interlaken?” can be answered much better if you include some information about your interests, preferences, when you plan to travel, age of the travelers, etc.;”>>

Hiking? Museums? Food? Wine? Country villages? Old towns that were not rebuilt from rubble after WWII? Special rail journeys? Do you speak any of French, German or Italian?

1960man has made the excellent point that the excellent Swiss travel network gives you flexibility to adjust your travel to a variety of locations.

http://www.myswissalps.com/tr avel/inswitzerland

In that regard, take a look at the options for rail passes.

http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses

Complex options, but worthwhile if you travel a lot in Switzerland. Some people choose the Swiss Travel Pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass), because it gets you ticketless travel on all the mainline railroads, city and country side buses (there almost no long distance intercity buses… a few have just started up) , boats, cableways to population centers. On excursion train and and excursion cableways, it gives discounts, and each year somewhat varied free travel on some mountain excursions. My travel patterns work best with the Swiss Half Fare card. To each his own.

http://www.myswissalps.com/tr avel/inswitzerland

I just returned to the USA after a trip throughout Switzerland from September 11th through 26th. I had beautiful weather, dry and sunny for the most part of every day. One night it rained and the rain clouds did not clear until after breakfast. And, there were a few light showers here and there for a few minutes on some days. I chose September because that weather pattern is not unexpected. On average, September is the best month to visit Switzerland for good weather and reduced tourist density.

At the beginning, I had a few days with temperatures up t about 30 degrees in Zürich. CoolerintheAlps, of course. At the end, the daytime temperatures in Zürich were in the high teens.

Swiss weather, especially in the mountains, is a highly local phenomenon, with many microclimates. As a consequence, weather forecasts are often hopeful guesses, and are unreliable in the Alps more than about 24 hours ahead of time.

I have found this site to be useful for local forecasts:

http://www.meteocentrale.ch/e n/europe/switzerland/w eather-berne/details/N-3513023/

Slowpoke

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 16:09:19 #923414

Thank you so much your reply.

Additional general information:

We are 2 to 4 adults travelling, our ages are 50-55. Our plan is to see some of the peaks, do some easy hiking trails, maybe visit couple of towns such as Lucerne and Bern. We will walk around Gimmewald, Grindewald, Murren, Wengen based on weather and time as we have more time in Interlaken. We are not much into museums, art or wine. I do love chocolates so will try to squeeze in a chocolate factory if possible. if there are historical sites that are close to where we are based, I wouldn’t mind visiting that as well. However, our main interests are natural landscapes.

For now, the base areas would be 2 nights in Lucerne, 4 nights in Interlaken area, 2 nights in Zermatt. . My plan is to fly into Zurich and fly out of Geneva. I am planning to have 8 to 9 full days in Switzerland.

Once i have our itinerary more refined, i can figure which travel pass is the best for our needs.

Thanks for the links, i will definitely be doing more research based on comments provided on this forum.

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 17:51:54 #923415

Hi UKGIRL,

You can read more about the weather in Switzerland at http://www.myswissalps.com/we ather and about the forecasts at http://www.myswissalps.com/we ather/forecast. But you are coming in one of the best months. 🙂

I think your itinerary is great, you will see nice towns and also wonderful mountains and lakes.

If you have the Swiss Travel Pass you can change your plans even in the last minutes, so if you feel you haven’t seen enough mountains, you can head to Jungfraujoch, or if it was already enough, visit Bern or Montreux. You’ll find a useful guide with a calculation spreadsheet, which helps you to choose a rail pass in 5 steps at http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass. The downloadable spreadsheet also includes links to the “Where it’s valid” page for all available passes, be sure to study it carefully.

Learn more about the places you are planning to visit:

• Jungfrau region: http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion/activitie s
• Lake Lucerne area: http://www.myswissalps.com/la kelucerne/activities
• Zermatt: http://www.myswissalps.com/ze rmatt/activities
• Geneva: http://www.myswissalps.com/ge neva
• Bern: http://www.myswissalps.com/be rn
• Montreux: http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux/activities

[CabinJon]

10 October 2019 at 19:02:03 #923416

If you’re going to be doing some walking in the Grindelwald/Wengen area, you might consider taking the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, and then doing the “Grannies Walk” to the Kleine Scheidegg train station. Or just take the train from either Grindelwald or Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg and enjoy the view of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau while sitting in the sunshine and enjoying one of the best rosti dishes I’ve yet found. I recommend the Bernese version at the train station restaurant. We were going to do that walk two days ago but after spending the morning getting to, up & down the Schilthorn, decided to save a bit of energy and take the train to Kleine Scheidegg instead. We made full use of the STP, and made several changes at the last minute as weather and/or impulse struck us. Check the live web cams for mountains you’re thinking of visiting, in addition to the forecasts.

Have fun planning!

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 19:52:24 #923417

Great, thanks for the link to the spreadsheet and info! I am super excited.

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 19:55:05 #923418

Thanks for the rosti recommendation 🙂 and other info.

