[Removed user]

13 January 2017 at 13:23:34 #810568

Greetings!

First off, I feel so lucky to have found MySwissAlps! What a wealth of knowledge and assistance.

My partner and I will be in Switzerland for 11 days in March. We do not like to pack up and move around a lot, so we will be basing ourselves in just two cities. When we arrive, we are going directly to Lugano for four days, then moving to Zurich for the remaining seven days. We will be buying a Swiss Travel Pass so we have total mobility. We plan on being on the train pretty much every single day. We are not winter sports people. (We chose March because it seems like it will be less crowded!) We would be interested in straightforward sightseeing, including a few museums and probably a nice meal here and there. Here are the bare bones of our plan as of now:

From Lugano:

• Milan
• Alprose chocolate factory tour
• Bellinzona
• Lake Como

From Zurich:

• Appenzell Schaukaeserei (or Gruyeres, possibly with the Cailler chocolate factory tour as well)
• Bern, where I have a cousin to visit
• Luzern
• Lausanne
• Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Titlis or Rigi Kulm. We are certain that we don’t want to make the trek up to the Jungfraujoch, due to the cost and the time investment. If anyone has any suggestions for mountaintop excursions besides these, it would be great to hear about them!
• The Bernina Express, doing the whole roundtrip to Tirano and back in one day. I realize this would be a very long day. We may find that after our other Alpine train rides (just getting around the country) that we may not feel the need for this excursion. For example, on our return from Lugano to Zurich, we will be bypassing the New Gotthard Tunnel and taking the Gotthard Panoramastrecke.

It already feels like we have a packed itinerary, but we want to be flexible and decide each morning which trip sounds good to us that day. We will also need a day or two to explore Zurich! If anyone has any suggestions, we would love to hear them Thanks in advance!

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[Removed user]

13 January 2017 at 16:30:59 #858035

Hi jasoneats and welcome to MySwissAlps!

I’m glad you are enjoying our website!

It seems like you have most of your itinerary planned out and all seems reasonable.
You may find basing yourself in Luzern, rather than Zurich, will be more convenient to you for your day trips noted above. However for museums and city life, Zurich does have more to offer (but perhaps that could be a day trip from Luzern)?

Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Titlis or Rigi are all excellent excursions instead of Jungfraujoch, and easy to do from Luzern. Other members may have alternatives as well.

Have you looked through our where to go page to help you decide which cities and areas to visit?

Here is the page for you to find more details on the Swiss Travel Pass you mentioned and purchasing options.

Let me know if you have further questions!

Lucas