[Removed user]

10 October 2019 at 23:24:21 #923419

Titlis and Schilthorn (plus Zermatt as you are already planning to include that) is a good choice of three high altitude mountain destinations. I always recommend Gornergrat over Jungfrau anyway – the Gornergratbahn is more scenic than the Jungfrau railway , with few tunnels and many open views of the Matterhorn. Just travelling around you will see lots of other mountain vistas – as (given good weather) you can see the Alps even from many miles away (eg central Bern and from the Jura mountains)

[Annika]

11 October 2019 at 14:57:20 #923420

Hi Slowpoke! I noticed you quite often quote the forum rules asking people to provide enough information. You don’t have to do so; just providing a link if you feel that’s necessary is enough. Visitors can then read the text themselves. Also, in this particular case I think UKGirl has provided pretty specific plans and questions. Pointing out forum rules can be useful if they’re really violated, or if there’s a major lack of information provided by the thread opener, but fortunately that’s mostly not the case. Thanks :-)!

[Slowpoke]

11 October 2019 at 17:25:02 #923421

Hi Annika-

Thanks for your comments. As is the case for all messages on the Fora, mine are simply my personal opinions.

There is some thought behind my actions. You’ll note that UKgirl provided useful information, once asked. I did not detect that she was offended…after all, she asked for :

<<“does this itinerary make sense, any other options, towns or things to consider.? I am open to any suggestions as this is my first time in Switzerland.”>>

We point people to a lot of links.

I’m simply trying to help them by giving them one less link to look up, and quoting the most relevant part of several paragraphs.

I do that to help them avoid being provided with inappropriate information in posts by writers who miss the significance of dates for travel in Switzerland. That is particularly useful for travel dates at times when weather or service changes may impact travel arrangements. Travel in October and November, in particular, can be complicated because of lake boat and cableway schedule changes.

In order not to seem to be personally and excessively demanding, I feel that it is better to draw on a neutral third party (the Rules) for guidelines that simplify and refine and focus the conversations. The Rules are carefully and politely written. They do a super job of that. Why not use your carefully chosen words, instead of my spur of the moment comments?

Arno and I had an e-mail conversation about the importance of the Rules, about the time that he put up the “Please read before posting” messages.. I can’t find it in my e-mails, because there are so many about My Swiss Alps. The basic point that I recall that he made to me is that people have to follow the rules (That is my interpretation of a memory that may no longer be precise).

If you find the wording of the Rules to be troublesome, you are certainly the best source to refine them. Slowpoke

[Gunzel]

11 October 2019 at 17:58:23 #923422

I agree with many of the comments in this thread.

One thing not often mentioned is that some of the peaks are very commercial as my partner and I discovered on our recent “Tell Pass” itinerary.

I take Titlis as an example. It is VERY popular with international tourists who tend to travel in groups and can be fairly “loud”. (I am being very careful with my words here). A push here and a shove there is commonplace. Sure it’s all part of the experience but maybe one that not every person on this site would enjoy.

Then almost nearby one can visit another peak, perhaps a little less spectacular than the likes of Titlis, and have a most enjoyable experience – without a noisy “international” tourist in sight.

Of course, we are all different in our priorities and planning but I reiterate the comments made elsewhere in this thread that there are countless opportunities in Switzerland not often mentioned in this forum that provide very different experiences to the oft mentioned locations that seem to attract most people on here.

Paul in Australia

[gramels]

12 October 2019 at 13:14:19 #923423

For your Lucerne stay you could consider to stay in Vitznau Mittlerschwanden, directly at Mount Rigi, easy to get on top of Rigi and to Lucerne by boat.

Great view from the houses there.

[Arno]

12 October 2019 at 15:19:13 #923424

Hi Slowpoke,

I admire your dedication but I recommend not to worry too much about the rules. Sure, people must stick to the rules because they serve a purpose. Annika just wants to avoid too much pointing to the rules as it can come across unfriendly even if intended helpful (the difficulty of online communication). I agree with that. Feel free to remind people of the rules when they are unfriendly or don’t provide any details at all. Luckily that’s not the case very often. The moderators keep an eye on the posts too, so they will point to those rules as well if needed.

I remember our e-mail conversation. Couldn’t find it either. I also have quite some MySwissAlps e-mails in my inbox 🙂

[Slowpoke]

12 October 2019 at 15:51:06 #923425

<<“I admire your dedication but I recommend not to worry too much about the rules.”>>

OK.

Each time I find that answering a question requires those kinds of details, I’ll ask in my own words. I’ll make up some nice friendly text and save it for re-use.

Slowpoke

PS-

It is not dedication. It is an attempt at effectiveness. It is an attempt to quickly get to good answers for posters when they have not provided necessary or important parameters of their trip. The aim is saving time and avoiding confusion for posters and responders, including myself.

[Removed user]

13 October 2019 at 9:27:48 #923426

Hello UKGIRL,

You mentioned in one of your responses that you “love chocolates.” In case you don’t get a chance to visit a chocolate factory, please take a look at Läderach; it is a store that sells Swiss made chocolates that is located both in Lucerne and Bern main train stations. They aren’t as mainstream as Lindt but nevertheless equally heaven in a bite !

Happy planning!

Best regards

Suzanne

[gramels]

13 October 2019 at 10:36:57 #923427

the best place for chocolate (also price wise) is the Felchlin factory store:

http://www.felchlin.com/en/co ntact/factory-shop/

you can taste through40 kinds of chocolate if you ask nicely. Bring a bottle of water.

[Removed user]

14 October 2019 at 19:32:43 #923428

Thank you for your reply. Trying to plan a great vacation.

[Removed user]

14 October 2019 at 19:34:27 #923429

Thx so much.

[Removed user]

14 October 2019 at 19:35:41 #923430

Great, good to know. Thx will check those out.